Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.199

c8.199

"When he spake thus, the five ascetics said to the Exalted One: 'If thou hast not been able, friend Gotama, by that course, by those mortifications of the body, to attain superhuman perfection, the full supremacy of the knowledge and contemplation of sacred things, how wilt thou now, when thou livest in self-indulgence, when thou hast given up thy effort, and returned to self-indulgence, attain superhuman perfection, the full supremacy of the knowledge and contemplation of sacred things?'