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emancipation, especially the jewel of indifference to worldly objects."
He further warned the king that to give up his opportunity to seek salvation and to cling on to kingship would not gladden the heart of any person who had gained the wisdom to understand that the worldly way of life would surely lead to hell. He did his best to persuade Brahmadatta to relinquish his evil inclination, to recall to his mind the sorrows and sufferings through which he had gone in former lives and drink the nectar liquid of the Jinas' words, walk on the path recommended by them and make his birth as a man really rewarding. But in spite of all this strong persuasion Brahmadatta experienced no spiritual awakening. The ascetic sadiy reflected:
"Ah, I know ! In that former existence he, being Sambhūta, by reason of an excessive longing sprung from the feeling of being touched by the locks of the matchless wife of the universal monarch, Sanatkumara conceived a worldly thought with the object of obtaining that, although he was exhorted to forbear That now manifests itself here."
The ascetic compared Brahmadatta with a person who had been bitten by a black snake who could not be cured at all since the venom of the black snake resists all medication. Similarly Brahmadatta, according to the ascetic, had become resistant to the spells and charms of the Jinas' words. He therefore gave him up as a hopeless case and went away. In the course of time he reached final emancipation but Brahmadatta spent all that time enjoying the pleasures of the universal monarch.
One day, the king was entertaining a Brahmin who expressed a strong desire to eat the food of a universal monarch. Brahmadatta explained to him that he being a pious man, whose way of life was different from that of a king, would not be able to digest that food. However, the Brahmin insisted and said that it was a shame that such a grand royal king should not serve such a thing as mere food to a Brahmin. This angered the king who immediately gave instructions that the royal food should be served not only to the Brahmin but also to his wife, sons, daughters, daughters-in-law,
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