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CAMPAIGN FOR CONVERSION RESUMED
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§ 1. Conversion of Rustic Brahmins
At the back of the Gridhrakutta mountains, near Rajagriha, there was a village, of some seventy or so families, all of them Brahmins.
The Buddha, wishing to convert these people, came to the place and sat down under a tree.
The people seeing the dignity of his presence, and the glorious appearance of his body, flocked round him, on which he asked the Brahmins how long they had dwelt in the mountain there, and what their occupation was.
To this they replied: “We have dwelt here during thirty generations past, and our occupation is to tend cattle.”
On asking further as to their religious belief they said : “We pay homage and sacrifice to the sun and the moon, the rain (water), and fire, according to the several seasons.
“If one of us dies, we assemble and pray that he may be born in the heaven of Brahma, and so escape further transmigrations.”
The Buddha replied: “This is not a safe way, not by it can you benefit. The true way is to follow me, become true ascetics, and practise complete selfcomposure with a view to obtain Nirvana”; and then he added these lines :
“They who consider truth as that which is untrue, and regard that which is untrue as truth, this is but to adopt heretical opinions, and can never lead to true advantage.
“But to know as truth that which is true, and to regard as false that which is false, this is perfect rectitude, and this shall bring true profit.
“Everywhere in the world there is death— there is no escape from it.
“To consider this as the condition of all states of being that there is nothing born but must die, and, therefore, to desire to escape birth and death, this is to exercise one’s self in Religious Truth.”
The seventy Brahmins hearing these words,
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