History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s5.4

c23.s5.4

On the subjective and everyday level of truth this ordeal is the last test of the ascetic's resolution. On the brink of death from thirst and starvation he must resist the divine ministrants, and still maintain his stern self-control. Otherwise his life of penance and asceticism will have been fruitless, and he will be reborn in one of the 4,900 worlds of nāgas. This is the only interpretation which we can place upon the strange phrase of the Sūtra.