Killing his son to save his reputation

1. A Brahmin who pride himself on his erudite knowledge and astrology and various arts.
2. To show his ability, he went abroad carrying his son in his arms and cried.
   Wah … my dear son! Wah …
3. Why are you crying?
4. This child of mine is going to die within seven days. I’m grieved at his inevitable death. That is why I can’t help crying.
5. It is difficult to know a man’s life. It’s easy to make a miscalculation. Your child may not die after seven days, so why should you weep in advance?
6. The sun and the moon may set and the stars may fall, but my predictions will never fail.
7. to prove his self-claimed knowledge, he killed his son on the seventh day, for the sake of fame and gain.
8. You’re fantastic!
   My son is dead now.
9. They marveled that he was indeed an erudite man who could prove true of what he had said. They all came to pay him homage, and were heartily convinced that he deserved respect (as a prophet).

Explanation:

This is also true with those of the Buddha’s four groups of disciples who claim to have attained the path of enlightenment for the sake of the material offerings from others. They would try to fool people by killing an innocent man in order to deceitfully show the virtue of compassion. Such disciples would be certainly doomed to limitless suffering in time to come, just like the Brahmin who wanted to prove the accuracy of his prophecy by killing his son and thus deceived people.