Friends and Admirers. - Page 538

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FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS

519

Exalted One as my refuge to the Norm and to the Order. I would leave the world under the rule of Gotama; I would take orders.”

  1. So Dhananjanani was not only a devotee of the Buddha, she made her husband also a devotee of the Buddha.
§ 2. The Abiding Faith of Visakha

  1. Visakha was born in the city of Bhadiya in the Anga country.

  2. Her father was Dhananjaya and her mother’s name was Sumana.

  3. Once the Buddha visited Bhadiya with a large company of monks at the invitation of the Brahmin Sela. Visakha his granddaughter was then seven years old.

  4. Visakha though only seven expressed to her grandfather Mendaka her desire to see the Buddha. Mendaka allowed her to do so and gave her five hundred companions, five hundred slaves, and five hundred chariots, that she might visit the Buddha.

  5. She stopped the chariot some distance away and approached the Buddha on foot.

  6. He preached to her the Dhamma and she became his lay disciple.

  7. For the next fortnight Mendaka invited the Buddha and his followers daily to his house, where he fed them.

  8. Later, when at Pasendi’s request, Bimbisara sent Dhananjaya to live in Kosala, Visakha accompanied her parents and lived in Saketa.

  9. Migara, a wealthy citizen of Shravasti, wanted to get his son Punnavadhana married. He had sent a few people to find a suitable bride.

  10. The party in search of a bride happened to come to Shravasti. They saw Visakha on her way to the lake to bathe on a feast day.

  11. At that moment there was a great shower, Visakha’s companions ran for shelter. But Visakha

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