Jesus In India — Page 107
CHAPTER FOUR 97 compiled much later; and just as Jesus, the Messiah, may peace be on him, was tempted by the Devil, so do these books claim that the Buddha was also tempted by the Devil; rather, the account of the temptation of the Buddha, as stated in these books, is even greater. It is recorded that when the Devil offered him the temp- tation of wealth and kingly honour, the Buddha felt inclined to return home. He, nevertheless, did not succumb to the tempta- tion. But the same Devil met him again one night, bringing with him all his progeny, and tried to frighten him by assuming fright- fully grotesque shapes. To the Buddha, these Devils appeared like snakes which were emitting fire from their mouths. The snakes began to throw poison and fire at him but the poison turned into flowers and the fire would form a halo around the Buddha. The Devil, not having succeeded in this way, called upon six- teen of his daughters, and asked them to reveal their beauty to the Buddha who remained totally unmoved; and the Devil was baulked in his designs. He adopted a variety of other means, but was helpless against the steadfastness of the Buddha, who con- tinued to rise higher and higher to different stages of spiritual eminence, and, after a long night, that is, after severe and pro- tracted trials, he overcame his enemy, the Devil. The Light of True Knowledge dawned upon him and, with the break of day, as soon as his trials were over, he came to know all. The day this great battle ended was the day of the birth of Buddhism. Gautama was thir- ty-five years old at the time when he was called the Buddha¹ or the Light, and the Tree under which he was sitting at the time came to be known as the Tree of Light. Now, if you read the Gospels, you 1. See Appendix, extract 2 [Publisher]