53. Q. What were their names?
A. Kondañña, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahānāma, and Assaji.
54. Q. What plan of discipline did he adopt to open his mind to know the whole truth?
A. He sat and meditated, concentrating his mind upon the higher problems of life, and shutting out from his sight and hearing all that was likely to interrupt his inward reflections.
55. Q. Did he fast?
A. Yes, through the whole period. He took less and less food and water until, it is said, he ate scarcely more than one grain of rice or of sesamum seed each day.
56. Q. Did this give him the wisdom he longed for?
A. No. He grew thinner and thinner in body and fainter in strength until, one day, as he was slowly walking about and meditating, his vital force suddenly left him and he fell to the ground unconscious.
57. Q. What did his companions think of that?
A. They fancied he was dead; but after a time he revived.