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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATÍ 123 to the ascetics, like brothers who had come from the village, in a gentle voice: “Sir ascetics, pardon my angry behavior in a former birth and guard the laymanship which you have assumed.' With these words, Kusumaprabha drew the snake's body from the mountain-cave, hung it on a toon tree, and said,
O people, whoever practices anger will become such a serpent as I, Karpara, was formerly, as a result of this anger."
First the abbot, possessing right-belief, attained extreme disgust with existence from the maturing of good fortune. Bowing to the kevalin, the head of the ascetics asked for the vow, the best fruit of the tree of disgust with existence. The kevalin said: “Yaśobhadra Sūri will give the vow. For he, rich in indifference, is my guru. Astonished, the abbot asked the muni again, 'Tell us, Blessed One, how you have taken the vow.' The kevalin said:
Sinhakeśarin (684–694) 'In the city Kośalā, Kübara, very powerful, King Nala's younger brother, rules. I am his son. King Keśarin, lord of the city Sangā, gave me his daughter, named Bandhumati. Commanded by my father, I went there, married her, and set out for my own city with the bride. As I went on the road, I saw this guru and several disciples stopped, like good fortune embodied. With great devotion I paid homage to the muni and listened to a sermon of his, a fountain of nectar to the ears. Questioned by me at the end of the sermon, “How long shall I live?' he employed upayoga 136 and said, “ Just five days."
Knowing death was near, then I was afraid and trembled. Fear of life is a great fear on the part of all creatures. The sūri said to me, “Do not be afraid, son. Undertake mendicancy. For being a mendicant for even one day surely offers a path to heaven.” After becoming a mendicant, P came here at his command and engaged in pure meditation.
136 689. Knowledge and perception. See I, n. 78.
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