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CONVERSION OF THE HIGH AND THE HOLY
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the Lord injured by Muchalinda, they found Muchalinda worshipping the Lord.
Beholding the scene, Kassyapa felt that he was witnessing a great miracle.
Struck by this miracle Kassyapa requested the Blessed Lord to stay near him and make an Ashram, and promised to look after him.
The Blessed Lord agreed to stay on.
The two, however, had different motives. Kassyapa’s motive was to obtain protection against Muchalinda Naga. The Blessed Lord thought that one day Kassyapa will give him opportunity to propound his gospel.
But Kassyapa showed no such inclination. He thought that the Blessed Lord was only a miracle maker and nothing more.
One day the Blessed Lord thought of himself taking the initiative and asked Kassyapa, “Are you an Arhant?
“If you are not an Arhant, what good is this Agnihotra going to do to you ?”
Kassyapa said: “I do not know what is to be an Arhant ? Will you explain it to me ?”
The Lord then told Kassyapa, “An Arhant is one who has conquered all the passions which disturb a man from pursuing the eight-fold Path. Agnihotra cannot cleanse a man of his sins.”
Kassyapa was a proud person. But he did feel the force of the Blessed Lord’s argument. Making his mind pliant and yielding, until at length prepared to be a vehicle of the true law, he confessed that his poor wisdom could not compare with the wisdom of the world-honoured One.
And so, convinced at last, humbly submitting, Uruvella Kassyapa accepted the doctrine of the Lord and became his follower.
Following their master, the followers of Kassyapa, virtuously submissive, in turn received the teaching of the law. Kassyapa and all his followers were thus entirely converted.
Uruvella Kassyapa, then, lifting his goods and
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