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Prince Bhima and his friend Matisāgara
47
Story of King Naladharma and the deer, continued King Naladharma complained that, unlike the Sage then teaching, he was, because of his sins, unripe for emancipation. Thereupon the Sage taught him to cultivate perfection (samyaktva). The king asked who was the deer that had brought about his purification. The Sage replied that the deer in a former birth was Naladharma's friend and spiritual adviser; he had practiced wrong asceticism, had died, and had been reborn in that place as a Yakşa. He had then become pious by constant association with himself, and, out of his love for Naladharma in the previous life, had changed into a deer in order to bring about his enlightenment. The deer now appeared in the form of a Yakşa; told that he, like the king, had reached perfection (samyaktva); received additional instruction from the Sage; and returned to his Yakşa home. The king also returned to his capital; erected an image of the Arbat; became a Great Disciple (mahāçrāvaka); and will in future attain perfection (siddha) (183-194).
Story of Prince Bhima® and his friend Matisāgara,
continued. The Wicked Kāpālika 10 At the end of these illustrations the Sage Abhinanda (verse 75) continued to instruct Bhīma (here called Bhimasena) in piety, and in the duty of enlightening others. Bhima returned home, and devoted himself to dharma (religion), happy in the worship of the gods. A certain Çāiva ascetic (kāpālika), a rogue, arrived into the presence of Bhima and his friend Matisāgara. He told them that he was in possession of a Science, called “Earth
* See additional note 12, on p. 191.
