ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 14.6

14.6

said, “We will accompany our two preceptors.”

“You all must go to Rājagṛha,” Śāriputra replied. “We need to go elsewhere and act for the benefit of those to be tamed. If we all travel there together, there will not be enough food, and that would be improper.” As soon as the monks heard this, they set out for Rājagṛha via another path and settled in there, while Venerable Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana set out upon a different path, where slowly rain began to fall.

At the foot of those mountains there was a mountain cave, and in that cave there was a buffalo herder woman who had recently gone there and slept with two different men. The monks Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana arrived after those two had left and sat down at the mouth of the cave.

The monk Kokālika returned to his monastery after those two had left, and when he arrived he found his students and disciples had all disappeared. He asked the other monks, “Where did all my students and disciples go?”

“They left with the monks Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana,” they replied.

No sooner did the monk Kokālika hear this than he was seething with anger. “Not only did those two leave without informing me, they also took my followers with them!” he said.

While he was standing there the householder came to where he was. Kokālika asked the householder, “Householder, where did your child go?”

“He has gone forth,” the householder replied.

“Who led him to go forth?”

“He went forth in the presence of Śāriputra,” the householder replied. No sooner did Kokālika hear this than he became even more furious at the two of them.

The heartbreaking admonition from the brahmins living on Mount Sabkang had likewise cut him to the quick. “Lord Kokālika,” the brahmins said, “the monks Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana both came here, but you didn’t inform us.”

At this he became very embarrassed and thought, “Those two