"AGAIN THE DEVIL TAKETH HIM UP INTO AN EXCEEDING HIGH MOUNTAIN," ETC.
The second temptation of Mâra is also like one of Satan's. The tempter, by a miracle, shows Buddha the glorious city of Kapilavastu, twisting the earth round like the "wheel of a potter" to do this. He offers to make him a mighty king of kings (Chakravartin) in seven days. (Bigandet, p. 65.)
Jewish prudery has quite marred the third temptation. From the days of Krishna and the phantom naked woman, Kotavî, to the days of St. Anthony and St. Jerome, or even to the days of mediæval monasteries with their incubi and succubi, sex temptations have been a prominent feature of the fasting ascetic's visions. The daughters of Mâra, the tempter, in exquisite forms, now come round Buddha. In the end he converts these pretty ladies, and converts and baptises Mâra himself.
"AND ANGELS CAME AND MINISTERED UNTO HIM."
After his conflict with Mâra, angels come to greet him.
Buddha, on vanquishing Mâra, left Buddha Gaya for the deer forest of Benares. There he began to preach. His doctrine is called Subha Shita (glad tidings). (_See_ Rajendra L. Mitra "N. Buddhist Lit.," p. 29.)
Five disciples who left him when he gave over the rigid fasts of the Brahmins, called out on seeing him in the deer forest, "Behold a gluttonous person!" (_relaché et gourmand_).
Almost his first converts were thirty profligate young men, whom he met sporting with lemans in the Kappasya jungle. "He received them," says Professor Rhys Davids, "into the order, with the formula, 'Follow Me.'" ("Birth Stories," p. 114.)
"Except in my religion, the twelve great disciples are not to be found." (Bigandet, p. 301.)
One disciple was called Upatishya (the beloved disciple). In a former existence, he and Maudgalyâyana had prayed that they might sit, the one on the right hand and the other on the left. Buddha granted this prayer. The other disciples murmured much. (Bigandet, p. 153.)
From Benares Buddha sent forth the sixty-one disciples. "Go ye forth," he said, "and preach Dharma, no two disciples going the same way." (Bigandet, p. 126.)
Professor Rhys Davids points out that Yâsas, a young rich man, came to Buddha by night for fear of his rich relations.
On one point I have been a little puzzled. The password of the Buddhist Wanderers was Sadhu! which does not seem to correspond with the "Pax Vobiscum!" (Matt. x. 13) of Christ's disciples. But I have just come across a passage in Renan ("Les Apôtres," p. 22) which shows that the Hebrew word was Schalom! (_bonheur!_) This is almost a literal translation of Sadhu!