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. CHAPTER NINE Nandiśvara, ornamented with (statues of) the twenty-four Jinas. He paid homage with extreme devotion to the matchless statues of the twenty-four Arhats. After he left the shrine, Gautama sat on the ground under a large aśoka tree and gods, asuras, and Vidyādharas paid homage to him.
Gautama delivered a sermon suitable for the occasion to them and, questioned by them because they considered him to be omniscient, solved their doubts. When he delivered the sermon, he said as an introduction; “With bodies nothing but skin and bones, with creaking joints, suffering from exhaustion just from talking, moving only from spiritual strength, sādhus become such as a result of severe penance.”
Hearing that, Vaiśravaņa, perceiving his large size, laughed a little at the thought, “ His words do not agree with himself.” Indrabhūti, who had mind-reading knowledge, knew his thought and said: “Thinness of the body is not a standard, but, look you ! there should be a grasp on meditation. For instance:
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Story of Pundarika and Kandarika (202-238)
In this Jambūdvipa in the province Puşkalāvati, the ornament of Mahāvideha, there is a city Pundarikiņi. Its king was. Mahāpadma; his wife was Padmāvati; and their sons were Puņdarika and Kaņdarika. One day King Mahāpadma listened to dharma in the presence of sādhus who had come to a garden Nalinavana. After installing Puņdarika on the throne, Mahāpadma took the vow. Omniscience arose from the destruction of karma and in course of time he reached emancipation.
One day the sādhus came again to Pundarikiņi and Pundarika and Kaņdarika listened to dharma then. Pundarika, a sādhu in spirit, went to his house and said to Kandarika in the presence of ministers: “Dear boy, do you take this great ancestral throne, I am afraid of existence and
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