Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c11.7.4

v1.c11.7.4

He then proceeded to Uruvilva-Senāpatigrāma, and was much pleased at the sight of the river Nairañjana with water reaching the edge of the banks covered by shrubs and trees and used as a pasture for the cattle. He observed that he was born at a time when the five kinds of wrong views (*pañcakaṣāya*)⁵ were prevalent. The people of his time were obsessed with the notion of the existence of soul, believed in the attainment of purity by means of physical tortures, restriction of food, utterance of mantras, or salutation of the gods and other sacred objects, and sought for heaven in the next life by ritualistic practices, and so forth. With a view to convince the world that the severest ascetic practices were of no avail, he for six years went through all the unthinkable physical tortures known as *duṣkaracaryās*¹ of the Bodhisattva. He then decided to take food and make his body strong in order to be able to practise the dhyānas, of which he had already a foretaste while he was only a boy,² and which he believed would lead him to Nirvāṇa. For changing his method, he was deserted by his five Brāhmaṇa followers who went away to Benares to continue their rigorous ascetic practices. He accepted the food offered by Sujātā and took his seat under the Bodhi tree to try his own method.