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IN SEARCH OF NEW LIGHT
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perfected himself in the technique of Uddaka Ramaputta, Gautama asked him the same question which he had asked Arada Kalam : “Is there anything further to be learned ?”
And Uddaka Ramaputta gave the same reply. “No friend, there is nothing more that I can teach you.”
Arada Kalam and Uddaka Ramaputta were famous for their mastery of Dhyana Marga in the country of the Kosalas. But Gautama had heard that there were similar masters of Dhyana Marga in the country of the Magadhas. He thought he should have a training in their system also.
Gautama accordingly went to Magadha.
He found that their technique of Dhyana Marga, though based on control of breathing, was different from what was in vogue in the Kosala country.
The technique was not to breathe but to reach concentration by stopping breathing.
Gautama learned this technique. When he tried concentration by stopping breathing he found that piercing sounds used to come out of his ears, and his head appeared to him to be pierced as though by a sharp pointed knife.
It was a painful process. But Gautama did not fail to master it.
Such was his training in the Samadhi Marga.
§ 4. Trial of Asceticism
Gautama had given a trial to the Sankhya and Samadhi Marga. But he had left the Ashram of the Brighus without giving a trial to Asceticism.
He felt he should give it a trial and gain experience for himself so that he could speak authoritatively about it.
Accordingly Gautama went to the town of Gaya. From there he reconnoitred the surrounding country and fixed his habitation at Uruvela in the hermitage of Negari, the Royal Seer of Gaya, for practising asceticism. It was a lonely and solitary
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