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MAHĀVĪRA'S FIRST SIX YEARS AS AN ASCETIC mahātma. Enough of this talk. Let him talk as he likes. If you cannot bear to hear him, beat the drums.” They did so.
At sunrise the Master went to Srāvasti and stood outside in statuesque posture. When it was time for food, Gośāla said to the Lord: “Blessed One, come for alms. For food is the foundation of life.” Siddhārtha said as before, “Oh! we are fasting.” Gośāla asked, “What kind of food shall I get today?” Siddhārtha replied: “ Now you will eat human flesh.” Gośāla said, “I shall not eat anything that has even the smell of flesh.” With this determination he entered the city Śrāvasti for alms.
Now, in this city there was a house-holder, Pitsdatta. The children of his wife Sribhadrā were born dead. She asked a fortune-teller, Sivadattaka, earnestly, “How can my offspring live?” He said: “ Grind up the still-born infant's flesh and blood with ghi and honey and make a pudding with milk. If you give this to eat to an ascetic whose feet are dusty, then your children will live, O woman whose children now die. After he has eaten it and gone, you must change the door of the house, so that he can not burn down your house from anger when he has found out what the food was.” Desiring children, she made a pudding of her dead infant just as he said and gave it with devotion to Gośāla who came at that time. After he had eaten, he went to the Master and said, “ After a long time, you are mistaken.” Siddhārtha told him how the pudding was made. Gośāla put his finger in his mouth, vomited, and saw pieces, nails, et cetera, in it and was very angry. He went to look for the house and, as the door had been changed, Gośāla did not know its marks, just like a cowherd.99 Then Gośāla said, “If my guru has psychic fire from penance, may the whole district burn down.” “The power of the Jina must not be frustrated," and the Vyantaras, who were present there, burned the unfortunate district.
99 517. Apparently the idea is that a cowherd would have trouble in distinguishing his animals, which he surely would not have. 10 M
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