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CHAPTER ONE
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the town, like honey by flies, when they had heard their song pleasing to the ear. Their veils were pulled off by the people to find out who they were and they were addressed contemptuously, Look here! these are the same two Matangas." They were beaten by the people with clubs and clods and they left the city, like dogs a house, their heads bowed. They were beaten at every step by the people, like a hare by soldiers. With stumbling steps they reached the garden Gabhira with difficulty.
They reflected: Alas for us! Skill in arts, beauty, et cetera are spoiled by low birth like milk that has been smelled by a snake. Let there be a benefit through merit, that is a crime on our part. This is it: a vampire has arisen from the good fortune taking place. Arts, grace, beauty et cetera are sewed together with the body. It is the abode of worthlessness. Let it be abandoned somewhere like straw."
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Having reached this decision, intent on destroying their lives, they went toward the south as if to see Death in person. When they had gone a long distance, they saw a mountain from which elephants on the ground (below) looked like young swine to those who had climbed it. As they were climbing (the mountain) with the intention of jumping from a precipice, they saw on this mountain a great muni like a living mountain of virtues. When they saw the muni on the mountain-top like a cloud in the rainy season, their streams of anguish disappeared. At once they fell at his lotus-feet, like bees, shedding their former pain, as it were, in the guise of tears of joy. After he finished his meditation, the muni questioned them, "Who are you? Why have you come here?" and they told him their whole history. He said:
"The body alone is destroyed by a leap from a precipice. Impure karma that has been acquired in a hundred other births is not destroyed. If this body of yours must be abandoned, take the fruit of the body. Penance is the surest means of emancipation, heaven, et cetera."
Their minds purified by the nectar of his sermon beginning
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