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CHAPTER THREE of five fires, 339 et cetera. The people of the town go to worship him." Pārsvanātha went with his retinue to see the show; and saw Kațha engaged in the penance of the five fires. The Lord, who had three kinds of knowledge, saw a great serpent being burned inside a piece of wood which had been thrown into a firepit. When he saw that, the Blessed One, an ocean of compassion, said: “ Alas for wrong knowledge! Since even in penance there is wrong knowledge, not compassion. What sort of river is it without water; what sort of night without a moon; what sort of a rainy season without a cloud; what sort of dharma is it without compassion? How is there dharma of a creature, like an animal, pitiless, not having a trace of the principle of dharma, allowing bodily torments?”.
Hearing that, Katha said: “ Rājputs know horses, elephants, et cetera certainly; but we munis know dharma." Then the Master ordered his servants: “ Pull that piece of wood out of the firepit. Split it open carefully that he may be convinced.” They pulled out the wood, split it carefully, and a very large serpent came out hastily. For the serpent burned somewhat in it the Blessed One had namaskāras recited by men and the renunciation of everything made instantly. The serpent, absorbed in meditation, pure-minded, accepted that, watched by the Blessed One with eyes moist from compassion. By the power of the namaskāras and the sight of the Master, he became after death a Nāga-king, named Dharaña. “Oh, the knowledge of the prince! Oh, such discernment!” Being so praised by the people, the Master went to his house.
After seeing and hearing that, Katha practiced penance especially-foolish or pernicious. Whence is there knowledge of persons with wrong belief? After he died, Katha became an Asura, named Meghamälin, in the Meghakumāras in the Bhuvanavāsins.340
339 216. One in each direction and the sun overhead.
340 230. See II, p. 106. Meghakumāras = Stanitas; Bhuvanavāsins - Bhavanapatis.
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