Thag 12.2 PTS: Thag 620-631- Sunita the Outcaste

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Thag 12.2 PTS: Thag 620-631- Sunita the Outcaste
In a lowly family I was born, poor, with next to no food. My work was degrading: I gathered the spoiled, the withered flowers from shrines and threw them away. People found me disgusting, despised me, disparaged me. Lowering my heart, I showed reverence to many.

Then I saw the One Self-awakened, arrayed with a squadron of monks, the Great Hero, entering the city, supreme, of the Magadhans. Throwing down my carrying pole, I approached him to do reverence. <p style="text-align:center;">He — the supreme man — stood still <p style="text-align:center;">out of sympathy <p style="text-align:center;">just <p style="text-align:center;">for me. <p style="text-align:center;">After paying homage <p style="text-align:center;">to the feet of the teacher, <p style="text-align:center;">I stood to one side <p style="text-align:center;">& requested the Going Forth from him, <p style="text-align:center;">supreme among all living beings. <p style="text-align:center;">The compassionate Teacher, <p style="text-align:center;">sympathetic to all the world, said: <p style="text-align:center;">"Come, monk." <p style="text-align:center;">That was my formal Acceptance.

<p style="text-align:center;">Alone, I stayed in the wilds, <p style="text-align:center;">untiring, <p style="text-align:center;">I followed the Teacher's words, <p style="text-align:center;">just as he, the Conqueror, had taught me.

<p style="text-align:center;">In the first watch of the night, <p style="text-align:center;">I recollected previous lives; <p style="text-align:center;">in the middle watch, <p style="text-align:center;">purified the divine eye; <p style="text-align:center;">in the last, <p style="text-align:center;">burst the mass of darkness.

<p style="text-align:center;">Then, as night was ending <p style="text-align:center;">& the sun returning, <p style="text-align:center;">Indra & Brahma came to pay homage to me, <p style="text-align:center;">hands palm-to-palm at their hearts: <p style="text-align:center;">"Homage to you, O thoroughbred of men, <p style="text-align:center;">Homage to you, O man supreme, <p style="text-align:center;">whose fermentations are ended. <p style="text-align:center;">You, dear sir, are worthy of offerings."

<p style="text-align:center;">Seeing me, arrayed with a squadron of devas, <p style="text-align:center;">the Teacher smiled & said: <p style="text-align:center;">"Through austerity, celibacy, <p style="text-align:center;">restraint, & self-control: <p style="text-align:center;">That's how one is a brahman. <p style="text-align:center;">He is a brahman supreme."