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FIVE PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS
213
her son and led him away like a goat. When the Rākṣasa receives the Brahman's son delivered by the guards, the bhūts take him away and lead him to his mother. Terrified, foreseeing dreadful events, the Brahman's wife put her son at once into a mountain-cave for protection. He was devoured by a vigilant python living there. Likewise, other future events would not be changed in any place.
Therefore, this is not the proper expedient. Everyone should perform penance, since karma, even though very firm,278 is destroyed by penance.'
The fourth minister said: "This man foretold that a bolt of lightning would fall on the lord of Potana, not on Śrīvijaya. Therefore some one else should be made king in the city for seven days. The thunderbolt will fall on him. Let your danger pass through him.'
omens.
Then the astrologer, delighted, said to the minister: 'Your sense-knowledge 274 is better than my knowledge of Make him (king) quickly to ward off misfortune. The king should remain in a shrine, engaged in worship of the Jinas.' I said, 'How can I consider the destruction of the innocent man who would be crowned king today? It is very painful to all creatures-from Sakra to a worm-to abandon life. How shall a miserable man perish while I look on? Our chief duty as a human being is to protect the life of other creatures. How can we kill another to save our own life?'
The ministers said: 'Your Majesty, we have indeed a twofold purpose. Calamity will pass away from the master and no man will perish. O king, install a statue of Vaiśravaṇa (Kubera) as king. All the people will attend it, like you, for seven days. If there should be no calamity, because of the god's power, it would be a good thing; if there should be, there will not be the evil of the destruction of life.'
878 219. Nikäcita. See I, p. 402. 274 222. See I, n. 248.
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