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HIS ENEMIES
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offended you ? I have saluted you thrice though you do not say a single word to me.”
“Sister,” the Tirthikas said, “Don’t you know that Samana Gautama is causing us harm and loss by his popularity.” “ I do not know that. And have I got any duty to perform toward its solution?”
“ Sister, if you mean to do us good, then by your own efforts, spread scandals about Gautama, and thus make him unpopular-” “All right ; be content ; and depend that on me,” saying thus she left the place.
Chincha was an expert in feminine charms and coquetry. When the citizens of Shravasti used to return from the religious discussions at Jetavana, Chincha wearing a red garment and with perfumes and garlands in her hands used to go towards it.
If anybody asked her: “Where are you going now?” “That’s none of your business,” she used to answer. Spending the night at the rest house of the Itinerants (Tirthikarama) near Jetavana, she used to return to the city in the morning, when the citizens used to go to the Jetavana to pay respect to the Buddha.
If anybody asked her, “Where did you spend the night ?” she used to say, “ That is none of your business. I spent the night with Samana Gautama in his garden house (Gandha Kutir) at Jetavana.” The remark used to create doubts in the minds of some.
After four months she used to increase the size of her belly by wrapping round it some old rags, and say that she became pregnant through Samana Gautama. Some began to believe it.
In the ninth month, she suspending a wooden protuberance round her belly and having arms swollen through insect bites, appeared before the Buddha when he was making a religious discourse before monks and laymen and said: “Great teacher, you give many people religious lessons. Your voice is sweet, and your lips are very tender. Through cohabitation with you I have been pregnant, and my delivery time is near.
“ You have not fixed any delivery place for me,
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