..续本文上一页alayas. To bathe in its waters during their religious festival, they believe, is to wash one”s sins away. In the old days, whenever someone was sick and about to die, they would carry him to the edge of the river. As soon as he breathed his last, they would give the corpse a shove and send it rolling into the water. Whoever was able to die this way, they felt, earned a lot of merit and would be assured against falling into hell. If a person wasn”t able to die right there, his relatives would bring the cremation ashes to scatter on the water. At present, this custom has died out. All that remains is the custom of going to bathe and wash away one”s sins during the festival on the full moon day of the second lunar month, which they hold to be an auspicious day.

　　If you go to watch, you”ll see huge numbers of people dressed in their best clothes, their heads wrapped in cloth, coming in throngs down to the river. You”ll hardly be able to get out of their way. When they reach the river, they pay their respects to their gods at the Hindu temples on the river bank.

　　Before bathing, the people have to worship Siva. Right in the middle of the temples are symbols of the male and female genitals, about the size of a rice-winnowing basket. The people come and sprinkle these with water, flowers, sweetmeats, silver and gold, and then go stand in lines at the water”s edge. There you can see hairy yogis with long scraggly beards sitting in meditation on the river bank — some of them not wearing any clothes at all. The men and women who are going to wash away their sins will get into a boat until it”s absolutely full. The boat is then rowed out into the middle of the river and overturned. Everyone bobs up and down in the water and this, they believe, washes away their sins. Some people stand with their hands stretched to the sky, some stand on one leg, some turn up their faces to stare at the sun. If I were to give a full description of all their different beliefs and practices, there”d be lots more to tell.

　　That day I wandered around until dark and then returned to where I was staying in Sarnath.

　　Sarnath is a large, wide open area, at least 800 hectares in size, with clumps of trees scattered about and lots of ruins of old sanctuaries built entirely out of stone. People still go to worship the Buddha images in the ruins. Several years ago a Hawaiian woman, half-Caucasian, became so impressed with Anagarika Dhammapala that she gave him money to restore the area and build a center for the Maha Bodhi Society. In the area there are four temples:

　　1. A Singhalese temple. This is a branch of the Maha Bodhi Society. The executive secretary of the society is a monk, and the society”s aim is to spread Buddhism throughout the world.

　　2. A Burmese temple.

　　3. A Chinese temple supported by Ow Bun Haw, owner of the Tiger Balm Drug Company. The monks in the temple are from Peking.

　　4. A Jain temple set right next to the chedi built by King Asoka. The spire of the chedi is now broken off, and what remains is only about 16 meters tall. Apparently it once held relics of the Buddha, but these are now placed in the museum at Calcutta.

　　I wandered around making a detailed survey of the whole area and became 100 percent convinced that the Buddha actually delivered the Wheel of Dhamma here. The spot where he sat while delivering the sermon is still marked. In another spot is a vacant, fallen-down sanctuary with the inscription, "Built by King..." And in the museum is a fragment of a stone column, about three or four meters tall and as large around as a mortar for pounding rice. There is also a very beautiful Buddha image carved out of stone, a yard across at the base, with the inscription, "Built by Asoka Maharaja."

　　After I had acquainted myself fairly well with th…

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