Devadatta he assumed the form of a young boy clad in snakes and sat in the Prince’s lap, which very much impressed the prince, who became his disciple. Ajātasattu began to send great offerings to Devadatta, and the latter became obsessed with his own worth, and began to have thoughts that it was he who should lead the Sangha, not the Buddha, and he didn’t desist even though this thought brought down his psychic powers. When told about the offerings that Devadatta was receiving, the Buddha remarked that all these gains were only going towards his destruction, just as a plantain
Religious education in Romania enforcing stricter state control over religious affairs in the country. Recently it was revealed that the Securitate included a special department supervising religious life that tried to solve the so-called "problem of the denominations", especially religious groups and individuals hostile to the new regime. After decades of officially-backed atheism, one of the first demands churches in that country put forth after December 1989 was the resumption of pre-university religious education in public schools. In January 1990, less than a month after communist leader Ceauşescu was killed by a firing squad and well before post-communist authorities had time to revamp the