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TRANSLATION
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690. Hearing the sacred doctrine in the company of the elders
I became a sādhu. It was because I remembered this
now that I said : Mahā-bhaya'. 691. Then at the third watch the sādhu called Dhanada came
out, and seeing the necklace there he said : ‘Ati-bhaya'. 692. There was again a question from Abhaya and again a
response from Dhanada. “How did you experience -
this extreme fear ?' asked Abhaya and the muni said : 693. My name was Dhanada and I lived somewhere in a .
village close to Ujjain. Now I had married in Ujjain 694. and on the day of a festival when the hour of twilight
had come I set out alone for my father-in-law's house.
At the onset of night I reached 695. the cemetery called Mahākāla, very fearful and emitting
an evil stench. There I saw a woman, very miserable
and wretched, who was weeping 696. I thought to myself that some unhappy person had to be
restrained and going up to her said : "Lady, why are
you weeping ?' 697. She replied : 'What business have you to ask about my
affairs? I said: 'I am a human being so it is fitting
for me to ask you.' She said : 698. “How shall suffering be told to him who has not attained
to suffering, who is unable to restrain suffering, who
does not suffer with the suffering? 699. Hearing from her such words pregnant with suffering, I
said (for I was intent on doing good to others) with
reference to this : 700. I have attained to suffering, I am able to restrain suffer... ing, I suffer with the suffering, so let suffering be told
to me.' 701. She replied: 'If this is indeed so, then look at this man
impaled here : save him, for he is my dearly beloved
husband 702. He was guiltless but a king who acted without reflection
brought him to this plight through his men
