Jesus In India — Page 152
142 JESUS IN INDIA Go forth and wander everywhere, out of compassion for the world and for the welfare of gods and men. Go forth, one by one, in different directions. Preach the doctrine (Dharmam), salutary (kalyāna) in its beginning, middle, and end, in its spirit (artha) and in its letter (vyañjana). Proclaim a life of perfect restraint, chastity, and celibacy (brahmaćariyam). I will go also to preach this doctrine' (Mahā-vagga I. II. I). When his monk-missionaries had departed, Gautama himself followed, though not till Māra (p. 41) had again tempted him. Quitting Benares he journeyed back to Uruvelā, near Gayā. There he first converted thirty rich young men and then one thousand orthodox Brāhmans, led by Kāsyapa and his two brothers, who maintained a sacred fire ('Brāhmanism, p. 364). The fire-chamber was haunted by a fiery snake-demon; so Buddha asked to occupy the room for a night, fought the serpent and con- fined him in his own alms-bowl. Next he worked other miracles (said to have been 3500 in number). . . To them on a hill Gayāsīsa (Brahma-yoni), near Gayā, he preached his 'burning' fire-sermon (Mahā-vº I. 21): 'Everything, O monks, is burning (ādittam=ādīptam). The eye is burning; visible things are burning. The sen- sation produced by contact with visible things is burn- ing-burning with fire of lust (desire), enmity and delusion (rāgagginā dosagginā mohagginā), with birth, decay (jarayā), death, grief, lamentation, pain, dejection (domanassehi), and despair (upāyāsehi). The ear is burn- ing; sounds are burning; the nose is burning, odours are