________________
WORSHIPPED HERE ARRESTED THERE
mented on their conduct thus, 'How very strange! The Vaggur couple proposes to worship an idol instead of the living God present before them The Vaggurs realised their folly They abandoned the usual worship to devote themselves heart and soul to the Lord 1 (3) The Lord left Siddharthpur to reach Vaishalı? He stood outside the town in his usual posture of dedication His sight was fixed upon a spot steadfast The children came upon the sight and were scared However, they began to tease him King Shankh happened to visit the site He had been a bosomfriend of king Siddhartha He knew the Lord He rescued the Lord from this torture Then he bowed to the Lord and left for his place 3 (4) The Lord left Kumarak and reached Chaurak - Robbers were rampant there The guards there were quite vigilant None could cross into the country evading their watchful eyes Seeing the Lord the guards enquired of his identity The Lord spared to speak The guards were provoked by such a conduct Gaushalak accompanied the Lord then He also abstained from responding to their interrogations It only incensed them further They began to torture both The process of meeting torture with silence continued for quite some time The inhabitants of the area also witnessed it The news spread like wild-fire
Two female roving mendicants lived there One was Soma and the other Jayanti They were initiated as nuns in the Parshwa tradition Having failed to keep up the rigorous saintly conduct, they chose to be contented with life of Vedantic mendicants They learnt of the excesses perpetrated on the two saints They learnt of their unresponsiveness to the probing questions of the guards which led to the corporeal punishment They were 'prompted to conjecture who these saints 1 'Awashyakchurni'l pt pp 294-295 2 Tenth year of the pursuits 3 'Ayaro' 9/1/5, 'Awashyakchurni'l pt p 299 - -- --------- 4 Fourth year of the pursuits
