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diff --git a/69787-0.txt b/69787-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f4b9ad --- /dev/null +++ b/69787-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8766 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The splendour of Asia, by L. Adams
+Beck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The splendour of Asia
+ The story and teaching of the Buddha
+
+Author: L. Adams Beck
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2023 [eBook #69787]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Al Haines, Cindy Beyer & the online Distributed
+ Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPLENDOUR OF ASIA ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Cover Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ ──────────────────────────────
+ _THE NOVELS OF_
+ _L. ADAMS BECK_
+ ──────────────────────────────
+
+ THE KEY OF DREAMS
+ THE PERFUME OF THE RAINBOW
+ THE TREASURE OF HO
+ THE NINTH VIBRATION
+ THE WAY OF STARS
+ THE SPLENDOUR OF ASIA
+ ──────────────────────────────
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A GANDHARA BUDDHA AT HOTI-MARDAN]
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+ SPLENDOUR OF ASIA
+
+ THE STORY AND TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA
+
+
+ BY
+ L. ADAMS BECK
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ NEW YORK
+ DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
+ 1926
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1926,
+ BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
+
+
+
+ PRINTED IN U. S. A.
+
+
+ THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS
+ BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ _I dedicate this book to_
+
+ ELLERY SEDGWICK
+
+ WHO INSPIRED ME WITH THE IDEA
+
+ OF WRITING IT.
+
+
+
+
+ PREFACE
+
+
+I have endeavoured in this book to make not only the story but the
+teaching of the Buddha intelligible and human, so that those who wish to
+understand one of the greatest facts in history may not find themselves
+entangled in the mazes of scholastic terms, and may perhaps be enabled
+to realize its strange coincidences with modern psychology and certain
+scientific verities. The teaching of the Indian Prince has indeed
+nothing to dread from science. Sir Edwin Arnold’s beautiful “Light of
+Asia” ends very early in that great ministry, and I have continued the
+story to the death of the Buddha, and have enriched it with many
+scriptures and ancient traditions unknown to or unused by Sir Edwin.
+Words would fail me if I attempted to express how necessary I think a
+knowledge of this high faith and philosophy is to leaven the materialism
+of the West, and the reception my books on cognate subjects have had
+encourages me to think there may be those who will see in what I here
+set down a great revelation of truth. It is, at all events a truth which
+influenced not only the mightiest thinkers of Greece and Rome, but also
+the beginnings of Christian teaching—which it antedated by five or six
+hundred years. It may well claim kindred with all the great faiths,
+persecuting and opposing none which differ with it, and this for reasons
+which are easily seen in the teachings themselves. In relation to its
+noble and scientific austerity no words are needed.
+
+Of the Founder himself, I may quote a great Buddhist scholar’s opinion,
+one which none who have studied the subject impartially will controvert.
+“Perhaps never while the world has lasted has there been a personality
+who has wielded such a tremendous influence over the thinking of
+humanity. And whoso recognizes this will also recognize that almost two
+and a half millenniums ago the supreme summit of spiritual development
+was reached, and that at that distant time in the quiet hermit groves
+along the Ganges already had been thought the highest man can think.”
+
+Of the august beauty of the Life those who read will form their own
+judgment. It has been the mainspring of the highest art of Asia. It has
+brought peace to myriads. It will bring it to many more.
+
+I have consulted all the available Scriptures, and have not forgotten
+the great traditions. I am indebted to all the best known scholars,
+including Max Müller, Faüsboll, Dahlke, Rhys Davids, his accomplished
+wife, Beal, and many more. I must mention Professor Radhakrishnan and
+other Indian writers, and among illuminating thinkers I must not forget
+Dr. Carus, and Mr. Edmond Holmes. To the latter’s work I owe a debt
+because he appears to me to appreciate more keenly than other writers
+the true point of junction between the early and later interpretations
+of the Buddha’s teaching. I have myself had the advantage of studying
+later Buddhist interpretation with Japanese scholars, with whom I have
+translated the Buddhist Psalms of Shinran Shonin. About some of these
+interpretations there will always be points of difference until we have
+access to the whole body of ancient teaching in the Far East as well as
+in India, and freedom from all error is beyond hope.
+
+If any Buddhist scholars should look into this book they will recall the
+immense difficulty of (so to speak) translating their work for the
+public, especially where the words of one language often fail to
+represent the thought of another. They will therefore be lenient to
+shortcomings. They will note that I have employed Pali or Sanscrit words
+and names alternatively as I thought they would be more familiar or
+easier to remember. _Karma_ for _kamma_, and _Nirvana_ for _Nibbana_ are
+instances of many others. I have omitted accents as mystifying to those
+unfamiliar with Indian languages.
+
+I can scarcely hope to satisfy scholars and the general public. But if I
+succeed in interesting some of the latter, the former, will, I think,
+recognize that my aim was justified.
+
+ L. ADAMS BECK.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+ PART I
+
+ PART II
+
+ PART III
+
+ PART IV
+
+
+
+
+ PART I
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Nearly two thousand five hundred years ago, in the City of Kapila in
+Northern India, the spring came with glory. And surely nowhere in all
+the three worlds is spring more gracious, for the sunshine, life-giving,
+inspiring, draws divine scents from moist earth and the deep luxuriance
+of leaves and flowers to send on every breathing breeze pure incense
+from the world, rejoicing as a bride in the all-enfolding delight.
+
+Here stood the little City of Kapila, nobly placed, as beseems the
+birthplace of the Perfect One, and above it the Himalayas stormed the
+skies with tossing billows of snow, leading the aspiration of man on and
+up until it melted in the Divine. On these, as was known, the Divinities
+had their dwelling. Thence Indra, the heavenly lord, drove his flocks of
+clouds to pasture in pure air, taking form and colour from the
+splendours of the sun and the moon and the silver embroidery of the
+constellations. Vaya, lord of the winds, charged in thunder or breathed
+in music from awful heights of snow. Surya, the Sun, urged his golden
+steeds from the low horizon to the zenith and on to the confines of
+night. Chandra, the moon, rose on the crest of the mighty range and sank
+below it into his mysterious kingdom in the darkening west. The deep
+pine forests clothing the lower spurs and veiling the sources of the
+rivers must surely have their indwelling spirits, and the river Rohini,
+breaking light-foot from the heights to scatter her diamonds as she
+leaped from rock to rock or brooded a moment in deep pools mirroring her
+ferns and flowers—what was she but a lovely, living nymph, a Dancer,
+pure as the silver peaks that fathered her? Therefore let it be known
+that this city was set among celestial influences, that the gates of the
+Paradise of India were not far from it, and that the Four Celestial
+Kings were its wardens. And it dwelt at this time in a great peace.
+
+The city and surrounding country, a part of the great kingdom of Kosala,
+were inhabited by the Sakya clan. Very great was the kingdom of Kosala.
+The vast and holy city of Benares, a hundred miles south from Kapila,
+was but one of its cities, and its capital, Savatthi, lay in the cloudy
+mountains of Nepal. To the south-east lay the kingdom of Magadha, and
+only the great Gods then knew to which of these kingdoms would fall the
+sceptre of India.
+
+And peaceful was the City of Kapila, the City of Red Earth, home of the
+Sakya clansmen, a race strong and high, for they were of the Arya, the
+Noble People, and it was they who descending into India through the
+passes had conquered the dark men of the land and driven them before
+them like the shadows of night fleeing before the arrows of dawn; and
+having dispossessed the dark-skinned, the lawless, the godless, the
+fair-skinned Noble People entered in upon their lands and made them
+theirs. With them the Noble People brought their Gods of Heaven and
+Earth, and these they worshipped with sacrifice and ritual and chanting
+of mantra and offerings of cows and grain and ghi and all the savours
+dear to hovering divinity. And in peace and plenty their Maharaja ruled
+them.
+
+Very fair was the city on the banks of bright Rohini. As there were few
+men of arrogant, dominant riches, so was there no piercing poverty, and,
+since life was simple, all had enough. The streets were clean-swept and
+watered, and parks and gardens lay about them where men might shelter in
+the great heats and the gay, golden-skinned children played beside the
+river and grew sleek and round on their food of pure rice and plantains
+and milk from the deep-dewlapped cattle that wound home in the evenings
+from high pastures by running water.
+
+Nor was there fare only for the body. Wise men, the Wanderers, they
+whose minds are fixed on things unearthly and whose souls climb toward
+keen stars as the cragsmen follow the eagle to her eyry above the
+clouds, came in from mighty forests where the hermits and their families
+dwell in peace with God and man pursuing the purities of the
+householder’s life in the wilds;—bringing with them the dreams, the
+speculations, the conclusions of the hermits and themselves. And for
+such the Raja had made a hall of cedarwood in the city, where they might
+hold disputations with its wise men and the simpler folk sit and listen,
+bestowing applause or condemnation as they heard. For there was none in
+the city, gentle or simple, noble or humble, but set the things of the
+spirit above the chaffer of the market-place and lent a ready ear to
+such talk. Nor did they fear to speak, for the Arya are free peoples,
+coming from the north and bold and adventurous.
+
+And of these Wanderers the people learnt much, for if the clansmen were
+free, these were freer. No love of earthly homes or riches held them.
+Strip one of them of his worldly all—his tattered robe and bowl for
+alms—and he would depart content, smiling his strange, secret smile, as
+a man whose treasure is beyond thief or destroyer. But for the _Wasa_,
+the three months’ rainy season, they would stay, willing to speak or to
+hear, satisfied with a very little, and when the sun shone again, depart
+like migrating birds on their mysterious way. And sometimes would come
+one, God-intoxicated, utterly heedless of men, scarce emerging from
+_samadhi_, the mystic ecstasy; and him would men surround with mute envy
+because in that trance he beheld things not lawful nor possible to be
+uttered. And such would stay but a little while and then, heedless of
+rain or sun or wind or snow, press on to the cold glories of the
+mountains, alone and in haste, and reappear no more.
+
+So does the flame of the Divine draw the moth of the spirit of man to
+hover about it until, dazzled and drunken with radiance, it joins itself
+to the flame and is consumed into pure light.
+
+Yet was not the talk of the City of Kapila for ever of things divine,
+for bygone Rajas and this one also (knowing that where there is a
+North-man he must still be talking and much trouble thereby averted) had
+made a Folk Mote, a meeting hall, and not one only, where in the
+different quarters of the town men might gather and talk of their
+affairs, the farmers and handicraftsmen alike,—the sowing and
+harvesting of rice, the well-doing of cattle, the doings of the
+Kosalans, of whom they themselves were a clan, the subjugation of the
+swarthy natives among whom they lay as pearls in a black ocean, the
+ambitions of the Kings of Magadha, the trading of the merchants, and
+many things more which concerned them nearly. And each householder had
+the right to be heard, for each in his own house was king and priest and
+there none might say him nay, were it not that the Brahmans made or
+unmade his peace with the Lords of Heaven through gifts and sacrifices
+and a ritual grown exceedingly heavy and burdensome. But against these
+even the fair-skinned people, the Arya, as they called themselves, did
+not as yet dare to murmur.
+
+The women of Kapila also were wives and mothers of free men. Their faces
+were not veiled save when they themselves for modesty chose to draw the
+folds between themselves and too bold a gaze. They shared the joys and
+sorrows of their men, though the great ladies were screened. And if they
+walked in the ways of ritual piety even more eagerly and laid daily
+gifts even more precious at the feet of the Brahmans, this is the way of
+women all the world over.
+
+And these happy people had a good Maharaja, named Suddhodana, or Pure
+Rice, because not only were his granaries and those of his fathers’
+before him full to overflowing, but his heart was pure as the grains of
+living pearl; a man grave and kind, rich also in cattle and elephants,
+yet not arrogant with riches, charitable, alms-giving, reverencing the
+Brahman and the ascetic, walking in peace in the way of ancient pieties,
+with thoughts of his own to think as he raised his eyes to the
+mountains, awful in the heavens as intermediaries between men and Gods.
+And he had taken to wife two fair sisters, the elder, Maya, the younger,
+Prajapati; and by the elder, the more dearly loved, had as yet no child
+and by neither a son to succeed him on his peaceful seat of rulership.
+And this was a grief to him, for when he was gone who should sacrifice
+to his soul and the souls of the great dead fathers? Very sweet and
+grateful is the tenderness of daughters, but this they cannot do.
+
+And one day, as they sat in the pleasure pavilion beside the waters of
+Rohini, listening to her song of the snows as she danced onward,
+downward from the heights, the Maharaja Suddhodana opened his heart once
+more to his wives. And one, Maya the Maharani, sat at his feet on a
+cushion of silk woven with gold, and her beauty was calm as the evening
+star shining in a faint moonlight, luminous, remote, veiled with dreams
+and hopes unknown to others. The second Queen, Prajapati, was fair and
+gentle, and no more—yet that is much, as shall be shown. And these two
+were sisters in heart as in blood and wifehood. So, laying his hand on
+the head of Maya, the Maharaja spoke softly:
+
+“What dreams my Queen?”
+
+And she, pointing to the bamboo grove where stood in green slim hand
+clasping her sister’s:
+
+“Of motherhood. Of this I dream night and day, knowing many beautiful
+things, but most of all this—that the heart of my lord, my beloved,
+cannot rest until a son of his is laid in his arms. O would, if I am
+barren, that my heart’s sister, my Prajapati, might give to our husband
+this gift of gifts!”
+
+And he, with heavy brows:
+
+“Dear lady and wife, the Gods give and withhold their great gift of life
+at pleasure. What have we left undone? We have besought them. We have
+offered of our best on many an altar. We have fed Brahmans, we have kept
+the precepts, and yet—they do not give. If in some former life we have
+sinned—Yet who can tell? It is their will, and must be borne even if it
+break my heart.”
+
+Then Prajapati, raising her sweet eyes timidly to him, one slim hand
+clasping her sister’s:
+
+“If my lord please to take another wife, then indeed my sister and I
+will serve her, and if a son is born, what can we but rejoice?”
+
+And he:
+
+“That son would not be the child of my Queens, and most of all of Maya,
+the Great Lady. Dear he might be, but not so dear; and, moreover, you
+both, my ladies, have heard the word of the wandering Rishi, the wise
+ascetic, who prophesied that in this city, in this fortunate palace,
+should a child be born, a ruler of men, a King among Kings.”
+
+“May it be here and now!” said the lady Maya. And again, softly: “May we
+be found worthy!”
+
+There was a long silence and only Rohini, the river, talked of sweet
+secret things as she went her way. And presently the Maharaja added:
+
+“I think it will not be!”
+
+And a large tear pearled itself on the long lashes of Prajapati and
+spilt down the bloom of her cheek as she watched her baby daughter in
+the arms of a dark-skinned nurse lulling her to sleep with strange and
+wistful songs of the native people, by the lotuses on the great marble
+tank in the shade of the pippalas.
+
+And presently the evening came, gliding with silent steps through the
+woods and along the waters, veiled as a maid who steals to meet her
+star-eyed lover. And having beheld the pomps of sunset, the mountains
+withdrew into their mysteries and a star stood on each of their summits
+for guard, and in a great peace the moon floated upward, resplendent.
+Then the beauty of heaven and earth became marvellous and remote, and
+the earth was no longer for men but Gods.
+
+Now that night Maya, the Great Lady, asleep beside her lord in the
+pleasure pavilion when moonlight blanched the dewy lawns like snow,
+dreamed a dream. Nor was it the first. This lady was vision-haunted. Her
+eyes, her ears, were open to all the starry influences to all the
+weeping of winds and the tales the reeds whisper to one another in
+lonely places. But this dream came, not flitting ghostly along the ways
+of sleep nor with the morning dissolving cloud-like, illusive, scarcely
+to be grasped or recorded, more a feeling than a thought, but clear,
+majestic, terrible and beautiful, so that she found herself (and knew
+not how) sitting up, awake, aware, breathless, as it were a Queen to
+whom has been made a great annunciation from equal powers. And, with an
+awakening hand laid upon her husband, she spoke, nor did her voice
+tremble:
+
+“Beloved, awake! I have dreamed. For it seemed to me that the four
+Guardian Divine Kings lifted me from my bed and bore me away to the
+great mountains and laid me down. And heavenly spirits, shining as
+stars, came about me and bathed me in the pure waters of a mountain
+lake, freeing me of all human stain. And when this was done they laid me
+down again, clothing me in the gold of divine garments and shedding
+perfumes about me. And I saw a lordly elephant, white as silver,
+wandering beneath the trees. For, as you know, this is the symbol of
+royalty. And touching me on the right side with his trunk, he appeared
+to melt into a cloud and pass like a vapor into my womb. In the darkness
+I have seen a great light shine, and in the air myriads of radiant
+spirits sang my joy. And O, beloved, all is well!”
+
+And he stammering, amazed:
+
+“Beloved, when you awaked me, the music of these very spirits rang in my
+ears, and they cried to me with voices more tunable than all songs of
+birds or harmony of well-touched lutes, ‘The child shall be born when
+the Flower-Star shines in the east.’ And as you touched me, I awoke.”
+
+And more they could not say, but clung to each other, trembling for joy
+and wonder. Nor could any sleep come to them that night, for in their
+gladness it seemed they stood on the shining shores of heaven, its light
+about them like an ocean. And when on the morrow these dreams were told
+to Prajapati, she rejoiced with them, no thought of envy to cloud the
+crystal of her soul. And when they were laid before the dream-readers,
+they could presage nothing but good, and being called in before the
+Maharaja where he sat in state with his Maharanis, they spoke as
+follows:
+
+“A lord of men shall be born, a great and awful ruler. Let the soul of
+the Maharaja be exalted, and the heart of the Maharani rejoice and
+triumph, since to their house is given a son whose kingdom is the earth
+and the fullness of it.”
+
+Then the Maharaja shouted for joy, while Maya the Maharani, listened
+with dreaming eyes.
+
+“For he shall conquer the earth!” he cried, “and the trampling of his
+elephants be heard like thunder, and Kosala shall be his kingdom and
+Maghada prostrate before his feet, and riches and glory shall be the
+slaves of the Conqueror for ever and ever!”
+
+And the Maharani said:
+
+“For ever and ever? Yet there is death.”
+
+And Prajapati hid her face.
+
+And the dream-readers, looking up with reverence where they knelt before
+their diagrams and circles, answered:
+
+“Great Lady, there are riches that Death cannot thieve. There are
+conquests that Time does not triumph over. There is an Empire that
+passes not away. What the fate of this child is to be we cannot yet
+tell. It bewilders us, for great and auspicious as are the signs, they
+are not plain reading as is the custom. It may be that the child shall
+be a sage, dominating the souls of men, ruling by pure wisdom, a
+conqueror——”
+
+But here the Maharaja broke in, in anger:
+
+“Be silent, for this I will not have! The men of my race are Kshatriyas,
+warriors. The Brahman, the ascetic, the hermit, have their sacred uses,
+and may the guardian Gods forbid that I should disparage their
+merit—but my son is my son and a warrior, and if the signs are great,
+it is a warrior’s greatness I claim for him, for in my family is no
+other known or considered.”
+
+But still the dream-readers lingered in doubt.
+
+“Great sir, there is more to be told, strange and very wonderful. Two
+ways lie before the child to be, and in which he will walk we cannot
+say. If, when he is of age to judge, he beholds a sick man, an old man,
+a dead man, and a holy monk, then great and wide is his kingdom but not
+of this world. And if he see not these signs, he shall be a king of the
+earth, magnificent in riches, glory and power. Therefore it is in the
+hand of his father to choose what he shall see or not see. The dream is
+read.”
+
+“Gladly and gloriously is it read!” shouted the Maharaja. “No such
+sights shall my son see. Leave spiritual things to spiritual men, for he
+shall reign for ever and ever!”
+
+And bowing, with minds perplexed, the dream-readers gathered up their
+calculations and departed. And in the city they spread their news, and
+there was scarcely a man but thought and rejoiced with the Maharaja,
+commending him in that he chose rather to have a son to fight beside him
+and ride terribly at his bridle rein than an ascetic in the woods, with
+matted hair and clawed hands, to pray for his victories——“So would we
+all choose, like men!” they said. And very joyful was the city.
+
+But Maya the Great Lady, saying little, went her way in peace, strong
+and calm of purpose as our general mother the earth, pure within and
+without as the white lotus; and surrounding herself with a great
+tranquillity, she floated on its surface as a water-lily, rooted in the
+life-giving bosom of earth, turning an adoring face to the purities of
+the heavens and absorbing their radiance, until her heart was pure gold
+and her body white as the ivory of the flower that is a prayer embodied
+and throne of all the Gods. And if she passed through the city, the
+women and children strewed flowers before her as before a goddess borne
+in procession, and when the benediction of her eyes fell on them, they
+prostrated themselves.
+
+And always her sister, Prajapati, went beside her, guarding her with her
+own hands, treasuring her as a thing already enskied and sainted, a fear
+in her heart clasping hands with joy. And the Maharaja Suddhodana would
+stride into the pavilion, saying in his great voice:
+
+“Wife, how goes it? For the time passes onward, and soon the spring
+shall be here again, and with it our boy. This day have the farmers
+given me a little plough, made of red cedarwood, banded with ivory, and
+when he can walk and talk he shall plough his furrow like a man!”
+
+And she, smiling, answered:
+
+“Dear lord, he shall plough his furrow and sow his seed, and very great
+shall his harvest be. All goes better than well.”
+
+And again another day he came with a sword, the haft sparkling like
+frost with jewels, and he cried, rejoicing:
+
+“This have the goldsmiths and handicraftsmen of the city given me, that
+with it my son may strike off the head of the goat for his first
+sacrifice, and after destroy his enemies as when Indra thunders and
+lightens from the peaks. But is all well?”
+
+And she, smiling:
+
+“Beloved, his enemies shall fall before him like chaff driven on a gale.
+And all goes better than well.”
+
+And she spent her time in deep meditation, free from grief or pain, free
+also from illusions and desires, in a measureless content and
+foreseeing. Thus the time went by, not swiftly as a dancer nor slowly as
+a mourner, but in a great quiet, pacing with majesty from day to day.
+
+Now, on a certain day when Spring with her birds and blossoms was come
+to earth, the Maharani, following the custom of the ladies of her race,
+with her sister made ready all her matters and entered the presence of
+her husband, speaking thus:
+
+“Dear lord, it is a habit of my people that when our children are born
+it is in the house of our parents. Have I then your permission to
+journey to them for this auspicious birth, that, returning, I may bring
+my sheaves with me?”
+
+And he, embracing her with true affection, gave her leave to go,
+commending her to the care of Prajapati and giving strict command that
+men should go before making all the ways clear for her litter, and men
+and women be warned that no sight painful or terrifying should meet her
+eyes. So, tenderly invoking the prayers and ritual of the Brahmans on
+her and his son’s behalf, he sent her forth and returned to his duties
+full of thought. But she, borne in her litter and embraced in the very
+arms of peace, went her way, thinking to reach the house of her parents
+and knowing not that the great hour of her life was even then upon her.
+
+And passing the Lumbini gardens, where trees and flowers, placid waters
+and green shades, the song of birds and cooing of doves combine to make
+a heaven on earth, she commanded them to stay her litter that she might
+set her feet in the sun-warmed grass and stand beside the coolness of
+the lake. So it was done, and leaning on the arm of Prajapati, she
+descended and entered the garden and wandered awhile, silent for joy.
+
+And suddenly, as they stood beneath a great palsa tree, sweeping the
+sward with robes of green and the honeyed snow of blossom, awe and
+trembling seized her and a measureless marvelling; and the tree swept
+its boughs earthward until the leaves and flowers lay thick upon the
+grass, and she knew that the life of all growing things and of the
+divine earth and the mountains and skies lived within her and that her
+hour was come. So she laid her hand on a bough of the palsa tree, and as
+Prajapati knelt beside her, stilled with joy and fear, and her women
+crowded outside the close blossomed shelter of the palsa tree, her son
+was born: not like a human birth with agony but painlessly.
+
+Now, it was told afterwards that for wardens the Four Heavenly Kings
+stood about him, and that the air was thronged with those birds of
+heaven, the happy Shining Ones, singing and rejoicing. And it is told
+that throughout the world all polluted streams flowed clear as crystal,
+and that even as the lady his mother suffered no pang of childbirth, so
+all sentient creatures knew surcease of pain because of that great Birth
+and rejoiced with her in jungle and meadow, in deep waters, and in
+clouds aerial—for what mother or child could sorrow in that hour?
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II
+
+
+BUT of the child, what shall be said? Borne back to the palace with
+flute and drum, through streets thronged with eager men and women
+pressing forward to behold him, he did not sleep, nor shrink, like other
+children, but gazed about him as though the gem of thought were hidden
+beneath the blue deeps of his eyes. He shone like pure gold, after the
+manner of his people, Aryan, noble, a child of high descent. And it is
+told that the hidden sweetness of precious lilies went with him and that
+the garments of shining spirits, sweeping unseen above him, made the air
+vibrant. So the Maharaja, receiving him in his arms, blessed his son,
+rejoicing in his happy fate who was the father of such a one as the
+world could not show the like. And in his ears the voices of prophecy
+made a changing music of pride and triumph. And the Maharani,
+overweighted with gladness, like a lily surcharged with dew, was borne
+to her noble couch of ivory and gold; and Prajapati watched each breath
+she drew, so great were her love and fear.
+
+Then, to the rejoicing palace, came an ascetic of pure life and
+understanding, a dweller on the holy heights of Himavat, a great
+marvel-worker, honoured of all men; and he desired to enter the presence
+of the Maharaja and make obeisance. And this was granted.
+
+Bowing before the Maharaja, he addressed him thus:
+
+“Great sir, as I came on the sun’s way, I heard the rejoicing of radiant
+spirits in the air, and when I asked why they were glad, they triumphed
+in this verse—
+
+ “‘The Wisdom-Child, that precious Jewel, unmatched, unrivalled,
+ Is born in Lumbini, in the land of the happy Sakyas,
+ For good and joy to all the world of men.’
+
+“Therefore am I come. Lead me now to the young child that I may see him
+and be glad also. Rejoice, O Maharaja of happy fortune, for most surely
+is it owing to your righteous deeds in former lives that this good
+celestial is fallen to your lot!”
+
+And the Maharaja, dumb with love and pride, led the way to the palace
+hall where the child slept; and they uncovered his little lovely person
+that the old man might see and be glad also. So he considered the
+precious marks and signs of his body, assuring him to be a Buddha, one
+perfect in enlightenment, reading and comprehending them all with a
+heart that scarce for joy could believe what lay before him. And, seeing
+these wonderful birth-portents, the tears rolled down his cheeks; and at
+his weeping fear seized the father, and he bowed down at the ascetic’s
+feet, crying:
+
+“O what is my lord’s grief: O what are his tears? Is the child doomed?
+Do we lose him? Forbid it, all-seeing Divinities! Forbid it that one
+parched, within reach of the eternal draught, should lose all and perish
+of thirst! Forbid it that I should lose my treasure! For when a man dies
+who owns a son, it is as a man with two eyes—one sleeps yet the other
+watches,—but a man without a son is blind in death’s darkness.”
+
+And the ascetic, seeing his grief, answered swiftly:
+
+“Sir, have no fear. Good and better than good are the portents. I wept
+for myself. This child shall rule the world, but I, by reason of my age,
+shall not live to see it. Deep and full and wide is the river of his
+Law. Like a great lake is the calm of his Yoga; like the sun at the
+zenith his wisdom. The earth shall be glad for him, and he shall reign
+and he SHALL reign, and mighty the glory of his dominion!”
+
+And having said this, the ascetic departed mysteriously, after the
+fashion of the Instructed, leaving joy as his gift.
+
+But still Prajapati watched by the Queen Maya and leaned her ear close
+to catch a whisper—for as yet the Great Lady had not spoken.
+
+And now the child lay in the hollow of her arm, and it was the seventh
+day. And without raising her lashes, she whispered:
+
+“Sister, my true sister! On the seventh day I die, for so it is with
+those mothers whose joy, too great for the lowlands of earth, soars like
+a bird to the mountains of heaven. My joy is winged. No more can it walk
+beside my sweet sister nor follow my husband as his shadow nor guard the
+steps of my child. It is become divine. Already its wings quiver for
+flight. But all is well. My place is prepared in a heaven where my
+bliss, rolling outward, may spread into a sea to mirror the Wisdom I
+have borne. And you, my true sister, will not forget me, but, taking
+this child for your own, will nourish him with noble milk from your pure
+bosom. And for our lord you will take heed. And this I know, that the
+Way of Peace shall be opened to the feet of my son’s foster-mother as to
+mine.”
+
+And Prajapati pressed her cheek against the Great Lady’s in silence that
+laid a finger on the lips of grief, and the child slept between them.
+
+Now Night, with the moon in her hair and the stars for ear and breast
+jewels, came gliding down from the high mountains and wandered in the
+palace gardens, shedding sleep unutterable and all sweet influences from
+her outspread hands. And there was not one in the palace, from the
+Maharaja to the sweeper but slept, dreaming auspicious dreams.
+
+And in the morning all woke refreshed and at peace. But Maya, the Great
+Lady waked not. And her sister, the Queen Prajapati, seeing the child,
+lovely as an image of pure gold, blue-eyed and beautiful, loved him, and
+took him to her fragrant bosom, and became his mother. And he received
+the name of Siddhartha, meaning “He who has attained his aim”—for who
+could doubt that such a child must conquer where he would?
+
+Thus have I heard.
+
+With this child all good came to the City of Kapila and to the country
+round about, and all the Sakya clansmen prospered very greatly. Their
+cows were pure-coloured, well-proportioned, giving fragrant and rich
+milk with even flow; their horses were as though winged, shaped for
+speed and strength; their elephants royal beasts and understanding. When
+rain was needed the air distilled it seasonably, and the five cereals
+swelled with scented grain, wholesome and soft for food. All creatures
+about to produce their young were content and at ease, their bodies
+well-knit and healthful.
+
+Nor was this grace confined to the lower creation, for in the City of
+Kapila and its dominions, amongst men and women auspicious things grew
+like seed flung from the hands of Gods, and even those whom their
+passions spurred down the broad way of a dangerous karma, considered and
+took heed, and, laying aside their selfish desires and covetousness,
+thought no proud, envious thoughts, but lived in quiet with their
+neighbours; and men were grave and recollected and women chaste and
+calm, and by all were the Four Rules of Purity honoured. And it is told
+that the Maharaja, seeing this heavenly guest within his palace, for his
+sake dwelt purely, practising virtue, putting away from him all evil
+company, that his heart might not be polluted with lust. And he
+meditated much by night and day, drinking the moon’s brightness with
+clasped hands and sacrificing in the golden silences of the dawn, when
+all high influences are unloosed. And this course of conduct must ensue
+from such a birth, for, as the lotus and champak flowers exhale their
+perfume and the moon drops camphor in her secret glories, so do the
+influences of purity and high thought spread outward from the person of
+a Buddha-to-be. Therefore, as the light of sun or moon increases little
+by little and none can measure its growth, so was it with the child,
+orbing into beauty perfect and yet more perfect—if such a thing can be.
+And with precious things they surrounded him. Noble amulets guarded his
+person, great gems adorned him, and the scent of sandalwood made sweet
+the air for his breathing.
+
+Now, when the time for instruction came, the Maharaja considered whom he
+should employ to teach his son. Should it be a man of the Wanderers,
+who, having cast the world utterly aside, scans its wisdom with the
+diamond ray of perfect comprehension—one of the Unfettered? Or should
+it be one of the men of braided hair—a Brahman hermit, held, as yet, in
+family ties, but living the life of pure contemplation? Or a bearer of
+the Triple Staff?
+
+Much he revolved these matters and, gathering opinions, digested them,
+and summoned to the high task the wise and saintly Viswamitra. And the
+boy was brought before him and made due obeisance to his teacher (who
+is, if possible, more to be reverenced than even a father, being the
+father of the soul and mind, whereas that other may be but the father of
+the transitory body); but when Viswamitra questioned the noble child, it
+has been told that there was nothing he did not know already. For it is
+related that he was familiar with all that has been written in books or
+told with tongues, even from the number of the spheres and heavenly
+bodies, as also their triangular, square and sextile aspects, to the
+powers of the lowliest worm that creeps upon the earth, unable even to
+raise its head to adore the divine luminaries. There was nothing that
+teacher could teach him, for already he knew all. So Viswamitra heard
+and trembled, and at last, seeing that this matter touched on things
+deep, incomprehensible and wonderful, he prostrated himself before the
+child, and, closing up his books, went his way marvelling.
+
+Yet let it not be thought that the Maharaja Suddhodana could behold
+these portents with a heart of ease, for mingled with all his pride and
+joy was fear. His son moved before him, beautiful exceedingly, perfect
+in duty not only to his father and his foster-mother, Prajapati the fair
+and noble, but also to all with whom he had to do, quick to smile and
+reply, glad in a boy’s sports and games, and yet—apart. As a man,
+looking down through the clear crystal of a lake, may behold beneath it
+groves of strange leafage where silver fish dart and disappear in a life
+unknown to him, so the Maharaja, looking through the translucence of his
+son’s eyes uplifted to his, knew that they revealed yet hid a world in
+which he had no part. And this aloofness grew to be to him a knife
+driven into his very heart. And time passed, and the child became a
+noble youth.
+
+One day the Maharaja sent for his minister, an old man, wise and
+instructed, and to him he said:
+
+“Is all well in the city and the country about it?”
+
+And the old minister, saluting, replied:
+
+“O Maharaj, all is well. And since the birth of your auspicious son how
+could it be otherwise? For it appears that in past times when a child of
+pure brilliancy was born, there prevailed great prosperity, and
+wickedness came to an end. And so it is now.”
+
+And, sighing as if his heart were like to break, the Maharaja replied:
+
+“This is true. And who should rejoice more than I? Yet it is not so, and
+my heart is consumed with anxiety.”
+
+But the minister remained respectfully silent, and the Maharaja
+continued:
+
+“For my son is not as the other young nobles, free and gay and enamoured
+of sports and battle and women, but the opposite—rather enduring than
+sharing the frolics suited to his age; and when I see him meditating
+beneath the rose-laurels and mark his calm, abstracted eyes, it recalls
+to me the saying of the sage Asita, that ‘embarking in the boat of
+wisdom, he shall save the world from peril.’ Now, were this to be the
+wisdom of a great King delivering his people, I might triumph as I did
+in hearing it, but if it is to be the cold wisdom of the Wanderers and
+forest-dwellers, then I desire none of it, for to embark in that boat is
+to be severed from power and from all things dear and desirable to the
+heart of man. What, then, is your counsel?”
+
+And with grief written in his face, the aged minister replied:
+
+“Great sir, who shall challenge Fate and the unwritten laws of the
+Divine? I will own that sometimes in the noble youth’s presence I have
+felt as it were a cold air blowing between him and me, as though he
+stood apart from lesser men. And more than once this thought has
+occurred: Suppose this noble Siddhartha is a Bodhisattva, destined in
+his next re-birth to be a Buddha, how then shall we fight against a
+destiny so great and awful? But yet it may not be thus, and so rarely
+does a Buddha appear upon the earth that there is neither experience nor
+knowledge to guide us.”
+
+And, trembling, the Maharaja replied:
+
+“You voice my very fear. It is certain that many of the predictions
+which my soul applied to earthly glory, may be read otherwise if
+considered. But since I dread this unspeakably and we are by no means
+certain of the end, what is your counsel that we may divert him and so
+fulfil his mind with beauty and bliss, that these cold visions may blow
+away like mists at sunrise and leave him glad?”
+
+Then, smiling subtly, the old man answered:
+
+“There is one way, and one only. For it is acknowledged throughout the
+three worlds that there is no charm of forgetfulness like the beauty of
+a woman. On her bosom the Gods are forgotten and the wisdom of the wise
+is vanity.”
+
+But the Maharaja, with impatience:
+
+“This is true of others, but as for my son, he has seen the loveliest
+face to face and has never turned to look again. Think better, old man.”
+
+And he:
+
+“For the noble, a noble bait. And there is a girl, daughter of the great
+Suprabuddha, young and lovely as the Maiden of the Dawn when she stands,
+rose-fingered, smiling upon the mountain peaks, and this maiden is pure
+in health and person, constant and faithful, cheerful evening and
+morning, one to establish the palace in purity and quiet, full of
+dignity and grace. Among her companions she moves as the queen-swan
+leading the flotilla, with stately neck, yet bowed in humility. For a
+King of all the earth this is a fitting consort. I have made diligent
+inquiry. Her name is Yashodara.”
+
+And the Maharaja replied with joy:
+
+“In this Yashodara may be our deliverance! Send in haste, but with
+dignity, to Suprabuddha her father, and call a gathering at which the
+bridegroom-to-be shall show his strength with bow and sword and horse
+against all rivals, after the manner of the free choice of our women.”
+
+And the old man bowed and went away, smiling, but with a sore doubt at
+his heart—for he also recalled the words and portents of the Prince’s
+birth and dreaded the anger of awful Gods if any should let their
+purpose.
+
+Thus on a certain day the lists were set, and the Sakya lords were
+challenged by the noble Siddhartha to archery, to sword-play and to
+riding, that the maiden, Yashodara, might know she chose no craven to be
+her husband. And all the people crowded to see, some wagering on the
+success of this lord and some on that, but all, on whomsoever they
+wagered, hoping that the son of the good Maharaja might win honour and
+the bride. Yet most believed that the victor would be Devadatta, cousin
+of Siddhartha, a young prince proud and obstinate and amorous and very
+skilful in feats of arms.
+
+It was in the golden silence of very early morning when the people
+crowded to the _maidan_ where all should be done, for the heat of the
+later day forbade it then. So still was it that not a frond of the palms
+stirred nor even a bamboo leaf lifted on the air, and the dew lay bright
+as silver upon grass and flower. So still that the voice of Rohini,
+full-throated from the melting snows, would have filled the quiet but
+for the myriad shufflings of bare feet through the dust and the tinkle
+of litter bells as the hidden beauty and her companions were borne to
+the place of meeting. For her face should not be seen until she made her
+choice.
+
+And all the way was strewn ankle-deep with flowers, as though the
+Spirits of the Air had rained them with both hands upon the glad earth,
+and from their bruised beauty was shed such sweetness on the dew that
+the fragrance rose like incense to greet the lovely ones on their way.
+
+But when the rival lords rode on to the _maidan_ in splendour of armour
+jewelled and inlaid with gold and swords that flashed like lightning
+from the rifts of cloudy mountains, and horses that seemed to spurn the
+ground with their hoofs and desire to ride the air like the very
+coursers of the sun, then the joy of the people so grew that they
+clapped their hands and shouted lustily, for of all things the noble
+fair-skinned Northern peoples love a good man and a good horse, and only
+next to these a beautiful woman. And of the last the most beautiful as
+yet was hidden. So they shouted until their voices were like the noise
+of a great wind and the echoes returned them from far-off heights and
+woods.
+
+And Devadatta rode a horse so black that in the night he seemed a part
+of it, but Siddhartha’s horse was white, proud and great and gentle, and
+his name shall not be forgotten while the round world holds, for he was
+Kantaka—and of him more hereafter. And when the maiden, looking between
+the curtains of her palanquin so that none might know she looked, saw
+the young Sakya lord, her heart left her bosom and fled into his,
+settling there like a bird nestling with feet and wings, for there was
+none like him—none. With calm he sat his horse, awaiting the moment,
+and young he was and slender and like an image of pure gold, and his
+eyes were blue and dark after the manner of his people, and his lips and
+cheek shaped by a great graver. He carried his head as a stag in the
+spring season, and for all his slenderness was he tense and eager as a
+bow in the hand of the Brahma King with the arrow laid on the string.
+And so he waited, and his eyes never sought the palanquin where was
+hidden the Pearl of Victory. And to her sick heart she said:
+
+“He is not mine! He is above me. What woman can cloud the serenity of
+those eyes? How can the fiery dart of Madhu, the God of Love, pierce
+that breast, guarded with the snow of high thoughts? He is a King too
+high for me—too high.”
+
+And it is true that the noble youth thought little of the maiden, but
+much of the great clash with his rivals, for he knew well that Honour
+was the prize of the day and that his father’s heart must needs break if
+he failed before all the Kin of the House and the people.
+
+Now it is certain that of this jousting many tales have grown up, of
+arrows flying miraculously, winged by eager Gods, of sword-strokes such
+as the world has never seen nor shall see, of horses that the Wind, Vaya
+himself, might bestride for swiftness and cruel, dangerous pride. And
+how all this may be I know not, who was not there; but this I know, that
+Siddhartha was better than the best in all the tests, and that the
+people stormed and shouted and laughed and wept, knowing not what they
+did so only they might hail him conqueror, while he stood leaning on his
+sword, breathing lightly and resting, for the first time smiling, a very
+splendid young knight.
+
+And the Maharaja, scarcely daring to look in his son’s face lest he
+should too openly show his pride and joy, said only:
+
+“Son, you have done well.” And, turning, “Bring forth the bride.”
+
+Then all the people were of a sudden silent, that not a word, not a
+sound of that Beautiful should be lost. And they drew back the pictured
+curtains of the litter and she stepped forth, most resembling the silver
+moon floating through clouds to her unveiling and pure radiance, and so
+stood before the people, clad in supple silver that flowed about her
+like water and jewels that dripped glory braided among the silk-soft
+hair that fell to her ankles and crowned her brows. (Yet none could look
+at her splendour, for her face drew the bees of all glances to the honey
+of its sweetness and there held them, dizzy with ecstasy.) Thus, with a
+maiden, only less fair, on either side, she paced towards Siddhartha
+where he sat motionless on his white horse as a man of marble, carrying
+in her hand the Garland of Choosing. And coming before him, she raised
+her eyes to his and stood silent; but her look pleaded.
+
+Then for the first time he knew in the solitude of his heart the drawing
+near of another. And soft spring airs came before her, with the singing
+of mating birds, and pearling of young buds and delicate tremble and
+thrill of life in green silences and all the good things of this world.
+And it troubled his calm, because he knew not what it meant, and it was
+more pain than pleasure. This sweet melody, as it were of flutes and
+lutes, that came from the tattling of her anklets and the rustle of her
+garments, overpowered the austere, high voices that had breathed in his
+ear from birth, and they were silent. Like a man bewildered, he
+dismounted from white Kantaka, with his arm still laid along the noble
+neck, and gazed down upon her, and their looks met and were one.
+
+So she stooped and took the dust from his feet, then rising, stately as
+a young palm-tree, she put the Garland of Choosing about his neck and
+together they faced the shouting people and the rivals, some sullen as
+Devadatta the evil-hearted, some glad in the victory as Ananda the
+Prince, his true cousin.
+
+And of all men who saw that sight be sure that none more beautiful could
+ever meet their eyes than the silver bride hand in hand with the golden
+lover, shining as Surya the Sun rejoicing to run his course; for with
+the touch of her hand, doubt dropped from him like a garment and they
+were submerged, he and she alike, in the joy of the bridegroom and the
+bride.
+
+And the Maharaja, laughing aloud for triumph and gladness, said to the
+old minister:
+
+“We have caught our bird! Thanks be to the God of Love!”
+
+But the old man replied:
+
+“Great sir, it will need the triple cord of love to bind him—your own,
+the wife’s and the child’s. Let us wait. Still are we not secure.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER III
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Time went by, but since he had snared his bird, the Maharaja Suddhodana
+resolved that the fetters should be gilded, and calling his minister
+again, he said to him:
+
+“If a man would cage a bird of heaven (and such, I think, is my son), it
+is necessary that earth should be made heaven, so that no home-sickness
+for the blue heights should take him. And because a young man may weary
+of one woman’s beauty, however beautiful, let fresh faces be found to
+make for him a wreath of such roses of the earth as may intoxicate him
+with its love and perfume. Send north to Savatthi and south to Benares,
+and fetch such beauties, such players on the vina and sitar as sing
+before the high Gods, such dancers as those whose white limbs, melting
+to music, enchant their eyes. Give orders to build him a house for the
+winter, when the snow is blue in the hollows of Himalaya and the rivers
+are locked in his cold heart. See that it be warm and silent and that no
+wind may creep in, and let white furs of snow-leopards, clouded with
+black, lie about it, soft and smooth to the touch, and let there be
+story-tellers to speed the long nights with jest and amorous tale and
+clash of battle. Shut out the cold and terrible moon with close
+lattice-work and rich curtains, for she, remote and small in the blue,
+profound skies, may freeze his soul to the chill calm I fear.”
+
+And the minister, saluting, said:
+
+“All shall be done. And yet——”
+
+“And yet there is more before we may sleep in peace. Build for him also
+a house of spring. Let it be pavilioned, and with little stiff, frilled
+roofs flying outward like the skirts of a dancer when she revolves
+swiftly. On every point set a wind-bell to resemble her anklets and
+armlets in their tinkling, so that the soft breezes from the hills shall
+make an aerial music as they wander about it. Let it appear as if the
+whole were blown together like a cloud on a wind and might be lifted and
+dispersed like thistle-down—a dream of spring.”
+
+And the old wise man saluted, saying:
+
+“It shall be done. And yet——”
+
+“And yet it is not enough,” mused the Maharaja, stroking his great
+beard. “For we must build also a house for summer—to drowse in, dim and
+cool and with long echoing colonnades to catch the faintest breath of
+breeze. Let this house be set in the grass by Rohini, that her liquid
+voice may sing of the snows when the dog-days are sultry. And let it be
+paved with shining stone from the mountains, and the walls be of dark
+cedar, carved wonderfully, and all the windows dimmed and latticed that
+the heats die on the threshold. Choose a place for it where the asoka
+trees are deep with rich leafage and golden blossom, and the neems
+spread their shade and the acacias rain white petals and the champak
+swoons in its heavy sweetness. Let there be a lake, pensive with reeds
+and green reaches, the haunt of swans and cranes and all beautiful water
+birds, and silver rills by which my son may sit and muse if he will,
+until the langour of slowly dropping water shall pass into his veins and
+be a narcotic binding him for ever to long dreaming days and nights, and
+he be utterly content.”
+
+And the old man saluted, saying:
+
+“So it shall be done. Is it also your pleasure, Maharaja, that I set a
+guard at the gate of the park of the three Pleasure Houses?”
+
+And he answered:
+
+“It is my pleasure. And now I will visit my son’s wife and hear her
+mind.”
+
+So he went to the place of the women in the great house. And his
+presence being told to Yashodara, she came before him, sweet as the star
+of evening bathed in rosy vapours, for a dress fell about her coloured
+as though dipped in the blood of red roses and bound with gold that,
+winding spirally upward round her lovely limbs and bosom, embraced them,
+drawing the eye to the slender curves, and she wore no jewels but only
+the great rings in her ears sparkling with fiery gems. And he drew her
+to his feet and she sat on a cushion beside him, looking upward with
+duty and affection, waiting for the favour of his speech. And at last,
+having observed the delicate sweetness of her face and her grace and
+majesty, he said, sighing:
+
+“Noble daughter, you have now been wedded to my son, Siddhartha, for six
+months. Is all well with you?”
+
+And, stooping to touch his feet, she replied:
+
+“Great father, all is well. And I did not know that in all the world
+there was such joy as I share night and day with my dear lord. For
+beyond all beauty he is beautiful and beyond all goodness, good, and his
+gentleness of speech is not like that of a woman, but with strength
+behind it like Himalaya when he smiles in sunshine. And yet——”
+
+The words stopped like hovering birds on her sweet lips and her fine
+brows drew together as she meditated. And the Maharaja, drawing his hand
+from her head, leaned forward to look into her eyes.
+
+“Daughter, have you a doubt—and what is it?”
+
+She, lovely and submissive, made haste to answer:
+
+“Great lord, all is pure joy, and yet——”
+
+And he, in great anger, so that she shrank down, veiling her face with
+her hands:
+
+“And yet! When I command my minister to surround my son with all joy
+wherewith to bind and hold him, he obeys, but ends always with ‘And
+yet—’ as though some mystery surrounded him! And you, that should
+triumph in pride and joy, say the like. My son is fair and free and
+noble and sharer in my riches and pride. What is this miserable ‘And
+yet—’ that mocks my hope? Speak out, woman, and tell me what is in your
+heart.”
+
+And, kindling her courage at his sternness, the wife of Siddhartha
+looked at him with clear, unsullied eyes.
+
+“Father, all I have said is truth, but there is also this. In the midst
+of rejoicings of song and when the women dance before him and the feast
+is spread and the great fruits, cooled with snow, and purple wines in
+cut crystal cups are set to his hand, then often I know that though his
+fair body is among us, his soul is escaped and fled away.”
+
+And in her eyes two tears gathered and stood but did not fall.
+
+And he, with anger:
+
+“Would it not be thought a woman should know her business! For what is
+beauty but to hold a man prisoner to the senses? And you are beautiful
+as the woman the high Gods made with flowers—how then do you fail? Does
+he not love you?”
+
+“Sir, he loves me. But not me only. He loves something that I know not,
+and his thought flies away to it as a dove flies home.”
+
+And he said:
+
+“True, true! It is true. What is this thing? For I, too, have felt it.
+When I have spoken of wealth and power and pride, I have known that as
+you, daughter, say, his soul is escaped and gone, I cannot tell where.
+But have no fear. Tell me only this—has never a word, never a sight of
+sorrow crept into the paradises I have made for him?”
+
+And she answered:
+
+“Not one. All is joy unceasing.”
+
+“And no sign of age, of sickness, of death? For, as I have told you, he
+must not know that these things are, and until he passed into your
+keeping, the secret was well guarded.”
+
+And she replied gravely:
+
+“The secret is well guarded. He does not know. When he speaks, it is of
+an eternity of delight and of nothing else. And yet—if I may speak and
+live——”
+
+And he said:
+
+“Speak. Even in the words of women there is sometimes wisdom, and you
+are a pearl among women.”
+
+“Great lord, is it possible to strive against the high Gods? For they
+have appointed death and sickness and grief to be our lot, and it may be
+that the very joy of life is the greater because we know it is brief.
+Children suck sugar-cane until they sicken, and may not grown man and
+woman weary of sweet things, desiring to match their fortitude against
+grief? And he is great of soul.”
+
+Then he would not look at her for anger, saying:
+
+“Folly and double folly—woman’s madness! Have you not heard the saying
+of the wise, that if ever he hears tell of age and sickness and death,
+his doom is sealed? And mine with it—and mine with it! For I love my
+son.”
+
+Then the great tears overflowed her eyes and ran down like a stream at
+the thaw.
+
+“Forgiveness!” she cried. “Forgiveness! for I love my husband, and if
+this unknown sweetness capture and carry him from me, what good should
+my life do me? But now, most honoured father of my lord, I have a
+hope—a hope! Will a child’s hand hold him?”
+
+And even as the words left her lips, he caught her two hands and gazed
+deep into her eyes and triumphed. And he said:
+
+“Daughter, you are hope, and your words a cup in the desert! For,
+knowing what my son is to me, I know that those hands will hold him when
+yours and mine drop helpless. Go back to him and tell him, and to the
+great Gods do I give thanks because my prayers and sacrifices have not
+run to waste but are rewarded!”
+
+And as she knelt before him, the tears rolled down his cheeks for
+gladness, nor could he hide them, as a warrior should.
+
+And, beautiful as a rainbow flowering against a black cloud, the
+Princess returned to the carved chamber of cedar with its lattices set
+wide to the perfumed air of summer. Beneath and around them the ivory
+chalices of the frangipani blossoms and starred clouds of jasmine
+offered warm incense to the sun and all was calm as ecstasy, as though
+the world, captured by the power of Yoga, were in ecstasy, dreaming with
+open eyes upon Perfection. The leaves of deep-foliaged trees floated on
+air in absolute stillness, swimming, silent, in liquid gold, and below
+the shades of the gardens gleamed Rohini, she also dancing no longer as
+in spring, but calm and silent as the meditation of a saint, pursuing
+her shining way in a deep quiet.
+
+There, seated beneath a neem tree, in the green bower of its heart, the
+Princess beheld Siddhartha as he sat with his feet folded and his hands
+lying upon his knees. And as she watched, kneeling by the lattice, he
+stirred no more than a noble image of himself made in gold and there was
+that in his calm that struck her soul with fear. Then presently,
+gathering courage from knowledge of the gladness she bore within her,
+she rose, and folding the gold sari about her brows, she went with
+rose-leaf footsteps through the House of Joy, passing those palace rooms
+where the fair women talked and sang and made low music with their vinas
+and sitars, eating fruits cooled in blocks of ice from the mountains and
+laughing with each other as though joy could never cease nor death wreck
+youth and life, for it seemed that the secret of the house held them
+also and that they, like the Prince, believed that these things were
+immortal.
+
+But Yashodara, going through the garden ways, past groups of tall
+flowers bee-haunted, flickered about by rose-coloured and black
+butterflies, caught wafts of varying perfumes, like strains of music
+through the opening and closing of celestial doors, so sweet was the
+world that day. The jewelled peacock and his wife led forth their train
+of little ones to pace in deep grass and silver pheasants went daintily
+in the plumed shades of the bamboo and their young followed rejoicing in
+life and warmth and plenty, and birds hidden in high branches sang as if
+never they would cease, and above all floated the blue sky—a blue pure
+and strong as that of the infinite ocean, and life and love wandered
+hand in hand along the blossomed earth in sunlight like clear water. So
+though her secret winged her feet the Princess must needs pause here and
+there to share with all these living creatures the wine of joy poured
+from the sun’s brimming cup, and her soul gladdened within her in the
+youth of the world. And at last with steps light as the fall of a petal
+she approached the great neem tree and stood and looked into its shade.
+
+Now here was an extraordinary stillness as though an arresting finger
+were laid upon the pulse of life, but not wholly silencing it, for from
+a fern-fringed spring there fell at regular intervals a bright drop of
+water marking time into divisions lest it should wholly slip into
+Eternity and be lost. And the shade within was deep and green making a
+soft dusk at noon, and through the shade could be seen the great spires
+of silver mountains ecstatic in blue air and resembling the highest
+reach of the aspiration of man arrested on the verge of comprehension.
+
+Very still in green shade sat the son of the Maharaja, his hands, palm
+upward, laid empty upon his knees, his eyes fixed on the everlasting
+hills, neither joy nor trouble upon calm brows, lost in meditation so
+deep that it walled him as in crystal from the fair shows around, and
+her coming was nothing to him for he neither saw nor heard it.
+
+Then a wave of anguish rose in her bosom and swelled until it spilt in
+salt and bitter water from her eyes, and she could not restrain herself
+from that forbidden show of sorrow and putting aside the boughs she ran
+to him and fell at his knees and laid her head upon them, sobbing. And
+with a long sigh he awoke and looked down upon her, smiling.
+
+“What is it, wife, and why do your eyes run like Rohini. Is it a new
+gladness beyond gladness? And why are you so glad?”
+
+Weeping and sobbing she hid her fair face upon his knees, clasping them
+passionately, her words stumbling from her lips in agony.
+
+“It is not gladness, O heart of my heart. It is grief.”
+
+And he, from the inward Kingdom of Calm.
+
+“And what is grief, my lotus flower?”
+
+For in all his life he had neither heard the word nor seen the thing and
+she spoke an unknown language. And as she sobbed on, he lifted her face
+gently in his two hands and looked at her closed eyelids, the lashes wet
+and matted on her cheek with running tears, she pale as death, the rich
+colour dead in her lips, and on his beautiful face was amazement and no
+more, for how could he pity who had lived only in the presence of joy?
+And at last he said very slowly as if bewildered:
+
+“My rose, my delight, what is this new thing, and what have you to tell
+me? Speak that I may rejoice also.”
+
+And his words stung some terror in her because he could not understand
+and it seemed that she must bear the burden of grief and the hidden
+secret of the world’s woe not only for him and herself, but for all the
+earth. For from any creature born human, though young and beautiful and
+a Prince, it may well seem a daring too great for mortals to deny grief
+and affront sorrow and to shut the door in their grey faces—knowing
+them waiting and watching outside. So the words broke from her sobbing
+lips:
+
+“This morning I woke, and in the august quiet of the dawn I knew that my
+hope of hopes was given to me and my joy brimmed and sparkled in the cup
+of jewelled gold from the Gods, and I would have turned then into my
+lord’s breast to tell of it, but that night you had not passed with me
+but in the chamber of deodar, so I lay and dreamed awake, lost in bliss
+until they brought me word that our father would speak with me, and I
+went.”
+
+“But all this was good, my lily swaying on blue waters. And what was
+your hope?” he said with a hand coming and going softly in her hair, and
+the monotony and gentleness of his touch soothed her like the
+immeasurable falling of far-distant water—no louder than the humming of
+a bee. And drawing more quiet breath, she continued:
+
+“Our father asked me, lord of my soul, whether still you escaped away in
+soul from all the love and laughter about you. For when this is so, is
+it not that we fail to make you glad, and am not I, your wife, the worst
+sinner? O heart of my heart, what more is there that we have not done?
+Tell me, I beseech you.”
+
+And he answered, “Nothing,” looking above her head to the heights.
+
+Passionately she caught his hands in hers.
+
+“Then, O beloved, if we have done all and fail, _what_ is it that draws
+you from me? What is your soul’s desire? When our father, believing a
+man might weary of my poor beauty, sought out new faces for the Painted
+Chambers, did I weep? I smiled, though—But no, I will not say it. If it
+was your pleasure, what should I be but glad? But still you were drawn
+from us, and it has been a terror that bit into my soul, when waking in
+a white moonlight, I have seen you sitting with alien eyes fixed upon
+the great march of the stars. And yet I have kept silence. But now, lord
+of my life I ask this—where is it your soul goes, and to whom?”
+
+Her hands, hot with the fever of the soul, pleaded for her, clasping
+his. Her dark eyes heavy with tears entreated mercy. He answered
+gravely:
+
+“I go to my own people.”
+
+“And we are not your own people? Beloved, beloved—Your words are
+swords, who then are your own?”
+
+“I cannot tell.”
+
+Her hope forgotten, the Princess knelt beside him.
+
+“O noble one, is it life or death that draws you?”
+
+“I cannot tell. What is death? But life such as this is weariness
+inexpressible, and how men endure it I cannot know. Without change,
+break, or ripple the sunshiny days glide past, each bringing in its
+hands the same offering of love and peace monotonous as a dove’s cooing.
+My life is without hope, for, having all, what is there to hope for? And
+what I have is over-sweet. It cloys in the tasting like honey. And the
+Brahmans make their sacrifices and mutter their mantras of invocation
+and propitiation, and for what? For if we have all, what more is there
+to have, and why pray for what is unneeded? If this Paradise over-sweet
+can never crack asunder; if ages and ages hence we still shall sit here
+young and beautiful as to-day,—the Gods have emptied their hands and
+what have they left to give? And if we do amiss, how shall they punish
+us? And will not the day come when I may lift up my hand to the
+mountains and curse them, saying—‘Be at ease in your careless heavens,
+O unapproachable Gods,—but I am a man with a soul not to be captured
+and tamed in earth’s paddock. I demand my rights, though what they are I
+know not, for I move in a perfumed cloud that blinds me. But I shall
+know one day.’”
+
+She looked up at him in fear that forbade speech.
+
+“I hear the noise of hammers outside the gardens, the cry of the
+plougher, the song of the maids who come home with cattle from the outer
+meadows. And I say that these people have lives better than mine, and if
+I could change I would, for sweet must be their sleep and glad their
+leisure, but for me life is all idleness and sleep, and their eternity
+is better than my own. I will ask my father to let me too go out and
+labour in the glad world outside this prison, that buys its food with
+happy toil, that I too may know what it is to eat the bread I have
+earned in contentment.”
+
+Pale with fear Yashodara answered:
+
+“But, lord of my life, how is it known to you that their life is all
+good? Is it possible to envy what you know not?”
+
+“I know that with them life is eternal as with me and doubtless joy
+perpetual. But to this they add useful toil that gives us our luxuries.
+All these fair things about us are made by the hands of free men
+rejoicing in beauty. And I make nothing. I pass from one enjoyment to
+another, fettered—a winged bird in a jewelled cage. Are they not
+happier than I? And you, sweet wife,—what joy have you in comforting
+the long hours of a slave?”
+
+She kissed his hands with passion, her black hair falling silken about
+his feet.
+
+“It is I that am the slave, my King—the happy slave of your beauty and
+nobleness, and what could I ask but to wait eternally upon your pleasure
+and that of your son.”
+
+He turned his eyes gravely upon her.
+
+“My son?” he said. And she:
+
+“It is true—it is true. And it is because I bear this hope in my bosom
+that it pierces me like a sword to see your calm averted eyes and know
+you far away in that strange heaven where I cannot follow. O, my lord,
+if it be true that you have alien kindred I cannot reach, let your son
+be of them. Give him all good!”
+
+Then stooping, he drew her head to his breast and put his arm about her
+and drew her gently until she sat upon his left knee—that throne of the
+Indian wife, and thus they remained awhile in silence, and his touch was
+better than speech and his quiet healing as moonlight. Nor did she miss
+words of love or rejoicing for his calm folded her in the very wings of
+peace. At long last he spoke:
+
+“My Pearl of Perfectness, we two are one, and of our true oneness
+springs this new delight. To me the hope is sweeter than all harps
+touched in the hollow of Heaven, and if you were dear to me before,
+judge how dear now. But since we are so one, come nearer, share my
+thought as well as my heart. Does it content you that we should bring
+into our prison another prisoner and one so dear? Here the days slip by
+uncounted—a chain of fadeless flowers. Here the river links its long
+silver thought for ever and ever down the channel from the peaks. Here
+the bright birds flash by eternally. Will they people the garden to
+overflowing with their beauty or do they fly away to freer lands as I
+would if I could? When this garden is full of our children and theirs,
+what then? Am I the only prisoner or they also? _What_ is the secret my
+father holds from me?”
+
+But she, trembling, could answer nothing. And again there was silence
+and only the bright slow dropping of the little spring, and her heart
+forboded sorrow.
+
+“O day of joy made bitter with fear!” it said within her.
+
+And again he fell into deep cold meditation, and forgot her utterly and
+his arm relaxed and slipping fell beside him, and she crept from his
+knee, and he did not know, staring with lost eyes toward the stainless
+heavens. And for awhile she stood and watched unnoticed, and then crept
+shuddering away.
+
+And beneath the shade of the neem Siddhartha sat motionless until the
+rays from the low sun struck high up the tree trunks, and sunset
+followed, a breath of rose on a rainbow sky, and presently the moon rose
+unclouded in luminous loveliness and floated to the zenith, and all
+boughs dropped dew, and the mountains were lost in stars.
+
+Nor did any dare to break his dream.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Time went by, each day sweet as new honey dripping golden from a golden
+comb, sweet, inexpressibly sweet, and the Princess, moving languidly,
+trembling with hope mingled with doubt and fear, would tell only her
+joys to the Maharaja Suddhodana and not her fears. For what help was
+there in him? He could not strengthen the guarding gates for they were
+strong and armed men watched by them, nor the walls, for they were high,
+and observed from watch-towers. And yet, day by day and night by night
+the spirit of Siddhartha had passed invisible between the swords and
+unsleeping eyes.
+
+But since the hope of the Princess was made known to him, he shut
+himself within the great gardens in spirit also. There should no cloud
+dim the eyes of the mother of his son—flowers must bud and blossom in
+her heart as about her slender feet, and no thought but peace and
+security creep into her Paradise. And little by little, as a wild deer
+glimpsing through the green flies in terror, yet may be slowly won with
+patience and tenderness till it will browse the rose-leaves in a girl’s
+hand, so was the fear of the Princess put to sleep, and a low song of
+joy and immeasurable thankfulness made music in her heart like the
+summer voice of Rohini after the melting of the snows—when the river is
+little and peaceful.
+
+And one day the Maharaja came to visit her in the cool chamber of roses
+looking toward the north and the eternal mountains and found her
+stringing jade and crystal and amber on a fine golden cord, while ladies
+sat about her plucking rose petals for paste of roses, and there was a
+sound of far music in the gardens and looking through the lattice he saw
+Siddhartha with his best and dearest cousin, the Prince Ananda, shooting
+with bow and arrow in a wide meadow by the river, and Devadatta and
+another of the Sakya lords stood by, and the young men laughed and
+shouted, and their voices came small and clear with distance, so that
+the heart of the King exulted and he triumphed as he seated himself on
+the golden and peacock cushions, dismissing the women.
+
+“We have conquered, lovely one!” he said, laughing kindly in his black
+beard. “What neither I nor all my sages could do your small wise hands
+have done, for in them the mother of his child holds my son’s heart. I
+knew—I foretold, it must be so, for he is loving and good and all the
+pieties of life hold him like bands of iron. You are content?”
+
+And she smiling.
+
+“Noble father, I am content. I have no more ‘And yets’ with which to
+wound your ear. My lord leaves me neither by night or day, except when I
+entreat him to try his strength with Ananda and Devadatta and the Sakya
+lords. And this is wisdom. We strained too tight upon the fetters and
+they ate into his soul. This freedom among the young lords is well. My
+noble father, I entreat you to give him what liberty you can, for it is
+good. Never now do I see him submerged in the cold dreams that stole him
+from us. Those strange voices call him no more, the hands have ceased to
+beckon. He is ours—yours and mine and the child’s, and of the child is
+all his talk and thought. He shall ride with sword and lance and be a
+King of Kings. So we say—one to the other.”
+
+She looked up with tears of pure joy trembling like shed diamonds on her
+long black lashes, and the Maharaja, grave with delight, replied:
+
+“So it shall be! What!—the kingdom of Maghada is ruled by a foolish
+man—the King Bimbisara,—why shall not my son oust him as we gather
+strength? Ha! are not we too of the Arya—the great fighting people, and
+may not one elephant subdue another! Daughter, I would have you breathe
+these things in my son’s ear, and thrill him with hope of great
+splendours for the child.”
+
+She answered eagerly.
+
+“Father, I have done—I do it. I say each day—‘Give him his
+inheritance, my lord. Let all good that you gain be his, for he is yours
+and ours,’ and always he replies: ‘Could I find the whole world’s Pearl
+it would be for my great father, for you and for the child. Be content,
+wife, for my heart is with my own people.’”
+
+And as she spoke his words the tears of gladness brimmed and fell on the
+crystals and jade and amber in her golden lap and the Raja clapped his
+hands together and shouted for joy.
+
+“Ha, ha! we have won him! O auspicious daughter, dip your hands in my
+treasury and take at your will. What reward is enough for your beauty
+and wisdom? But now be cautious”—[There he became grave and
+weighty]—“guard your health and your person as the deposit of a King,
+and all shall be well. And the day is not far distant when we shall
+laugh at the sickly foretelling that said if he saw death, pain or old
+age he would flee into the jungle. What! Shall not my son have strength
+to face the common lot of man like a great King! But not yet—not yet!
+We will go warily.”
+
+And the wise Princess saw that beneath his triumph he was not even yet
+wholly reassured. But she herself was content.
+
+So when Siddhartha returned flushed and gay from riding and shooting by
+the parks of Rohini with the great bow in his hand and quiver at his
+shoulder, a glittering glorious young warrior, she clung about him
+shining with bliss so that it appeared that visible rays surrounded her
+as they do the Dawn Maiden when she, standing, flings her golden arrows
+about the world from the peaks of Himalaya. And with his arms about her
+in their chamber of marble he said:
+
+“And is my dove content? And is life good?” and she replied:
+
+“Most utterly content. If life is good to my lord it is delight to me.
+But you, O, heart’s dearest—and are you not content? See how the world
+is white with blossom dropping perfumed dew, and the blue birds flash
+through them, and there is piping and singing and the flutter of wings
+through all the happy gardens and the humming of black bees mad for
+honey. And this morning as I walked with Gautami the slender-waisted,
+close, close hidden in the jasmin flowers I found a small nest—small
+and heart-holding and in it four blue jewels of eggs warm from the
+mother’s breast—warm as love and home, and blue as the skies, and I
+looked and said—‘One, two, three, four. This is a prophecy. These are
+the three sons and the one daughter I shall bear to my lord.
+First—three sons, one by one, and then a daughter so lovely that all
+Kings of the earth shall desire her, and the three strong brothers shall
+guard her beauty—that is fit only for the enjoyment of the King of the
+Three Worlds! And we will hide this lovely one in the heart of the
+gardens until he comes. Now, since I have seen this portent, four there
+must be. Less there cannot. But possibly more!’”
+
+And she leaned back, flashing the sunshine of her eyes in his, and he
+laughed back holding her by the two hands, half dazzled with her beauty
+and gladness.
+
+“This is life,” he said—“and the cold dreams are gone. They rose like
+mists from Rohini in autumn mornings—and in the rising of the sun they
+disperse. And the coming of my son has driven them into the night where
+they belong.”
+
+Therefore great gladness reigned in the House of Gardens and doubt was
+forgotten, and in his pride, willing to make his son more free and yet
+security more secure, the Maharaja made another and most beautiful
+garden across the city where Siddhartha might take his pleasure if he
+wearied of the Gardens of Rohini, and the Princess approved this with
+her wisdom, saying: “We must stretch the tether, lest the bird guess he
+is not free to fly into the distances.”
+
+And this was a most exquisite garden, with great pools and lakes where
+white cranes stood meditating all day among blue lotus blossoms—the
+very essence of the blue of the waters, and it was made a Paradise where
+none might take life or harm the creatures of earth or air or water, and
+the wild swans floated as pure and fearless upon those lakes as upon the
+bosom of holy Manasa in the sky-uplifted bosom of the mountains, and the
+deer were not shy but walked beside men, and with great eyes, silent
+though full of speech, told them the hidden histories of their wild
+hearts.
+
+And on a certain day Siddhartha sent a message to his father.
+
+“Great father, if my Paradise is ready, give me permission to drive
+through the city to-morrow that I may enjoy it with my cousins Ananda
+and Devadatta and the Sakya lords.”
+
+And the answer returned was “To-morrow,” and that night Siddhartha
+passed with his wife Yashodara in a pavilion of Chinese silks with blue
+and gold dragons by the banks where Rohini wandered among her reeds
+singing a little song of sleep, and as the orange sunset faded into grey
+a few large stars came out, and swam in immeasurable deeps above them.
+And she said, holding his hand:
+
+“How beautiful—how beautiful is the coming of the night with all the
+stars caught like bees in her net of blue,—and is it not strange, O
+lord of my life, to think that long ages after we and our love are
+forgotten other lovers shall sit by this little river and see the night
+glide down the mountains scattering stars about the world like seeds of
+light. Shall we see, shall we know, in those cold other lives they
+promise?”
+
+And he in great astonishment:
+
+“Forgotten? In what age to come shall you not still be loveliest and
+gentlest, Queen of the whole earth for beauty? Then, as now, shall men
+come to happy Kapila because the city holds the most beautiful as the
+shell its pearl. How should we be forgotten?”
+
+And for a moment cold fear crept by her like the silent passing of a
+snake, compelling her to remember that the truth was shut from those
+dear eyes, light of her life,—and she brushed it from her and said
+laughing.
+
+“True—who should forget us? I dream sometimes that of all names in the
+world my lord’s shall be greatest, uplifted, splendid, like that great
+star throbbing upon the topmost peak of all, and men shall bow down and
+do homage to it not only in the land of the Sakyas and in Maghada and
+Kosala, but in the wide great world among strange people who send us
+their treasures but whose very names we cannot utter.”
+
+“And you have dreamed this, beloved? And how?”
+
+“I have dreams that beat in my ears and their sound goes over the
+mountains, north and south and east and west. And the sun is dimmed with
+fumes of incense offered to a great King. And I see golden palaces like
+the sands of all the rivers for number, with my lord sitting throned
+beneath them in gold—palaces innumerable, and flowers cast in heaps to
+exhale their perfume. And all this in my lord’s honour. This have I
+dreamed four times.”
+
+And he said, slowly:
+
+“It is my dream also. Certainly the Gods come in dream. But who can say?
+See, beloved, how the night, mother of men, brings us her dark reposes
+lulling all things to sleep. There is no moon, but strange spirits as
+white as moonbeams moving among the trees. Sing low to me, beloved, sing
+low. I would not see their eyes—they look upon me with thoughts I
+cannot read. Sing to me—fill my eyes with the love in yours. Sing!”
+
+And she took her sitar of ebony and ivory and sang softly as Rohini that
+made a silver music at their feet.
+
+But there was a seal upon her lips that she might not sing of love
+though love was beside her, for the awe of the mountains was heavy on
+them and the listening of night. Therefore she sang these words, but no
+louder than a bee hovering about a flower.
+
+ “The wild swans rise from earth,
+ Strong in the path of the sun.
+ How should it give them mirth
+ With his great day begun?
+ Upward the white wings fly,
+ Clouds in the bluest blue,
+ Far they soar—and high!—
+ Would I might follow too.”
+
+And again after awhile she sang a great hymn of the ancient Scripture
+but lower still:
+
+ “Though difference be none, I am of Thee,
+ Not Thou, O Lord, of me.
+ For of the sea is verily the wave,
+ Not of the wave the sea.”
+
+And there was silence, and he turned and laid his cheek to hers and they
+sat together long, gazing speechless at the marvel of the starry deeps.
+Nor did they know that their last night of peace was with them.
+
+Meanwhile the commands of the Maharaja went out into every street and
+house of Kapila.
+
+“To-morrow the chariot of my son goes through the streets to the
+Paradise of Pleasure. See and beware that no aged man or woman be abroad
+in the city, for my son’s eyes must behold no aged, sick or dead person.
+It is forbidden by the Powers that rule his destiny. Therefore let none
+but healthy, glad and beautiful persons fall in his way, for if
+otherwise the transgressor must die.”
+
+And there was not a soul in the place but heard this command and
+touching their foreheads murmured, “It is an order.” And men, women and
+children ran busily here and there garlanding the happy streets, and
+they set up poles gilded and painted and with gay fluttering banners.
+And dwarfed trees after the Chinese manner were placed along the roads,
+and there were hanging canopies of blue and rose silk, and magnificent
+tapestries were hung from the windows, until the city shone beautiful as
+the Paradise of the Gods on the holy mountain Sumeru, and bands of
+children running like the lesser angels strewed flowers through all the
+ways where Siddhartha should pass.
+
+Then steadily as the running of a river the people poured in from the
+country-side to see their young Prince, and the ways were gay with happy
+folk dressed in their best and garlanded with garlands of marigolds and
+little rosebuds scented with fragrant oils to increase their own
+fragrance. The towers were filled with men and women clustering like
+bees. The mounds by the trees, the windows and terraces—were thronged
+with eager persons,—the men looking sharply about them to see that
+nothing was left which might offend the eyes of the heir. And there was
+nothing, for in bright sunshine, tempered by a cool breath from the
+mountains none but happy and beautiful people with their children
+rejoiced and were glad.
+
+Now see the glorious chariot of ivory inlaid with gold made ready by the
+gate of the Garden House, fronted with jewels glittering in the bright
+challenging sunbeams, spread with noble silks flowered with gold, and
+drawn by four equal-pacing stately horses, white as the ivory they drew,
+and harnessed with splendour,—their pride subdued to the pride of their
+master. And beside them stood Channa, the charioteer, a young man well
+born and noble in mind and person.
+
+So having saluted his wife, the Princess Yashodara, the Prince
+Siddhartha advancing ascended the chariot, robed in gold and jewels and
+appearing like Surya the sun when he blazes at his zenith, and all
+veiled their eyes from his brilliance.
+
+And as he came through the streets, his horses pacing gently, the people
+swayed toward him and a whisper of awe and delight ran through them like
+the breathing of a breeze that blows the blossoms in passing.
+
+Looking upon them his heart exulted with joy and kindness, for he
+thought—“This is my city of delight. These are my people, and it shall
+eternally be my bliss to do them good. Look at the strong fathers
+holding up their little sweet children to see their Prince. Their hearts
+are full of love even as my own. Look at the lovely mothers with their
+babes in warm bosoms—only less fair than Yashodara, and full of love
+and gentleness. And the glorious young men straight and tall, and the
+antelope-eyed girls with silken hair braided with blossoms. The Gods
+know it is a happy world with all these noble creatures in it, and my
+sick dreams of I know not what are dispersed in this bliss and the great
+joy of my people.”
+
+And he saluted with his hands, smiling right and left that none might be
+forgotten, and sometimes from the chariot he took an armful of flowers
+and tossed them lightly among the crowd and they were gathered up with
+delight and pressed to eager lips and brows because they had touched the
+Prince’s hand. So he went through the city, marvelling why his father
+had forbidden it hitherto. And as he flung his last handful of flowers
+the appointed moment struck—predestined by the Rulers,—and across the
+way of the chariot staggered an old, old man, and the stately stallions
+arched white necks and tossed their heads in disdain at this revolting
+sight, for they too had beheld nothing but loveliness until that moment.
+
+And because the commands of the Maharaja were stern it is said that this
+figure was no mortal man but a divinity hidden in flesh whom none could
+let or hinder and that the myriad people of Kapila saw nothing of
+this—but two saw clearly—the Prince and the charioteer, Channa. And
+how this may be I cannot tell. Thus have I heard.
+
+And the aged man with tattered white hair depending from his bleached
+and bony head like lichen from a stricken tree, supporting his painful
+steps on a stick, weak, imbecile, skinny jaw fallen disclosing toothless
+gums, eyes red and bleared, without lashes, and moisture oozing from
+them, drawing oppressed and painful breath and terror-stricken amidst
+the crowds, tottered across the flowery way and sank, heaped and huddled
+beside the chariot, casting a look of terror upon the radiant Prince,
+and mumbling and muttering what none could hear, his head shaking like a
+leaf in wind. And it was as if darkness and terror obliterated the sun
+and all the crowded people bowed forward to see the stopping of the
+chariot, breathlessly remembering the Maharaja’s commands, but none
+stirred in his place and even the children were dumb. And yet they had
+seen nothing but the face of the Prince with a shadow fallen upon it.
+And the Prince laid his hand on the reins and the horses stopped with
+drooped crests, and shaken with horror he cried aloud to the charioteer:
+
+“Channa, what is it? What is this man? If indeed man it be.”
+
+And the old man crouched there, muttering, and great fear held Channa
+silent, and again the Prince cried aloud:
+
+“What is it? What is it?”
+
+And again the crowd sighed like the first stirring of winter answer from
+Channa’s lips where he stood, bowed over the golden reins grasped in his
+hand.
+
+“Prince, this is an old man. This is old age.” And a long sighing sob
+commoved the crowded people as though their doom were pronounced, when
+they heard.
+
+But the Prince, the words almost dying on his lips, said trembling.
+
+“What is old age? Was this unhappy one born so, or has it fallen as a
+judgment from Heaven?”
+
+And again the crowd sighed like the first stirring of winter winds and
+Channa, face hidden, replied:
+
+“Prince, he was not so born, nor is it the Gods’ anger, but this is the
+common lot and to every man born on earth it comes nor can it be
+escaped. This ruin of a man was once a child at his mother’s breast, and
+then a boy filled with laughter and sportive gaiety, a joy to see and
+hear. Later, a youth, beautiful, amorous and brave, such as attended on
+bliss, and in enjoyment of the Five Pleasures. But old age, dogging the
+steps of men as a hound with fell teeth, has dragged him down at last
+and had its will of him, and he lives a life of pain and men avoid him
+and women pass him by.”
+
+And some women in the crowd wept aloud, and the air was heavy with
+sighing and the old man moaned and muttered with toothless jaws.
+
+But the Prince, still unbelieving and trembling said:
+
+“And will this doom come upon my great father?
+
+“Noble sir, yes.”
+
+“And upon the beauty of—my ladies?”
+
+“Even so.”
+
+“And upon me.”
+
+And there was a fearful silence like death among the crowd and no word
+from Channa so that had a breath stirred in the palms it would have
+affrighted the soul.
+
+Then suddenly the Prince cried aloud:
+
+“Turn back the chariot. What heart have I for pleasures! Tear down the
+garlands. Where is there room for joy! I have seen what I have seen.”
+
+And, wordless, Channa turned the white horses, and guided the chariot
+along the way it came and the people fell back to make way, and men and
+women hid their faces like mourners for it seemed as though in the
+knowledge of the Prince knowledge had come to them also of the terror of
+life and the doom inevitable.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V
+
+
+NOW when Siddhartha returned to the Garden House, one ran before him and
+told the women what had occurred and the ladies bore the news to the
+Princess where she waited, and when she heard it she said:
+
+“O ill-foreboding heart of mine! Did I not know that the anger of the
+Gods must burn against those who would conceal their righteous doom from
+any man born upon this cruel earth? For who can fight with fate? If this
+drives my lord to despair, what shall be done?”
+
+So she sent messages to the Maharaja telling him the danger and went
+forth into the Painted Hall to seek the Prince, and he sat there alone,
+surrounded by lovely images painted upon the walls, where joy and
+triumph and love clasped hands, and dancing limbs shone amongst flowers
+and all the world was white with spring.
+
+Now something in his eyes held his wife from him and she had no courage
+to draw near, and went and sat herself humbly on the ground before him
+but at a distance, and at last he said:
+
+“This was the secret. You knew it and did not tell me.”
+
+And in the hall was no sound.
+
+“You saw me fed with lies such as these—” (and he flung out his arm
+against the pictures) “and you did not tell me they were the mask of
+horror.” She bowed her head upon her hands speechless.
+
+“And I, most pitiable, most ignorant, rejoiced that a son should be
+given to me, not knowing that such a one is born to a heritage of
+wretchedness and the inevitable approach of shame and ruin. And from
+this is no escape, for the Gods have appointed no end to our misery, no
+door from the prison, but we must live eternally and horribly, old and
+disgraced in body and mind. Could a man but end it and fall into the
+dark and be forgotten! O had I known, no child of mine should ever have
+felt the whip and dragged the chain. I will not blame you who are but a
+woman,—but my father—my father.”
+
+And in the hall was no sound at all. And the Princess, hiding her face,
+thought, “Shall I tell him of the end—of Death?” But she dared not.
+
+And he called aloud for the women and said:
+
+“Deface these pictures for they are lies, and the sight of them turns
+the knife in the wound. Blot them out with blackness.”
+
+So it was done, but the Maharaja in terror bade them redouble the
+pleasures of the Paradise and of the Garden House. And at great cost he
+bought a fair slave from the outlands, golden-haired as dawn,
+sapphire-eyed as blue ice of the Himalaya, white as the elephants’ tusk,
+skilled in all arts of love, and among the darker beauties of the
+pleasure chambers she moved radiant as though day had broken forth in
+starry midnight, and all the neighbouring Kings hearing were envious.
+And in this beauty all hoped, even the sad Yashodara, and her heart
+failed her when she saw the Prince’s eyes coldly averted from loveliness
+that might have stirred the eternal Gods. And again she sent a message
+to the Maharaja.
+
+“Your son, my lord, will not look upon the beautiful white stranger nor
+on any. O send him forth in freedom, for penned in these sweet gardens
+he muses and meditates and what is in his heart I cannot know, but fear
+very terribly. Yet guard the way that no sad sight approach him, for if
+he sees more all is lost.”
+
+And again orders were given, and as before the Prince set forth, but
+this time grave and sad, and the crowds shared his mood and the city
+could not rejoice.
+
+And as they neared the street all a-flutter with banners and flowers and
+perfumes and thronged with silent gazing thousands again a divinity
+masked his divinity in tortured flesh (thus it is told), and by the way
+was seen a sick man struggling for life in a losing battle.
+
+His body was swollen and disfigured, his hollow cheeks blazed with fever
+and in his dying eyes fear and agony contended. Scarce could he drag
+himself along, moaning and crying for pity, the hot tears pouring and
+searing his cheeks as they ran. And seeing it, the Prince set his hands
+on the reins and checked the horses and cried aloud.
+
+“What is this horror?”
+
+So the charioteer, Channa, with fear tearing at his vitals, yet
+compelled by a force beyond all resistance to no other than the truth,
+answered:
+
+“Prince, it is a sick man. The four elements are all confused and
+disordered, he is worn, feeble, and strengthless, tortured in body and
+mind, dependent upon the mercy of men whose own evil day is but
+postponed.”
+
+And a shudder ran through the crowd as the Prince questioned him,
+shrinking back as one in mortal fear.
+
+“And this too is the common doom?”
+
+“Prince, none escape it.”
+
+“And the few poor years that old age leaves us are broken into misery
+like this?”
+
+“Prince, so it is.”
+
+And he said:
+
+“Turn my chariot again, I will go no further. I have seen what I have
+seen.”
+
+So the news was carried to the Maharaja and he was almost beside
+himself, raging with anger that was half fear, and he sent for his wise
+minister, and cried to him:
+
+“What shall we do? For my son is learning the guarded secrets, and if I
+keep him shut in the gardens he will rebel and break away, and if I send
+him through the city such devils are my servants that horrible sights
+afflict him and disperse my hopes in him. Here have I built a Paradise
+so heavenly that could he but see it I need fear no more, for the man is
+not born who could leave its deep and delicious shades for the dusty
+world. And there have I placed a golden maiden whose smile is sunshine
+and her lips singing roses, and were he to see her—But what do I say?
+Is it not possible to a great person like myself that for a few short
+hours the city ways should be guarded from horror while he passes
+through? I am fallen indeed, otherwise.”
+
+But the old wise minister shook his head.
+
+“Great Sir, one should say it is possible, yet when I remember how the
+city was searched and guarded this twice, what dare I say? O
+Maharaj—may it not be that the high Gods being resolved may not be
+thwarted, and that we fight against iron destiny? Great fear possesses
+me.”
+
+But his Master replied angrily.
+
+“Foolish old man! And was I not given the choice? If I could withhold
+the truth he would be a great world-King. If he guessed it he would be
+an ascetic of the jungles. What father would choose other than I have
+done? Once more I will send him to my Paradise, and if this time I am
+tricked let your head answer it.”
+
+And again the Prince was sent out but this time also though the city was
+decorated and garlanded, there was no semblance of joy, and the very
+horses went with drooped heads as though fear were the charioteer.
+
+And as they reached the street, where most the people crowded, the
+Divinity was again ready with his work, having prepared a sight terrible
+and woeful. For slowly preceding the chariot there went a funeral train,
+with four men bearing a bier and lying on it a body cold and stiff, with
+dropped jaw and dreadful dead eyes staring blindly at the sun. Withered
+flowers lay on the bier and the mourners beat their breasts and wept
+aloud, filling the air with wailing and lamentation.
+
+And the Prince closing his eyes to shut out the horror, and clenching
+his palms said:
+
+“What is this?”
+
+And Channa not daring to look in his face, answered very low: bowed
+under the weight of words he was compelled to utter.
+
+“This is a dead man, all his powers of body destroyed, life departed,
+his heart without thought, his intellect dispersed. His spirit is fled,
+his body withered, stretched out like a dead log, taken from all who
+loved him. And mourning they carry him forth to burn and obliterate him,
+for they—even they—will have no more of his presence now become
+loathsome, but cast him from them utterly. And this is Death.”
+
+And into his clenched hands he murmured:
+
+“Is this also the common lot?”
+
+And the charioteer replied, with hidden face:
+
+“Prince, so it is. He who begins his life must end it. And thus. For
+death may at any moment seize us and carry us away into darkness.”
+
+Then Siddhartha sank down in the chariot, his soul warring with his
+body, catching at the leaning-board for support, hiding his face from
+the light of day as the dead man was borne on before him and wailing and
+lamentation filled the air.
+
+And into his clenched hands he murmured:
+
+“O terrible delusion of mortal men, who born in pain and utterly deluded
+are brought through grief and sickness and old age to this frightful
+end! Disperse the people. Turn back my chariot. The whole world is a
+lie. I have seen what I have seen.”
+
+So the people melted silently away in tears, as clouds disperse in rain.
+For seeing the Prince’s horror and amazement in learning the truth, for
+the first time they also sounded the deeps of their own misery, and life
+appeared to them a traitor, and in all the universe was no comfort.
+
+But Channa the charioteer, not daring to return because of the
+Maharaja’s strict command, drove onward to the Paradise, and the Prince
+crouching in the silks and gold with face hidden neither knew nor cared.
+
+So at last they came in among the green lawns and pleasant waters and
+deep-leaved trees, the last hope of the Maharaja, and slowly and
+painfully he dismounted.
+
+Suddenly about the chariot, running and fluttering like doves came the
+lovely ones provided for pleasure, beautiful as flowers in a Paradise of
+Gods, adorned with chains of pearls and other jewels.
+
+Beautiful were they, each one chosen as merchants choose a pearl to
+complete a queen’s necklace, for their eyes were long and languishing,
+half hidden in black lashes as stars in midnight, and their mouths
+pomegranate buds disclosing seeds of ivory, and down to the ankle rolled
+their lengths of perfumed hair.
+
+Most beautiful is the bosom of a woman, for in its gentle curves are all
+love, all tenderness expressed, and these displayed its loveliness—dear
+as rare jasmin flowers, precious as sweet food to the hungry, unveiled
+or veiled a little in transparency like the running of shallow water.
+
+And thus they surrounded him as he passed through the blossomed trees
+rapt in sorrowful meditation, pale with the terror of gazing for the
+first time on the face of Death.
+
+So they fluttered about him, the lovely ones, skilled in all subtleties
+of love, shedding enticements as the moon distils dews of camphor. One,
+seeing him sad, saddened her sweet face and looked at him with tears
+hanging on long lashes, as though she would say—“Dear Prince, I too
+have tasted grief. Do I not know?” And one, smiles chasing one another
+to cover in her merry eyes, promised forgetfulness, gladness in her
+arms, and some clinging together like sister roses on twined stems,
+seemed to defy severance even if love should call them, tempting him who
+watched them to essay that sweet sorrow.
+
+But amidst them the Prince paced lost in grief, not seeing them, or,
+seeing, heeding not at all. And presently when they had tried all their
+arts and could draw his regards no more than remote stars can draw the
+gaze of a cold moon, they fell silent and gathered fearfully into
+groups,—drawing back.
+
+Now there stood in the shade of the bamboos a man much about the person
+of the Maharaja, sent to see if all were well, and when the Prince
+passed on, careless, this nobleman, Udayi, came out and addressed the
+silent beauties.
+
+“You women, all so graceful and fair, are you thus worsted? Surely in
+all ages men have been subject to women when they put forth their power.
+Too soon are you discouraged—too soon. For this Prince, though he
+restrains his heart with the bit and bridle of purity, is but a man, and
+the wisest and greatest in time past have slipped where they thought
+themselves secure. And there is no fetter strong as white arms about a
+man’s neck. Strive after new devices. Redouble your efforts. Great is
+the prize.”
+
+And the maidens, ashamed and angry at his chiding, fluttered again about
+the Prince where he sat in the shade of a jambu tree, putting forth
+amorous enticements, forgetful of all modesty and womanly reserve,
+pressing on, striving to move him.
+
+But he in his great heart, sorrowful, apart, looked upon them, sighing.
+
+“O creatures most miserable, unheeding the dooms of age and death,
+forgetful of the briefness of beauty, unconscious that above your
+throats is suspended the sharp two-edged sword, how wretched is your
+empty playing in the very jaws of destruction!”
+
+And though he spoke nothing, they saw the homeless horror in his eyes,
+and again they shrank away afraid.
+
+So seeing the Prince alone, Udayi, smooth of speech, came softly along
+the pleasure-paths of the Paradise, brushing aside the flowers,
+observant and quiet as a serpent, and saluting the Prince he drew up
+beside him and spoke this:
+
+“Prince in whom all beauty and nobility meet, you sit here sad and
+alone, and it is therefore that your great father, consumed by care for
+your welfare appointed me to act as beseems a friend. Permit me then to
+speak, for a wise friend removes what is unprofitable, promotes real
+gain, and in adversity is true.”
+
+And Siddhartha lifting his eyes said:
+
+“Speak, if indeed in this great strait there be anything to say.”
+
+So supporting his arm on a bough of the fire-flame tree Udayi spoke,
+inclining his delicate dark face and subtle eyes toward the Prince.
+
+“True it is that sickness may assail us and that old age and death will
+by no means be baulked of their prey, yet youth is youth and beauty
+divine, and the man who turns his back on pleasure because it passes is
+a coward. Indeed the rose is the sweeter because even in blooming it
+treads the way of death and soon we see it no more. Truly, my Prince,
+you are afflicted with a distempered mind. Acquiescence is the secret of
+life. We who are wise know that these things must be, and even old age
+and death, the conquerors, we take to enhance our pleasures, saying to
+ourselves, ‘The moment is mine, and love is sweet and lust the spur of
+life. This moment neither death nor old age can take from me. I will
+spend it as a man would spend his all if he knew that next day he would
+be plundered, and a beggar.’”
+
+But Siddhartha was silent, with brooding eyes fixed on the ground, and
+presently Udayi resumed, in a delicately modulated voice:
+
+“While you believed that joy and beauty were eternal, and that ages
+hence these women would still surround you, beautiful and yielding, then
+you might well shrink from a delight too prolonged, for dropped honey
+cloys. An eternity of love may well become hell. Was it not so, my
+Prince.”
+
+And slowly the Prince answered:
+
+“It was so. I have looked on the racing river, swollen with melting
+snows, thinking that, were any end possible, to be hurled beaten and
+broken down the rocks in its mad hurry were better than the changeless
+Paradise of love and soft words and swooning music. There you are right,
+Udayi the smooth-tongued. This is true.”
+
+And highly satisfied, Udayi resumed:
+
+“And now, having learnt that there _is_ an end, what should be your
+course? The pleasures of a prisoner released, who enjoys knowing that he
+has a respite though the doors will shut upon him one day. Surely it is
+not the part of a brave man to fling away what he has because he cannot
+have all, nor to own himself conquered because one day he must face the
+enemy whom as yet he has not seen. No—not so. Take what the Gods
+send—the Gods who have themselves been amenable to beauty and docile in
+the arms of loveliness. Indeed what choice is there but to slink through
+life starting at every shadow, or to dice and drink and love, like a man
+tasting the best while it lasts. For what comes after we cannot tell.
+Who knows?”
+
+And the Prince said:
+
+“This has the sound of wisdom, yet wisdom it is not. There is an
+answer—there is a way, but I have not found it. It may be that it
+cannot be found—that there is no such thing. Yet, better the search
+than dully to agree with necessity. And as for these women—To me they
+are no enticement, and if I would I cannot. Under their fair faces I see
+the skull and they mop and mow like apes in the face of Horror. If the
+Gods have thus made the world it is a folly and a brutality and they are
+more foolish than men who must abide their cruelties, and if they have
+not made it and all is chance we sink in the slough lit only by the
+flicker of dying dreams. Leave me, Udayi the smooth-tongued. I would be
+alone.”
+
+And the courtier crept silently away under green shades, treading
+lightly on turf and blossoms, thanking destiny that he was not as
+Siddhartha but could lift the brimming cup and drain it to the dregs,
+savouring every sparkle. And in his heart he mocked him, laughing at his
+weakness—he whose name is now remembered only because one day he spread
+out his folly before the Perfect One!
+
+But the Prince, bending his great brows upon life and death, sat beneath
+the jambu tree, feet folded, hands laid upon his knees in perfect
+immobility. And he thought:
+
+“Hollow compliance and a protesting heart! Is this life? Is there a
+better? Great are the concerns of life and death. So great, so awful
+that the poor race of mankind struggles only to forget for a brief
+moment what it can never comprehend. For all about us are seen
+injustices that were a King to commit his miserable people would rise
+and hurl him from his bloody throne. And we are told of the priests that
+the Gods have committed these crimes and yet are worthy of worship and
+honour. No—rather is it the propitiation of fiends who will torture us
+if they have not the servility of our praises while we die for their
+pleasure. And the good suffer and the evil flourish, and to the rich man
+is given more riches and to the poor more toil even exceeding their
+strength. Now indeed all that was hidden from me bursts upon my mind as
+when a flash of lightning tears the dark, and things I put aside for
+want of comprehension shriek aloud in my ears. Why am I clothed in
+jewels, why is my father generous and good, and my wife the fairest and
+most loving of women, when at this moment were my eyes opened they would
+behold men dying for bread that the least of my jewels would buy, with
+none to tend or pity them. And what are my deserts more than theirs? And
+why are some evil and some good as it were by nature? O cruel Gods who,
+lapt in far-off pleasures, care nothing for our agonies, and let fall
+your good things on the wicked and evil things on the good—yourselves
+perhaps the sport of chance, if indeed you are at all!”
+
+And these thoughts and many like them, black and miserable, stormed
+about him in the wreckage of the world.
+
+And at long last he aroused himself and the Paradise was empty of all
+but a broad moonlight that lay in glories of light and shadow on trees
+and waters and there was deep silence. For the women, ashamed and
+terrified, had slipt noiselessly away and so back to the city, and far
+off down a long glade his chariot and wearied horses stood waiting in
+marble patience, and Channa sat beside them his head bowed upon his
+raised knees like an embodied grief.
+
+Very slowly the horses paced through the city, and that also was empty
+of all but moonlight, for not a living soul went or came in the quiet,
+and the pacing of the horses echoed loudly down the empty ways.
+
+And not a word was spoken as they went, but when they reached the House
+of the Garden, a woman ran out to meet them veiled like a ghost in the
+moonlight, and cried aloud.
+
+“O happy Prince, and happiest,—the Gods are good to this glad House and
+to you, for on the bosom of the Princess lies your first-born son.”
+
+And at these words a strange trembling seized him, so that for a moment
+he hid his face in his hands. Then pale in the moonlight he said these
+words:
+
+“A fetter, a fetter is set upon me, therefore call the child Rahula, a
+Fetter.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI
+
+
+NOW at the birth of her son, so great was the joy of the Princess that
+life and death were little things in her eyes, black rocks submerged in
+bright water glittering with sunshine, and every day she blossomed more
+beautiful and the child in her arms was like the star shining within the
+moon’s crescent. And seeing this what could the nobility of Siddhartha
+do otherwise than hide his grief and deep searchings of a heart tossed
+like waves in a mighty wind.
+
+Beautiful in his eyes was the tenderness of the lovely mother and her
+eyes dwelling upon him and the child, but terrible also remembering that
+at any moment the bright picture of life might break asunder and
+disclose beneath the lurking horror of death and the dark and unknown
+hereafter.
+
+For if the Gods with their utmost forethought had made the world so full
+of shameful things, what wise man could trust such unskilful workmen for
+the world to come, and no hope was left anywhere.
+
+He sat much alone by Rohini, his gaze dwelling on the silver peaks far
+off and serene in blue air, and at his feet little fish darted in the
+transparency of the pure waters, and the pheasant would lead her brood
+to his unmoving feet, and the shimmering peacocks feed beside him. And
+when the wild white swans spread snowy vans above his head, taking wing
+for the mountains and for far lands beyond that he knew not, it seemed
+in his deep musings that all these happy creatures were subject to a law
+they knew and obeyed with content and that their life was better than
+his own.
+
+But compassion grew daily in his heart now that his eyes were
+opened—Compassion for all the sorrows that surrounded him bleeding in
+his heart like a wound such as drains life itself away. He saw the
+little lovely dancer Amra drag wearied feet through the dance one night
+and called her to him.
+
+“Child, what ails you?”
+
+“Great my lord, I must not tell you. But I dance no more. To-morrow I
+go.”
+
+“Child, I command you to speak. What is it?”
+
+She looked about her with eyes large and fearful as the deer’s when she
+sees the hunter’s knife glitter above her.
+
+“Great my lord, it is an order. I dare not speak.”
+
+“My order stands higher. Speak.”
+
+She trembled as she stood, with fear and weakness.
+
+“My lord, it is the sickness. Two years ago my sister Vijaya was a
+dancer. Yourself has commended her. But the cruel cough came and tore
+her breast, and at last she could scarcely lift her little feet, and
+then they sent her secretly away, and she spat blood and the cough
+devoured her, and she died. And now it has taken me also and the blood
+came from my mouth last night, and to-morrow I go. But O I beseech your
+greatness to hide my words, for it is forbidden that any grief should
+soil the air about your noble presence.”
+
+“But when you rest the cough will decline and you will be glad again, my
+sister.”
+
+“Great Prince, I shall die. For this there is no cure.”
+
+There was a long silence.
+
+“And do you fear this?”
+
+“My lord, I fear very terribly—but there is no help. What must be,
+must. And I am now too weary to dance, and it is better I die for I am a
+burden and a distress to my mother now I am worth no more money, and she
+is poor. There is scarce bread to eat.”
+
+Then the blood poured into the pale face of Siddhartha for shame and
+horror, and he said:
+
+“On such foundations was my happiness built, and others have bled and
+wept that I might laugh! O, evil Gods, shameful and disastrous to man,
+if this is all! How shall the heart of man forgive your crimes against
+us, and where is justice in all the wide Three Worlds?”
+
+And as he spoke he lifted the chain of pearls from his shoulders and
+threw them upon the dancer’s and she, beholding his nobleness and grief
+with tears, went sobbing away.
+
+The next day he sent a message to the Maharaja.
+
+“Great father, since now I know all the secrets and there is nothing
+hidden from me of the world’s woe, what hinders that I should go free to
+see it? It may be that some joy shall meet my eyes and relieve the
+burning of the flame of pity that consumes me. Also, since I have a son
+it is now surely well that I should see and know the lives of the people
+whom he and I one day shall rule. And I say this for truth, I am weary,
+weary even to death of the music and dancing and the miserable
+diversions of my prison, and if there be any hope for me it is in the
+things of men, for I have done with those of women and children. Set
+your prisoner free. It is your son who beseeches.”
+
+And when the Maharaja agreed, the Prince sent another message.
+
+“And let the city be neither decorated nor feasting. I desire to see the
+life of the people as they live it, not as they would pretend it is
+lived to please us great ones.”
+
+And this too was conceded, but the Maharaja commanded that the chief
+minister and a guard of the Sakya lords should accompany the Prince.
+
+Therefore once more the chariot and well-paced horses were prepared,
+adorned with precious stones and gold glittering like splendid sunshine,
+and he passed through the city and out by the further gate into a new
+world hitherto unknown.
+
+And as he went on the road was smooth and white, and gardens gay on
+either side and trees loaded, some with flowers and some with fruit, and
+seeing this and knowing it unprepared for his eyes, his heart stirred
+under the snow of grief and thawed a little from its ice, for it seemed
+that the people who lived therein must know some happiness and freedom
+from misery. But as he went further the heat of the day strengthened and
+became like a weight of lead, oppressive even beneath the silken canopy
+of the chariot and the sweat stood on his brow and his garments clung to
+the moisture of his skin and weariness weighed upon him.
+
+But for all this the toil about him could not cease, for men must eat,
+and work be completed and the fields of the Maharaja ploughed, and he
+saw how the labourers struggled with painful exertion, their bodies
+bent, their wet hair falling about haggard faces, their bodies fouled
+with mud and dust. And some were old and some were weak, and yet all
+must greatly toil and very pitiful was it to see their strained muscles
+and starting eyes.
+
+The ploughing oxen also—they, toiling so pitifully and with no
+reward,—their lolling tongues and gaping jaws, the whip and goad
+indenting smooth flanks until bright blood drops started and they
+trembled and shrank—all these things tortured the mind of Siddhartha as
+he sat silently observant. And he said within himself:
+
+“The world is built on pain and its foundations laid in agony. O Gods,
+most cruel and unjust, if there be a way, where is it? If there be a Law
+of Peace, where shall I find it? For I am bound in the dungeons of
+despair.”
+
+And, nobly moved to sympathy, he dismounted from the chariot, forcing
+himself to look steadfastly upon the sufferings of man and beast, and he
+sat down beneath a jambu tree, reflecting on the ways of death and
+birth. And he desired his companions, the Sakya lords, to leave him and
+wander where they would, and they went away laughing with each other and
+talking, costly umbrellas borne over them in the heat until they should
+reach the shade of the forest and there rest beside their wines and
+fruits. And then, as was now his wont, he gave himself to deep
+meditation on life and death, on transiency, and the progress of all to
+decay, desiring with all his soul that somewhere, anywhere, he might
+behold the changeless, the Abiding and in that find rest. And he asked
+of his soul:
+
+“Is there safety in riches? Are the rich exempt and high in the Gods’
+favour. No—no, indeed,—for their very luxuries consume them body and
+soul, making their bodies the home of disease and death, and their souls
+the harbourage of cowardice and terror. For it is harder to leave a
+Palace of gold than a mud hovel, and these are the spoilt children of
+the universe. There is no refuge in riches. In all the Three Worlds I
+see no refuge at all from the three Enemies—death, old age, and
+disease.”
+
+And as he meditated, his heart thus fixed, the five senses, as it were,
+extinguished, lost in the clear light of insight he entered on the first
+stage of pure rapture. All low desires submerged and in an ecstasy that
+was not joy but perfect clarity he saw the misery and sorrow of the
+world, sounding its deeps of agony and loss, the ruin wrought by age,
+disease, and death,—the hopeless dark beyond.
+
+Hitherto he had known only in part, but now the whole, even as an eagle
+suspended on unmoving pinions, floating in supernal sunshine looks down
+beholding the earth spread like a picture below him, and nothing hidden.
+
+And suddenly a great light shone within him—not to be described in
+words nor in thought comprehended. And he said these words, radiant with
+the first dawning beams of illumination:
+
+“I have heard the wisdom of men and it is the crackling of dry wood in a
+destroying fire. Now will I seek a Noble Law they have not known, a Law
+hidden and divine, and I will wrestle with disease and age and death and
+bind their terrors. For behind these things is Peace, if the way is
+opened. And I will seek until I die.”
+
+And slowly at length, passing downward from ecstasy his thoughts
+collecting centred again about things earthly, and he became aware that
+a man approached him, carrying a bowl in his hand, wearing a coarse robe
+of yellow, pacing slowly in the roadway. And their eyes met.
+
+And it appeared to the Prince that he had never before seen a man who
+resembled this strange mendicant, and he rose to greet him with
+courtesy, saying in his heart:
+
+“Who is this person? For his face is calm and joyful, and his eyes
+bespeak a soul at rest. Nor has he the mien of one tricked by sensual
+happiness, but austerity and contentment guide him, and though he treads
+on earth it does not hold him. And what is this bowl in his hand? I will
+accost him.”
+
+And this done, the stranger, with due salutation grave and sweet,
+replied:
+
+“Great lord, I am a religious mendicant, who, shuddering at the
+victorious onslaught of age, disease and death, seeing that all things
+are transient and permanence nowhere to be found, have left the fetters
+of my home behind me that I may search for some happiness that is
+trustworthy, that decays not, that is imperishable, that looks with
+equal mind on friend and enemy, and is regardless of wealth and beauty.
+Such is the only happiness that will content me.”
+
+And Siddhartha in deep amazement on hearing thoughts thus resembling his
+own, enquired eagerly:
+
+“And where, O wise man, do you seek it?”
+
+“Great lord, I seek it in solitude, in the tranquillity of deep woods,
+free from molestation. There in the Quiet dwells enlightenment. And I
+carry this bowl that the charitable may deposit an alms of food within
+it, and this is all I ask of the world. And now, pardon haste, for my
+way lies onward to the mountains where the true light awaits me, and joy
+for its attendant.”
+
+And he passed onward and was no more seen, and it is related that this
+ascetic was that divinity veiled in flesh who had made known to the
+Prince the Three Terrors,—but this I cannot tell.
+
+Be he what he might, this man left behind him the first hope that had
+enlightened the midnight of grief. And the Prince said within his soul:
+
+“This too is a seeker, and this is the life I covet, for the pleasures
+of earth are but sea-waters enraging the thirst they seem to quench, and
+what now has life to offer but the search for truth? Were there no
+others in the world but my son, my father, my wife, then surely is it
+incumbent upon me to find some means for their deliverance, but since
+the whole wide earth weeps uncomforted, what a craven should I be, if I
+spared to help it even with my blood and tears for unguents to its
+wounds. The way most surely opens before me, and the cry of the
+conquering ages is in my ears.”
+
+And after a time the Sakya lords, weary of their enjoyments, gathered
+about him and the horses were harnessed, and all returned to the city.
+And the people, rejoicing to see their Prince, gathered to meet and
+greet him, and one fair lady, leaning from a window, rejoicing in his
+beauty cried aloud:
+
+“Happy be the father, happy the mother, happy the wife of such a son and
+husband.”
+
+But this word “happy” means also “freed,” for are not freedom and
+happiness one? And taking her auspicious words for the cry of freedom he
+looked up smiling into her eyes, and said “Good is the teacher. Let this
+be her fee,” unclasped his necklace of pearls and sent it to the happy
+lady and passed on, forgetting, while she dreamed in vain of love.
+
+And all dispersed to their abodes.
+
+But the next day the Prince entered into his father’s presence, his face
+bright with resolution like the full moon, his step strong and steady as
+the gait of the King of Lions, noble and beautiful in strength.
+
+And making due obeisance he asked.
+
+“Is the Maharaj well and happy?”
+
+“Well, my son, and rejoicing to see your face so bright and calm after
+long sorrow. Is the cloud past?”
+
+“My father, it is past in part. A clear way lies before me.”
+
+“That too is well. Praise to the Wielder of the thunder and to all great
+Gods who hear our prayers.”
+
+Then tenderly, but with a calm immovable, the Prince declared his
+heart’s desire.
+
+“O kind father, worthy of all obedience, hear my case. The grief that
+has moved me is not my grief alone. Were I to die, I can die silent,
+after the manner of our race. But a man, when he beholds other men old,
+diseased, dying, is hurt, ashamed, revolted that such things should be,
+and no way of conquering such evils. There is a way if it could but be
+found.”
+
+And the Maharaja replied with anger.
+
+“What way? This is child’s folly. These things have been from Eternity,
+and men have faced the common lot as best they could, taking their
+pleasure where they might. What would you have more than others? Life is
+good, if you will but see it.”
+
+But Siddhartha answered steadfastly.
+
+“O my father, I desire your august permission to seek the solitude, and
+there, deeply meditating, to find true deliverance not only for myself
+but for you and all the world.”
+
+And when the Maharaja heard these words—“to seek the solitude” a great
+trembling of the heart seized him, and his strong voice choked in his
+throat. And at last, even as the mighty wild elephant shakes with his
+weight the boughs of a fair green sapling in the jungle, he caught the
+hands of the Prince and clung to them most pitifully, crying aloud.
+
+“Stop. Let not such ill-omened words be spoken. The time is not yet
+come—even if come it must. You are young and full of life and your
+heart beats to a glad measure. If you were to do this miserable thing
+you would bitterly repent it. You have not the strength, nor the
+knowledge. This is a resolution for old men, world-wearied. But
+you—beautiful as the day, full of youth, husband of a fair and dutiful
+wife, father of a young son, what talk is this? My son, I am ashamed for
+you. It is for me to undertake the ascetic’s life, for you to rule in
+Kapila. Let it be so, and I will go.”
+
+And Siddhartha holding his father’s hands tenderly replied thus:
+
+“My father, honoured and loved, you are the ruler and what have I to do
+with putting you from your seat? No—far be it from me! Rule in gladness
+and honour until the appointed day. But for myself—there is but one
+condition on which I can stay! If you will assure me against old age,
+disease, and death, I will remain—but not otherwise.”
+
+And the Maharaja, blind with grief, the white hairs showing on head and
+beard, said only:
+
+“Such words are impious. Am I a God that I can say to these three, ‘Thus
+far and no farther’? No—Betake yourself to pleasure and business like
+other men and forget. There is no other remedy.”
+
+But Siddhartha flung himself on his knees before his father and grasped
+his robe in the agony of his pleading.
+
+“Father, hinder me no more if you love me. If I were shut in a burning
+home would you bar the door? Let me solve my doubt for it consumes my
+very life. O let me go, let me go! For if not—what way is left? Men
+have slain themselves for a lesser hope than mine, that perhaps down the
+dark ways of death they might seek and find what they could not in this
+world of lies and counterfeits.”
+
+But he appealed in vain for the ears of his father were sealed, and when
+after pleading even to anguish the Prince had left him grave and silent,
+he issued orders that the Garden House should be guarded more strictly
+than before—that fresh dancers, fresh music, should be ordered and new
+pleasures invented and that every road and way should be watched with
+ten-fold diligence.
+
+And Siddhartha seeing the tears of his father with a compassion that
+pierced his own heart returned to the Garden House, and set himself in
+silence to consider, not knowing whence help would find him, but firm in
+his resolve.
+
+And beneath the trees Yashodara awaited him, carrying his young son in
+her arms, and she knelt beside him, uncovering the face of the child,
+bright and beautiful as a budding rose in earliest summer. For she
+thought—“Let this speak for me,” and Siddhartha read the little face so
+like his own, in silence.
+
+Then, stretching out his hand, he clasped the hand of his wife, and
+spoke thus:
+
+“Well-beloved, if our child were in a house ruining about him, and I
+stood by to see him crushed and broken, what would be your thoughts of
+me?”
+
+She smiled with pride and contentment.
+
+“Why ask? That could not be. You would give your life for him and count
+it nothing.”
+
+“Well-beloved, mother of my son, that word is true; you know it. And
+would you who love me hold me back if I rushed on death for his sake,
+counting my own life as nothing?”
+
+“For my love’s sake I would bid you go.”
+
+“True again. So speak, so do the women of our race. But hear further.
+Suppose my son fallen into bitter poverty, and that I knew of a great
+treasure hidden in far-off forests and mountains, so far that great was
+the danger, great the severance, would you bid me stay or go?”
+
+Doubt clouded the beauty of her eyes, raised toward him.
+
+“There, my heart’s lord, I know not. You are more to my son and me than
+any treasure. What are jewels, pearls or gold compared with the heaven
+of your presence? Better poverty together and the blue heaven above us
+and bright earth beneath, than loneliness and splendour.”
+
+Clasping her hand he answered:
+
+“But starving, his face gaunt with want, haunted by ghosts of grief and
+fear, would you send me or bid me stay? Think well, mother of my son.
+Would you weigh your grief against his good, and he too young to know?”
+
+And she answered:
+
+“I would say, Go—how otherwise? But, O beloved, these words are
+dreadful. Forget them. Look at the sunset strewing roses on the cold
+snows and the splendour of Surya driving his chariot down the western
+sky after the long day of glory. He is weary of pomp and colour. He
+longs for the cool refreshing dews and the dusk and quiet and the dark
+repose of midnight. Would that we could see him face to face,
+golden-eyed and inconceivably divine. The Gods are far and grief is
+near.”
+
+He loosed her hand gently.
+
+“Those words are true also, wise and beautiful.” And slowly he added:
+
+“Night comes and the Gods are far. Go in and sleep, beloved,—Yet do not
+forget the words we have spoken together, for grief comes to all and
+when it comes there is but one way—to agree nobly with necessity.”
+
+And she took the dust from his feet, rapt on the beauty of his eyes and
+went, carrying the child with her.
+
+
+
+
+ PART II
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+On that night of terror and wonder were strange influences astir in the
+darkness, influences moving steadily to war. For the battle was not
+between the armies of Kings nor was the prize a throne, but a combat
+strange, unearthly between the armies of the Appetites and Desires, and
+the warriors of the World of pure spirit and wisdom eternal, and there
+and thus was it fought.
+
+It was the night of No Moon and the stars hung larger and brighter,
+suspended but a little above the earth, and the dark was still and
+breathless, so that Siddhartha would have willingly sat all night by
+Rohini listening to the cool ripple of water as she made her way through
+the gardens to an end he knew not. But this could not be, for by the
+Maharaja’s new orders the women must dog his footsteps, never permitting
+him to wander, or remain unseen. And thus, though they were invisible,
+he knew that bright eyes watched in every brake, and feet light as a
+spirit’s trod noiselessly where he went.
+
+Therefore at last, sighing, he rose and passed into the Hall where the
+dancers stood ready to sway in their beautiful measure, and the singers
+and musicians were ranged in order, fair face outshining fair face until
+the most beautiful were nearest to the gold cushions of his seat. But
+the Princess Yashodara slept far off in the little marble chamber with
+her child clasped to her bosom.
+
+And at last as the night went on a deep weariness oppressed him and lay
+like lead on his eyelids, and the subtly stealing dark and wearisome
+iteration of music and of rhythmic feet became like an opiate, and his
+head dropped on the raised pillows and he slept. So the dance slackened
+quietly and the dancers whispered one to another:
+
+“How pale is the Prince! How careworn! Was it wise in the Maharaj to
+hide from him what cannot be hidden? But we are dancers—this is not our
+business. Do not wake him lest there be anger. Mute the instruments very
+slowly and softly and let none jangle as we lay it aside. We must not
+leave him alone, lest suddenly he awake and demand more pleasure,
+therefore remain here but be very quiet and, if it be possible, sleep.
+O, it is good to rest. We too are weary of singing and dancing. It is a
+hard service. Sleep, sisters, sleep.”
+
+And it is told that when midnight drew veils of darkness over earth and
+sky there came Influences noiseless—winged as the white moth that
+haunts the evenings of summer, and that as these came, thought died from
+the soul of Siddhartha and it became Perception,—and he saw and heard
+inwardly while the women about him lay drunk with heavy sleep.
+
+Now along the night crept a strange music, thin at first and faint as
+the far-off falling of rain, but drawing nearer, nearer, sweeter than
+all harps and lutes struck with earthly hands, and at first no words
+could be distinguished but only an unearthly sweetness, soul-dividing,
+purer than the crystal purity of ice on the highest summits of the
+mountains that speak face to face with heaven.
+
+And at last, the clear sounds glided into clear words, and the Prince
+heard the mystic music, whether within or without his soul who shall
+say? But it fell from on high like white flakes of snow falling cold and
+passionless and drowning desire.
+
+ “Mighty One, O Mighty One.
+ There is a Way—a Way.
+ The wise of old have trodden it.
+ Rise now and go.
+ Finding the Light,
+ Share it with men.
+ Grant unto all
+ To drink in peace
+ The water of Righteousness.
+ Thou who in past lives
+ Didst agonize for men,
+ Nothing withholding,
+ Again go forth,
+ Conqueror of sorrow.”
+
+And as he listened in tranced silence once more the clear words shaped
+themselves from the heart of silence.
+
+ “Light of the world,
+ Remember past lives.
+ Griefs without end,
+ Revilings and prisons,
+ Deaths many and cruel.
+ These hast Thou borne,
+ Loving and patiently,
+ Shedding forgiveness
+ On those who slew thee.
+ Go forth again,
+ Riding to Victory.”
+
+And when he heard and had understood this music, the Prince rose from
+sleep and looked about him in the faint light of the lamps, with
+thoughts new and awful stirring in his breast—thoughts beyond words,
+unutterable.
+
+And the women slept in disorder about him, heavily lolling as though
+drunk with wine, their faces wried and twisted, mouths awry, running
+over with saliva, limbs flung into coarse attitudes, sprawling, couchant
+like animals, with pendant lips and breasts, laughing foolishly at
+worthless dreams, hidden blemishes visible, abandoned to the disclosures
+of careless sleep, ungainly, revolting, as though the truth had suddenly
+touched them with clear ray disclosing them as they were.
+
+And the Prince said slowly:
+
+“It is a graveyard, and these are the corpses.”
+
+And shrinking in his very soul, he rose, looking down upon them with
+horror, and drawing his feet and garments from the contact went forth
+treading quietly and ascended to the roof of the House of the Garden to
+look out into the night.
+
+Dead silent was it as he turned to the eastern horizon, the air
+breathless as though the Universe waited in suspense to know what he
+would do.
+
+But he, standing alone in the night, joined the ten fingers of his
+hands, and rendered homage to all the Enlightened who had preceded him,
+exalting and uniting his purpose to theirs who had opened the way which
+the eternities shall not close.
+
+And even as he joined his hands he perceived that the bright star Pushya
+which had shone upon his birth was rising in the sky, and he knew that
+his hour was upon him.
+
+Then turning he descended, led by human anguish and longing to see once
+more his young child and its mother, for in the very deeps of his heart
+those lives were rooted, but, lest resolution should waver, he went
+first to the doorway where slept Channa the charioteer, wrapped in his
+white garment, and even as the Prince stooped above him, this man sprang
+to his feet, alert and faithful, saluting his Prince,—and in dim
+lamplight each looked into the eyes of the other.
+
+And Siddhartha said:
+
+“O faithful! The blessing that is upon me has this night touched
+perfection. Bring out my noble white horse, for my life here is done and
+I depart.”
+
+But Channa stood perfectly silent staring in his face as one bereft of
+purpose, and once more Siddhartha spoke.
+
+“What must be, must. I thirst and long for a draught of the Fountain of
+Sweet Dew. Delay no more. Saddle white Kantaka. It is an order.”
+
+And Channa obeyed.
+
+So the Prince entered the little marble chamber where on her golden bed
+lay the Princess, drowned in sweet sleep, clasping the child in her
+arms, unconscious of the grief approaching. And it appeared to
+Siddhartha that the cold air of his sorrow must rouse her, but it did
+not. She slept and smiled, rapt in a dream of content. And garlands of
+flowers hung about the chamber mingling their perfumes with the pure air
+of night breathed through marble lattices, and all this was home and
+his, and for the last time he looked upon it. And so great a desolation
+fell upon him that twice he stretched his empty arms to clasp the child
+in all its rosy warmth and dearness, and twice they fell because he
+feared to wake Yashodara from her last dream of joy.
+
+So he stood, enduring, looking upon them as a man who faces death and
+for a while he stayed, with thoughts that cannot be told, nor should
+that veil be lifted.
+
+But when the end was come and he could endure no more, he stooped above
+them until his breath mingled with theirs, and turned away leaving them
+sleeping.
+
+Then, passing through the quiet house, he came to the doorway where
+stood white Kantaka, and Channa held him pale as death.
+
+Now this horse was of all most noble, high-maned, with flowing tail,
+broad-backed, wide-browed, with round and claw-shaped nostrils, and he
+stood regarding his lord, and there was prescience in his great eyes.
+And the Prince soothed and caressed the strong neck, saying:
+
+“O brave in fight and fearless, now put forth strength in a sterner
+battle. To-night I ride far—even to the River of Eternal Life. I ride
+far to seek deliverance—not for men only, but for all your kind also.
+Therefore for your own sake, great horse,—for the sake of all that draw
+the breath of life, carry me far—far this night.”
+
+And so, springing upon the noble horse, he settled himself in the
+saddle, and pacing quietly the horse went on his way. So they passed out
+dreamlike, the man like the sun shining forth from his cloudy palaces,
+the horse like the white cloud beneath him, drawing quiet breath because
+no sound must awake the house of sleepers.
+
+And it is told—but I know not—that four attendant divine spirits laid
+their hands beneath the strong ringing hoofs to deaden the sound, and
+that others, casting the watchmen into sleep, caused the heavy barred
+gates to roll open slowly and noiselessly. But be that as it will it is
+certain that the Prince passed out, and gaining the road before the
+gates, stopped and turned, saying these words:
+
+“Never again shall I come here—never again see this beloved place,
+unless I conquer old age, disease, and death, for this is my quest.”
+
+And it is told that divine voices in the air cried aloud:
+
+“Well done. Well said.” And whether the Prince heard this or no I cannot
+tell, but he rode on his way. And man and horse, strong of heart, went
+far that night, so far that when the east flashed into light and the
+world-wide radiance of the rising sun they stood beside great woods and
+the habitations of those ascetics who had relinquished the world.
+
+There, wearied, the royal horse himself stopped, to draw restful breath
+and to drink the pure lymph of those crystalline streams. So the Prince
+dismounted and looking into the horse’s eyes he said:
+
+“You have borne me well.” And from that he turned to Channa, saying:
+
+“And you, O faithfullest, swift-footed as a bird is swift-winged, long
+have you followed me, and even before this night my heart was full of
+gratitude, and I knew you as a true man,—strong of heart and strong of
+body. But now I know more, for you have come with me utterly disdainful
+of profit, courting danger and rebuke, and what shall I say to you? Many
+words I cannot say—but only this. My heart will remember. But, here we
+part—here is our relationship ended. Take my horse and return. For me
+are births and deaths about to be ended.”
+
+And taking off the chain of beaten gold and glimmering jewels which he
+wore about his neck, he gave it to Channa, saying:
+
+“Take this in remembrance. Let it console your grief.”
+
+Then loosing the precious jewel that shone in his head-tire, he looked
+at it lying in his palm where it flashed resplendent like the sun of
+Indra’s Paradise, and he said slowly:
+
+“Take this, Channa, to my father and lay it reverently before him. It is
+my heart. Tell him that I have entered upon the life of the ascetic, not
+indeed seeking a heavenly birth, for what is that to me if again I fall
+into rebirth and it leaves me in this world of lies and illusions?—but
+that I may find the Way of Deliverance. For if that way is found then no
+more need I leave those whom I love; no more put away my kindred. But
+since I must go, let not my father endure grief for me. Let him forget
+me and be glad.”
+
+Then Channa, listening with reverence, tried to make his voice heard,
+choking with grief.
+
+“This will I do—but O the heaping up of sorrow! How shall it be
+endured? Your father increases in years, your son is but a little
+infant, the sister of your mother, who tended your childhood, loves you
+as a son,—your wife, the mother of your child—My Prince, my
+Prince!—think better before all are lost. And drive me not from you. If
+I have been faithful is not trust the reward of fidelity? O turn for
+pity’s sake: set your face homeward. This I beseech you.”
+
+But the Prince, pale and resolved, made answer:
+
+“What is relationship? Were I to die I must leave them. My own mother
+loved me, but she is vanished from among us. The kinships of this world
+are like a flock of birds that for a night settle on the same tree and
+when dawn comes disperse. Such are its ties, no more. Does any tie of
+relationship ensure the joy of permanent union? No. All is said. Say no
+more, faithful one. Return to the city and make known to all men these
+my words—‘When I have found the Way—that Way which puts an end to the
+sad endless chain of birth and death, then and not otherwise I will
+return.’ And if I do not obtain this victory my body shall perish in the
+jungle.”
+
+And as he turned to go, the horse, hearing, bent his head and licked the
+foot of the Prince, and grief was seen in his large eyes. So the Prince,
+fondly stroking his head, bade him also farewell.
+
+“My horse, gentle and noble, your good deeds have gained their reward.
+No painful rebirth awaits you—this I know. Be content, for it is well.”
+
+Then taking his jewelled sword, shining like a meteor, he cut off the
+knot of hair which as a Prince he wore twisted with jewels and even as
+he did this, there passed a hunter going toward the jungle with bow and
+arrows and wearing a garment of coarse yellow, and Siddhartha hailed the
+man.
+
+“Friend, will you change your garment for mine, for with mine I have
+done for ever.”
+
+And the man drew near, consenting, and stripped off his garment and took
+the other, and for a moment the two looked each other in the eyes,
+Channa standing by.
+
+Now it is told—but this I cannot know—that this hunter was the same
+divine spirit, who disguised in flesh had brought enlightenment to the
+Prince, but be that as it may, he took the garment and went his way in
+silence.
+
+And having made this exchange Siddhartha took off his jewels one by one
+and placed them in the hands of Channa, and stood a moment in the dull
+garment as it were a bright star in eclipse, and so looked into the
+faithful eyes of Channa—as though he would have spoken. But this he
+could not, then slowly turning he made his way to the forest, and its
+boughs and leaves opened to receive him, he parting them with his hands,
+and he passed in and was seen no more.
+
+And Channa left alone, cried aloud
+
+“It is done.”
+
+Raising his hands to the unpitying skies and letting fall his arm on the
+neck of Kantaka, he stumbled homeward, his tears falling, and great fear
+and grief possessing his soul.
+
+And here and thus ends the scripture of the great Renunciation leading
+us onward to the Discipline, the Enlightenment and the Victory.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Going deeper into the forest, calm and resolved in mind, startling the
+deer as he passed, the birds rising about him with cries, the Prince
+went on his way, plucking the wild berries and fruits for food, he who
+had been served from gold and silver, and the sun now fully risen poured
+floods of light between the quivering leaves and ancient branches of
+those venerable trees. And as he passed, seeing the world so beautiful,
+dew trembling like crystals upon leaf and flower and the perfume of the
+morning exhaling like the breath of a maiden in pure mist, the beginning
+of peace rose in his troubled mind, and he said within himself.
+
+“After a great storm comes calm. Let me now control my grief,
+remembering that the past returns no more than Rohini after she has
+flowed into the ocean. And as in the ocean drifting logs for awhile meet
+and touch and are then driven apart by the waves so is it with parents,
+wives, children and wealth. This is most true.”
+
+And when at noon he was weary and his feet torn with the strong thorns
+and hooks of jungle creepers he sat down to rest and the thought came.
+
+“Were I now in the sweet garden by Rohini how would my wife,
+soft-handed, gentle-voiced, weep to see these feet, with what cool
+dropping unguents would she staunch the blood, which now I have not so
+much as a rag to wipe away.”——
+
+So, seeing this and waiting his opportunity Mara the Tempter—that One
+evil from of old, drew near through the shining trees, and whether he
+spoke within or without the heart of Siddhartha I cannot tell, but most
+certainly he spoke and his voice at first distant as the humming of
+ardent black bees about a flower became nearer, sweeter, subtle, until
+it sealed every sense to all but its meaning. And thus he said:
+
+“O Prince, merciful and compassionate but utterly misled, what is it you
+would do in the wild forest? Is this a place for a ruler of men? Far be
+it from you! By what evil counsel do you abandon your duties, flinging
+all madly aside to become an ascetic? What reason is there in believing
+that pain and destruction of the body give wings to the soul? No—but
+far otherwise, for the soul dwindles with the tortured body as flame
+dies when it has consumed the fuel. And if your aim be to benefit
+mankind, are not just and powerful Kings needed, and was it not foretold
+at your auspicious birth that you would become an empire-ruling King?
+Here—living and dying in the jungle, how is your might wasted, and the
+people forsaken!”
+
+And the voice grew sweeter and more poignant and verily before him did
+Siddhartha see the face of the Tempter, beautiful and melancholy with
+pleading mouth and eyes that entreated and hands spread out in prayer.
+
+“Think better, O Prince. Consider how the kingdom of Kosala lies near to
+Kapila and easily to be captured. Great are the cities of Kosala.
+Consider the city of Ayodhya—in length it is eighty-four miles, in
+breadth seventy, and the streets so broad that a team of elephants—nay
+two; might be easily driven abreast, and flowering trees stand along
+them, and there are rows of stalls to which the wealthy merchants flock
+from all the countries of the world, from China and Lanka and down the
+Passes from Balkh and Samarkhand; their caravans of camels and horses
+carrying such rarities as kingly hearts desire. There are gardens and
+mango groves for the delight of the citizens and clear waters where they
+may sport like swans and other aquatic birds, and mountain-like palaces
+adorned with pinnacles and banners and glittering with precious
+inlay,—and great houses where skilled actors delight their hearers with
+song and dance and story, so that eye and ear are transported in seeing
+and hearing. And there is a quarter of the city where dwell women of
+beauty exceeding the Apsaras, for they are brought from the ends of the
+earth to delight the happy people of Kosala. And the town is thronged
+with splendid elephants and horses; and neighbouring kings, decked with
+earrings and armlets, come to pay tribute and marvel at the glittering
+beauty of the city. There is no want of food and the very water is sweet
+as the juice of the sugar-cane, and night and day the air resounds with
+music and stringed instruments. And all this is yours for the taking.”
+
+And heart-enthralling was the picture that rose before the Prince’s eyes
+in hearing, for he beheld Yashodara a Queen beside him, fair and royal,
+example to women, and between his knees his son Rahula proud and
+gentle—a great King to be, and a happy people sheltered in his
+shadow—a noble people enlightening the dark tribes about them. And the
+soft voice proceeded like the breathing melody of a flute.
+
+“Nor are the Gods forgotten in the city of Ayodhya; great reverence is
+done them, and were a royal saint upon the throne, crime would be
+banished and forgotten and the Golden Age return to earth. O bountiful
+and merciful, all this is in your hands. There also are troops of noble
+Brahmans, celebrated for learning and piety, for it were shame indeed if
+greatness of mind and soul were forgotten in the pleasure of the senses.
+No—far otherwise. And with such wisdom, there is no poverty, for every
+householder is rich in horses and cattle and food. All possess earrings
+and garlands, each is content with his own gains, free from
+covetousness, speaking the truth.”
+
+And when the sweet subtle voice ceased the Prince replied:
+
+“Then it is only I who shall be covetous—I, who must plunge this happy
+city in blood and tears that I may take it to be my slave? And the King
+who has made them happy I must slay. Is this what you would have me do?”
+
+And the Tempter replied gravely.
+
+“Prince, there is no good but what it might be better, and if that King
+is wise you are wiser. Turn again to Kapila and to glory, and to the
+good of mankind and this that I promise shall befall in seven days.”
+
+Then summoning his fortitude, Siddhartha said slowly.
+
+“This city filled with pleasure, beauty and wealth, with wisdom and
+content,—is it safely protected, O wise one? Is it well fortified
+against attack?”
+
+And eager was the voice of the Tempter.
+
+“Well asked, O Prince, and wisely. It is fortified as never city in the
+world’s history. About it goes a mighty wall where the King’s chariots
+may drive abreast, and about that a moat wide and deep, and there is a
+host of warriors, each able to combat with a thousand. Never city so
+safe. Nor could even yourself conquer it did I not give you friends
+within the gates.”
+
+“Then is it certain that age, disease and death, those fell enemies,
+must needs stay outside? They cannot enter in this guarded city?” So
+said the Prince.
+
+There was silence. And presently Siddhartha answering the subtle voice
+said:
+
+“Go from me, thou Ancient Evil! The snare is set too plain. For all
+their wealth this miserable people must suffer and decay and die like
+all the world and their riches are but a pang the more. Truly one day I
+may come to Ayodhya and as a conqueror bringing great riches in my hand
+for their good, but not thus—not thus!”
+
+And in his heart the subtle voice was stilled and he rose and went on
+his way with bleeding feet. And as he went he said this to himself:
+
+“Before the days when I considered the terrors of re-birth, old age,
+disease and death, I sought after such merchandise as the merchandise of
+Kosala, subject to all these lures. But now, seeing the danger, awake
+and alert, let me seek only after the things which have no part in
+these, even the supreme joy and security of the Peace.”
+
+But though he did not know it, that Tempter followed, for who is immune
+from his arts, and he thought, watching the serenity of the Prince:
+
+“This time he has conquered, but sooner or later even if riches fail
+some hurtful or malicious thought will burn within him and then—then he
+is mine.”
+
+And from that hour he crept behind the Prince on the watch for sin,
+cleaving to him like a shadow which follows the object from which it
+falls.
+
+So after long journeying he came to Rajagriha—name never to be
+forgotten because once the Light of the world sojourned there. And this
+was the capital of King Bimbisara, King of Magadha, and it lay very
+pleasantly in an eastern valley of holy Ganges, surrounded by the five
+mountains of the Vindhya range, and these are beautiful though but as
+foothills comparing them with those great ramparts of the Gods—the
+mountains beyond Kapila.
+
+Now in these Vindhya mountains are caves in the lower hills, all grown
+about by trees, in the solitude yet not so far but what an ascetic may
+go to the city if needful, and in these caves certain learned and holy
+Brahmans had established themselves and to each came disciples, counting
+this world as husks if they might rise to the heavens on strong wings of
+knowledge and belief.
+
+Coming wearily through the forest, pale and worn with unused hardships,
+the Prince climbed upward to the caves shaded by great trees and in an
+excellent quiet, and at last before him he saw the mouth of a cave hung
+with vines and grown about by bushes in blossom, and before it sat a man
+clothed in a garment of red bark, and he was in the lotus posture to
+ward off evil, and the Prince seeing him thus meditating passed around
+him respectfully three times and took his seat in silence at a proper
+distance, waiting his pleasure.
+
+So time went by, and the ascetic never stirred though his shadow shifted
+as the sun went on his golden journey westward, and Siddhartha meditated
+on the Way of Peace, wondering if the man before him had its key, and to
+him too the time was not long, and the cool shade bathed his wounded
+feet and refreshed them.
+
+And at last the ascetic returned to earth and looked at him with
+visionary incurious eyes while the Prince waited respectfully, and
+finally he accosted Siddhartha, asking what had brought him hither, to
+whom the Prince dutifully replied, for a teacher is more even than a
+parent, being a spiritual and not a fleshly father, and he besought his
+instruction.
+
+And having heard, the Brahman Alara considered awhile, and agreed that
+he should study the Vedas and Upanishads, those ancient holy scriptures,
+under his guidance and amid the families of holy persons, both men and
+women, who dwelt in the caves and woods each engaged in religious duties
+and pursuing the way to Heaven.
+
+And the Prince, with folded hands, said humbly:
+
+“I am but a beginner, great sir; I do not know the rules of the
+religious life. Be pleased to grant me information.”
+
+And that twice-born Brahman of high lineage informed Siddhartha of the
+rules of the various teachers and of the fruits expected from their
+practices. He declared how some lived only on food proceeding from pure
+water, some subsisting on edible roots and tender twigs, others on
+fruits and flowers some, like deer, eating grass and herbs, others again
+begging their food and giving it in charity, keeping only the crumbs and
+remnants for themselves.
+
+Also he named those ascetics who torture the body in order to subdue it,
+those who let water drop continually on their heads—and many more,
+cunning in devising sufferings and cruel austerities, so that at the end
+of every life they may purchase birth in Heaven and taste divine
+tranquillities and pleasures before they are again launched into the
+dreary sea of mortal existence.
+
+“And thus,” he said, “are great joys attained, impossible to be
+described in words, delectable to the soul.”
+
+And the Prince heard with reverence, and the ascetics, men and women who
+dwelt in the woods and caves, seeing the beauty of his face and his
+serenity and courtesy were moved with wonder and admiration,
+saying—“Who is this most beautiful young man, so calm and noble? Surely
+he has the appearance of a great Prince and can be no other. Well is it
+when such forsake the world’s things for the things of the Gods.”
+
+And his master appointed a cave for his dwelling tapestried with nests
+of the wild black bees, and dripped about in one part with golden honey,
+but because the holy men were friendly to all creatures and disturbed
+none of their combs but only ate a little of the dripped honey, the bees
+were friendly also and pleasant companions, their myriad voices soothing
+to meditation as the sounds of a great ocean far off.
+
+Here dwelt Siddhartha joining in the strong chanting of Vedic hymns and
+hearing the recital of the Vedas and Upanishads, for books were
+none—the memories of men carrying all knowledge, and he learnt these
+things with a swiftness almost incredible, because his heart was in it.
+And when food was needed, clad in his yellow garment he took his begging
+bowl, and went down to the city begging from house to house, for he
+considered thus:
+
+“Full of hindrances is the household life; the haunt of passion. Free as
+air is the homeless state,” and all the luxuries of his former life
+seemed empty as a dream that flies at dawn. “Better is the alms of food
+I beg than the wines and fruits cooled in snow, the rich meats and
+costly of Kapila.” So he said night and day, though at first his soul
+loathed the food.
+
+Now one day when he went to the town of Giribaja to beg his food it so
+happened that the King of Magadha, Bimbisara, stood on the high terrace
+of his palace, looking down the street, and he saw the young ascetic
+coming slowly, holding his bowl in his hands and courteously accepting
+what was given. And there was that in the nobility of his person and
+evident signs of Aryan birth which arrested the eyes of the King and he
+said to those about him.
+
+“Look upon this man, lords, beautiful is he, great and pure. He is
+guarded in conduct: his eyes do not wander, he looks not more than a
+fathom’s length before him. Such a man is of no low caste. See how, like
+a great noble, he is self-possessed and serene, moving in solitary
+majesty as the moon among faint stars. Send my royal messengers and
+inquire where that mendicant goes.”
+
+And the messengers ran at the King’s word and hurried down into the
+street saying to one another.
+
+“Where is that Bhikkhu[1] going? It is toward the mountain Pandava. That
+must be his abode.”
+
+-----
+
+[1] Monk.
+
+-----
+
+And having followed where Siddhartha went they returned to the King and
+told him—
+
+“On the eastern slope of Mount Pandava that Bhikku has taken his seat, a
+King among men as the tiger among beasts.”
+
+And the King said, “Bring out my chariot,” and he directed it to the
+mountain.
+
+Now when the road ended he did not return discouraged but dismounting
+went onward climbing up on foot until he came near to where the Prince
+sat, and there with eagerness and courtesy the King greeted him, for as
+lions know their kind, not mistaking them for jackals, so is it with the
+great. And the King took his seat on a rock, saying:
+
+“I beseech you, sir, to tell me your family and lineage. Young are you,
+a man in his first youth, fine and delicate in colour, the glory of the
+vanguard of an army. I would lay wealth at your feet, if wealth
+delighted you. Speak, and tell me your mind.”
+
+And as he spoke the nobles stood grouped about to hear, correcting every
+careless or unseemly gesture because the man was great and the very air
+about him pure, and they beheld with joy his noble body bright as gold,
+his eyes of darkest blue, and the kingliness of his manners.
+
+And the Prince replied with gratitude and noble courtesy:
+
+“Great King, kind and liberal is your heart, and precious your
+generosity to my own, but all these things lie behind me far as dawn
+from sunset. I had wealth and power, and more, but regarding these
+things as hindrances to perception I am come out into the solitude to
+seek the Way of Peace.”
+
+And having thus begun he related to the King his family and history and
+all about them held breath to listen.
+
+And the King, sighing, at last said this:
+
+“Noble one, I cannot but reverence your choice yet I lament it, for the
+world has need of you. I would share my kingdom with you could that
+shake your resolution. There is nothing I could refuse would it draw you
+to us again for I see you surpassing other men and have not known your
+like.”
+
+But the steadfast Prince replied:
+
+“Illustrious and world-renowned, descendant of Arya, your words are
+heard with deep veneration. Righteous and sincere, you speak the truth,
+and virtue is not confined to any one school of thought—the sun lights
+the whole world and the Way of a great and just king is blessed. But for
+me, I have heard a call. My way is onward and behind me lie the Five
+Desires. Would a hare rescued from a serpent’s jaws go back to be
+devoured? As little would I return to the dreams and illusions that have
+fallen from me. King, there are many quests and mine is to find
+deliverance for the world from the Wheel of Agony that turns and turns
+and will not cease through pitiless ages of rebirth and sorrow. There is
+a way,—and I have given all that I may find it. But you—return, O wise
+King, to your happy city. May you direct and defend your subjects in
+peace. May the Gods be good to you. May all good go with you.”
+
+And the King replied with gratitude and noble courtesy said these words:
+
+“That which you seek, great Prince, may you attain, receiving the
+perfect fruit of your birth. And when this is gained I pray you return
+to me that I also may share in your wisdom, and graciously receive me as
+one who would learn.”
+
+So the Prince rising, with courteous salutations, pursued his way to the
+solitude, and the King and his nobles with folded hands followed a
+little way in reverence and then with thoughtful and mindful hearts
+returned to the city.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+So while the Prince went on into the woods, turning his steadfast face
+to the dawn of Enlightenment, Channa the charioteer went slowly back to
+Kapila, grieving and weeping, leading the noble horse, for he had most
+surely hoped that where his lord went he might follow, having proved
+himself faithful; and as the darkness of night closed in upon him he
+wavered, halting and looking behind him and then again proceeding,
+irresolute in mind.
+
+And the horse also grieved for his master, going heavily, his head bowed
+that was held so nobly, neither would he eat grass nor drink water, and
+no joy nor spirit were left in him, for he thought “I shall never see
+him again.” And even as he thought this, his great heart broke for
+grief, and he died. But in a happy place was he reborn because of his
+fidelity, even as the Prince had foreseen, for in no world can love lose
+the blessedness of its love.
+
+But Channa went yet more slowly, weeping a second sorrow, and to him the
+land appeared withered as when a man returns to a ruined city which once
+he knew glad and living, and it seemed as though the sun hidden behind a
+mountain no longer enlightened the world.
+
+So the men about the way, seeing him in grief, turned again to look, and
+consternation seized them and one cried aloud:
+
+“Where is the Prince—beloved of the world? Have you taken him away by
+stealth? Where is he hidden?”
+
+And Channa halting, said with sighs;
+
+“I who followed him always with a loving heart, would I have left him?
+Little do you know me! He has dismissed me,—O men of Kapila! He has
+buried himself in the forests to live the life of an ascetic.”
+
+And those who listened heard this with dark foreboding, for it appeared
+to them that things deep, strange, and mysterious had suddenly appeared
+in their way, and that the very world had changed in its course if such
+things could be. What had there been lacking to the Prince that he
+should go out thus to seek it? What had he beheld, invisible to them?
+
+And the news spread from them to the city and men and women rushed out
+to the gates, and when they saw that Channa wept as he returned in
+loneliness, they, not understanding whether the Prince was dead or
+alive, cried out.
+
+“What has befallen? Surely sorrow is added to sorrow.”
+
+And like the flash of lightning news spread to the House of the Garden
+and the women of the palace, their hair dishevelled about them, their
+robes flung hastily on as for a night-alarm, came pouring down to the
+doors that they might hear the worst, and when they saw the charioteer
+alone, they raised a loud and bitter cry. So women mourn the beloved
+dead when hope itself is dead with him.
+
+And the cry reached Prajapati, aunt and foster-mother of the Prince,
+sister of Maya his mother, and she wept, saying to herself.
+
+“Alas—his beauty, his beauty! O my son, who was there to compare with
+him? I see his dark locks bound with gold, his eyes blue and deep as the
+Ox-King’s, his broad shoulders and strong arms, a Tiger-King among men.
+How can it be endured that you should suffer the chills and heats of the
+forest and we, bereft and miserable, see you no more!”
+
+And the great lady threw herself upon the earth and so lay, with the
+women sitting about her, held motionless by strong grief, as marble
+images.
+
+And when at last one gathered up courage to tell the Princess she sent
+for Channa, towering in indignation above him like an angry Queen.
+
+“O faithless man, and trusted in vain! evil contriver, false
+servant!—beneath these pretended tears there is a hidden smile. You
+went out with him and alone you return. What have you done? Better an
+open enemy than a false friend. Alas, the sorrows of our line! Surely
+his noble mother died foreseeing the grief of to-day, for our house is
+left unto us desolate!”
+
+And Channa, pierced to the soul and thunderstruck, was silent, and she
+spoke again.
+
+“You weep aloud now. Why did you not awake the Palace when he went? Then
+all might have been saved. Now it is too late.”
+
+So, folding his hands, with no anger in his heart, for the agony of the
+Princess was visible, the true Channa replied:
+
+“Great Lady, have pity on my grief, for I am innocent in this. In my
+soul I believe it was the Gods’ doing. From the day of his birth there
+have been portents, and who was I to stand against it?”
+
+Then the Princess, just and noble of soul, recollected herself,
+regretting her words, knowing well that the burden of the Gods’ purpose
+is their own and cannot be charged upon a man, and she spoke gently to
+him, and when he was gone she sat alone mourning, recalling the face and
+voice of her Prince, and slowly as the strong grief overburdened her she
+slipped down strengthless from the golden cushions and lay upon the
+ground, her empty arms stretched out before her.
+
+So her women found her, and as they raised her tenderly, she said this
+only:
+
+“Take away my golden bed where my lord and I lay, for henceforth I will
+lie upon bare earth. Take away my robes of silk and my jewels and bring
+me the yellow robe of the mendicant, for I am beggared indeed.
+Henceforth I will wear no other. Cut off my long hair, for I have done
+with beauty. And once a day and once only, bring me the food of the
+mendicant, such as will keep the flame of life alight and no more, for
+as to pleasure, the name of it is forgotten.”
+
+And as she said so was it done, and the long and perfumed tresses that
+touched her lovely feet fell about her like a dropped veil, and thus she
+lived henceforward, and for her child’s sake only.
+
+But as to the Maharaja his case was different, for love and anger
+contended in him, and his thoughts charged each other as in battle,
+rushing madly hither and thither like a herd of wild elephants. And when
+his nobles gathered about him he raged aloud before them:
+
+“Once I had a son. Now I have none. What is my kingdom to me, and my
+horribly echoing empty palace? And what are rule and dominance? Why was
+he given to be taken?”
+
+And for all the royal priest and the wise minister could do, they could
+not assuage his wrath and grief until the thought occurred to them that
+they might follow the wanderer and yet compel or persuade him to return.
+Then, and then only, the King listened:
+
+“Go,” he said, “and swiftly. Let not a breath intervene between now and
+your going, for life is unendurable until you return with him.”
+
+So in great haste the priest and minister set out on the way indicated
+by Channa, counting every instant of time they lost precious as dropped
+grains of pearl.
+
+And when they were come to the forests and hills of Rajagriha, they
+asked their way of the wandering religious persons whom they met, and of
+the cave-dwelling ascetics, and to these grave persons they said:
+
+“We are come, beseeching your aid. We serve a King like to the greatest
+of the Gods and his son, beautiful as the God who pierces hearts, has
+forsaken us and gone out into the solitudes seeking a remedy against old
+age, disease, and death, a thing no man can find. Knowing this, tell us,
+we entreat, where we may find him.”
+
+And the ascetics replied:
+
+“We know him and his beauty and nobleness. He is gone to the cave of
+Alara the Brahman that he may seek for illumination.”
+
+Scarcely giving themselves time to hear and to utter thanks those two
+old men, the priest and minister, hurried on.
+
+Now as they did so the awe of the place and its quiet and the spirit of
+deep contemplation arising from the residence of so many holy persons
+fell on them, and insensibly their speed slackened, and neither said
+this to the other, but the same influence was upon them both, and as
+they had abandoned the royal chariot when the track ceased, so also they
+now divested themselves of the insignia of their high offices, and
+advanced humbly towards their destination. And as they went they saw a
+young ascetic seated beneath a tree, his hands folded and eyes fixed
+upon the running water of a stream before his feet, and he heard their
+steps and rising saluted them, and it was their Prince.
+
+Surely words cannot tell how this sight moved them—they who had seen
+him far otherwise, who perceived about him now a difference immeasurable
+even in thought!
+
+But they saluted him with more than the old obedience, and being hidden
+took their seats beside him as the twin stars attend the moon. And about
+them was the vast quiet and silence and shadow of the forest.
+
+Then choosing their words with care as a warrior chooses the arrows that
+shall lose his life or save it, in turn they set before him the
+condition of his father the King, asking him with deep earnestness how
+it could be right in his eyes to abandon all his duties, inflicting
+sorrow worse than death upon those he loved and left.
+
+And when they had spoken, only the little running water took up the tale
+for the Prince meditated upon their words, and they dared not interpose.
+
+After a long interval he raised his head and answered:
+
+“This is well spoken, but I have entered the road wherein is no turning.
+For it is not for myself only that I seek the remedy, but for all
+creation. And to me the earth is filled with this thought and with this
+only, and however you may use the sorcery of words to bewilder me it
+fails. I have heard and I will again hear your plea, but this is and
+will be my answer—The sun, the moon, forsaking the sky, may fall to
+earth, the snowy mountains topple from their base, but I will never
+change my purpose.”
+
+And having said this he rose, and the two with him, and they, seeing
+that they broke themselves against rock, answered gently:
+
+“My Prince, it is enough. No more remains to be said. We will intrude
+our presence on you no more, but will return to the King and lay your
+fixed resolution before him.”
+
+And they saluted him, and returned slowly through the forest, pausing
+here and there as they went to speak with the calm and untroubled
+inhabitants who therein sought the treasure of wisdom, eager to
+understand from them if possible the teaching which as the nectar of
+flowers draws the bee, had drawn the Prince to the homeless life. Hard
+was it to comprehend, and at last, sad and bewildered, they emerged from
+the green ocean of leaves to the light of common day and mounting the
+chariot, plied lash and shout hastening homeward, and thus was the last
+tie with Kapila broken.
+
+And the Prince remained behind them, upborne by the love of those he had
+forsaken, a love too great for them and such as they to comprehend.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Then for patient years. Siddhartha, the Buddha to be,—struggled to the
+light in the forest, finding none. Surely was this the dark night of the
+soul wherein not so much as a star gleams in the thick and stifling
+midnight.
+
+With Alara he studied long and patiently, so mastering his system of
+thought that the ascetics who followed Alara besought the Prince to
+become their master. But this he would not, for he discerned no finality
+in this teaching, nor any real deliverance, because desire is not
+extinguished even though it be for high things, and though it be held
+but by a finger the ego of man is drawn again and yet again into the
+revolving wheel that mangles him,—the wheel of birth and death.
+
+Therefore abandoning the teacher Alara he went sorrowfully on to the
+teacher Uddaka, that wise dweller in solitude, and with him he studied
+in patience, hoping yet against hope that here at last might be the
+beginning of light.
+
+And he mastered this system also, confronting his instructor with
+difficulties which could be neither explained nor overcome,—finding
+that Uddaka promised a glittering heaven not founded upon the
+Unchangeable, but transitory, vanishing, illusory. And here too the Way
+was not, nor the unchanging Law.
+
+Then at last on his long patience dawned a certainty—that no help was
+in any son of man, that the riddle was too high for them and their wings
+fluttered lamed in the blue and awful heights where his own thoughts
+soared—and that even this height was not high enough. And within
+himself he said:—
+
+“What I have learned here I have learned and there is no more. The
+pasture is eaten bare. I will go on alone into the forests of Uruvela
+and there I will practise a terrible asceticism beyond all I have seen
+in Rajagriha, for it may be these men are right who teach that in the
+destruction of the body lies enfranchisement of the soul. I cannot tell,
+but I will pass by no opening which may set my feet in the Way.”
+
+So travelling alone (for he said in his heart:
+
+“If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better or his equal
+let him steadfastly keep to his solitary journey: there is no
+companionship with a fool.”) He came at last to the town of Uruvela, and
+when he saw the place he loved it, and long afterwards, when
+Enlightenment was come he spoke of it thus.
+
+“Then, O disciples, I thought within myself, Surely this is a place dear
+and delightful. The forest is wide and deep. There flows a pure river,
+with little creeks where a man may bathe, and fair lie the villages of
+the simple people. This is a good place for one in search of
+deliverance.”
+
+But he was very weary, and often he said to his heart:
+
+“Long is the night to him who is awake, long is a mile to him who is
+tired, long is life to him who knows not the true Law. O that it would
+shine upon me in this gross darkness.”
+
+And there in the great woods he set himself to a cruel discipline so
+that other wood-dwellers marvelled at his austerities though themselves
+treading a painful way. And of these were in especial five, of whom more
+hereafter. And they established themselves within reasonable distance,
+hoping to learn from him when he should attain, and talking with him of
+great things.
+
+So by the river in the forest composing his body and mind he set himself
+to contemplation lessening his food little by little daily until he
+subsisted on a morsel incredible to the mind of man, and even this he
+would have spared had it been possible that the attenuated body could
+still have caged the soul. And after awhile he spoke to no man, sitting
+lost in far-off regions they could not enter, even controlling his
+breath so that scarcely could he be said to breathe at all.
+
+So still, so motionless, he sat day-long that he became a part of nature
+as much as the tree that sheltered him, and the creatures of the forest
+moved about him unafraid. The furry mothers brought their cubs to nestle
+by his feet, and winged mothers lit upon his shoulders to call their
+broods, and at his feet the wild peacock outspread his jewelled fans,
+and fear was unknown in the still presence of the Bodhisattva—the
+Buddha-to-be.
+
+Far and wide spread the fame of this great and noble ascetic in the
+woods of Uruvela, and persons would journey from the city that they
+might stand far off and see him lost in meditation, and when, looking
+timidly through the boughs, they beheld his starved body like a withered
+tree and his calm unseeing eyes they were moved with wonder and
+compassion, and went away very softly, in their hearts entreating his
+prayers and blessings.
+
+But lost in deep meditation Siddhartha was beyond prayer or blessing and
+whether they came or went, he neither saw nor knew.
+
+Making his way perfect through the disentangling powers of wisdom,
+fasting cruelly, yet not trusting in this austerity for enfranchisement,
+he strengthened in heart and wisdom even as his body weakened.
+
+And first he meditated on transience, and all about him confirmed the
+truth, for nothing stayed but all became and passed instantly, never
+resting, into further becoming. About him the seasons trod their quiet
+round. Scarcely had the young spring burst into blossom, when, before
+she had leisure to mirror her beauty in the river at his feet, she was
+lost in the burning splendour of summer, and this passed without pause
+or division into the gold and orange fruitage of autumn and the
+passionate weeping of the rains, and so ended in the temperate sweetness
+of winter, there to recommence the eternal Wheel of Change.
+
+And he thought: “There is no being, for all is becoming. On what shall
+we build?”
+
+And before him the spider spun her frail thread, glittering with morning
+dew, lovely as a queen’s garments in the pale morning gold that filtered
+through green leaves. And so in a moment it was gone. And he thought:
+
+“Surely the existence of man is frailer. A blow, a breath of pestilence
+and he lies broken, an offence to the earth. To appear, to disappear.
+Such is the history of man as of the meanest of insects.” And before his
+strained perception unrolled itself the whole vast phantasmagoria of
+thought like a veil hung to conceal the Permanent, the Eternal, and he
+could not penetrate behind it. Before him were the steps by which the
+creature ascends to the Source, but in the height they dissolved into
+vapour and dispersed into cloud and there was no way there.
+
+And sometimes so present were the evil and pain of life to his vision,
+so unescapable their presence, that for a space it seemed the perfection
+of divine attainment was but an infinite of the first power, but evil
+and pain an infinite of immeasurable power, terrible in perfection. And
+to a lesser than the Bodhisattva this must have brought madness or
+despair, but strong as an eagle to the sun he outsoared the dark clouds.
+And unknown to himself nature spread her guards about him. In the rising
+of the moon was peace and her light shed tenderer dreams like the soft
+falling of snow, and the strong leap of the sun at dawn in the first of
+his three strides, was the outrush of hope—hope unfulfilled but ever on
+before. And the breeze was good to him, laying a cool hand on weary
+temples, and the singing of the river overflowed from the very heart of
+quiet.
+
+And as the tapestry of life unrolled its pictures before his eyes he
+read its lesson. Happiness is a dream and sorrow a truth and individual
+life a misfortune from which impersonal contemplation is the only
+enfranchisement. Could this be true? Could it be possible that a barren
+soul, a proud and complete selfishness and heedlessness of all other
+sufferers than himself, disdain of the crowd and indifference to all
+that the vulgar covet, represent the only escape for the wise man from
+the entanglements of Maya—Illusion? No—a thousand times no! Better to
+drop into the jaws of darkness and be extinguished than remain petrified
+and apart in a world where men must bleed and die.
+
+Then is goodness itself a lie? Is man the eternal dupe of words and
+phrases contrived to make us docile to suffering as slaves to the whip?
+Is hope but a watery rainbow painted on a dissolving cloud? Is the Way
+itself a dream begotten of Misery, the Mother, and Pride, the
+father—Pride that will have man think himself a something when in
+reality he is nothing and his fate concerns the universe as much as
+blown grains of sand in a whirlwind, rising and settling as aimlessly?
+
+And at such times the Bodhisattva felt the endless turning of the Wheel
+within his own soul, and a vertigo of perception seized him as the
+Infinities gazed over his head in untroubled calm, and only the Wheel
+turned and turned in merciless revolution.
+
+Then were it not better to submit to passive ignorance and fight no
+more? To sink into wearied submission, accepting the lash and fetter for
+doom? For each life is built up of millions, and where is the redemption
+for its infinite littleness? Let all pass for all is nothing.
+
+But at such times he steadied himself upon the thought of Law. Could a
+man nobly agree with necessity which is the other name of Law, were that
+no peace and enlightenment? Is not Law beheld in nature? What is this
+incessant changing yet unchanging series of phenomena unperplexed by
+self-contemplation and analysis which man sees about him. What? Is it a
+play—a spectacle that Brahm the Universal Spirit has set in motion for
+Its own delight, or is it Itself expanded throughout the Universe, and
+if this be so is man the one thing outside Its circumference, and if he
+be within it, shall he only be ignorant of the Law and agonized because
+he does not obey it? If man is capable of conceiving the Law surely it
+exists and is his and him.
+
+So he looked down the abyss and beheld nothing but persistence in change
+and the infinity of infinities. Was there anywhere a fixed point? Surely
+only in the relation of all to Law. Therefore he hungered and thirsted
+for Law, forgetting the emaciation of his body and its pitiable
+weakness, thirsting for the Way with a deathly thirst that consumed him,
+rendering him incapable of all other suffering.
+
+But though he knew full well and each day perceived more clearly that
+the climax of wisdom is perception of this universal Law from which
+nothing—no, not the very soul of man is exempt—still it evaded him.
+Freedom from deception he attained, diamond-clear lucidity, certainty
+that there is a first principle and final aim of the Universe, but the
+Way to touch hands with it he could not find.
+
+Thus, having caught but a glimpse of the Absolute like a star in driven
+clouds, he had gained the certainty of what is not, but not as yet the
+knowledge of what is, and there even the majesty of the Bodhisattva’s[2]
+intellect fell back baffled, and at last his mind became like a dimness
+in which thought itself lost its way and analysis stumbled, and the
+clear call became like the falling of a great water in which many sounds
+fuse into a confused roar in which nothing but mere noise is to be
+discerned, deafening the ears and confusing the senses.
+
+-----
+
+[2] The Buddha-to-be.
+
+-----
+
+And thus he sat for six long years, and at the end though he had
+discerned the perishable, the transient, the Eternal Way was far from
+his perception, and life rushed by him from an unknown beginning to a
+hopeless end, defending itself frantically for a few brief years, but in
+the end conquered, and the man broken in the frail edifice which is
+called his being.
+
+And now he was so wasted that life hung in him by a thread worn slender
+as a spider’s, and the fame of his terrible austerities had spread like
+the sound of a great bell hung in the canopy of the skies, and if he had
+gained what he sought all this would have counted as nothing in his
+eyes, but in the long six years he had not gained, and his mind tortured
+him because now it seemed that it broke itself and its power dispersed
+like a mighty wave broken on rocks and fleeing in foam and spray. And
+one day when he rose to his feet, still drowned in hopeless meditation,
+his limbs failed beneath him, and he fell and so lay exhausted, spent,
+believing “This is death, and I am conquered.”
+
+And it could not be otherwise for very terrible had been his austerities
+and later he told his disciple this.
+
+“I remember when a crab-apple was my only daily food. I remember when a
+single grain of rice was my only grain of food. And my body became
+extremely thin and lean. Like dried withered reeds my arms and legs, my
+hips like a camel’s hoof, like a plait of hair my spine. As project the
+rafters of a house’s roof, so raggedly stuck out my ribs. As in a
+deep-lying brook the watery mirror beneath appears so small as almost to
+disappear, so in the deep hollows of my eye-pits my eye-balls well nigh
+wholly disappeared. As a gourd becomes shrivelled and hollow in the hot
+sun so did the skin of my head become parched. And pressing my stomach
+my hands touched my spine, and feeling my spine my hand felt through to
+the stomach. And yet with all this mortification I came no nearer to the
+supernatural faculty of clearness of knowledge.”
+
+So for a long time he lay in the borderland of death, and had this been
+the end—O Light of the World extinguished, O Sun set at dawn!—but it
+was not to be, and slowly, very slowly, consciousness returned, and his
+heavy eyelids lifted and once more he beheld the light. And he thought:
+
+“If I could creep down to the river the waters, warm and kindly, would
+refresh me, and thought would perhaps return to me, and a little rest.”
+
+And painful inch by inch Siddhartha crept down to the river, supporting
+himself as he went by the extended hands of branches, and in a warm
+shallow of water, sparkling in green shade he lay, foredone, and it
+flowed about him gently, bringing healing.
+
+And the five ascetics watching him from far off said to each other:
+
+“He will die now; the ascetic Gotama will die now. It is not possible
+that a man so worn and exhausted should live.”
+
+And indeed, when he tried to struggle up and leave the kindly water,
+there was no strength in him and he could not rise. And it is told that
+a heavenly spirit pressed down a branch that he might reach it and
+support himself. This it is certain he did, laying hold on a bough which
+dipped over its own image in still water, and he crept up the bank,
+dizzily, and seated himself beneath a tree, supporting his weakness
+against it, with closed eyes.
+
+And now, being refreshed, he had power to reflect, and he said within
+himself.
+
+“This way of mortification has failed me also. Like other ways I have
+sought this beats against a shut door and there is no help in it. My
+body is so broken that it can no longer support the intellect. I will
+eat and drink and strengthen this tortured body that it may still be the
+servant of the higher in me, no longer complaining of its own griefs and
+diverting attention from the goal. For it is possible that what I have
+already learned has prepared the way to Right Ecstasy and that in
+ecstasy I may behold the beginning of the Wisdom which in all the
+methods I have tried has been hidden from me.”
+
+And even as he thought this the strong weakness overwhelmed him again
+and he could think no more.
+
+Now, on the other side of the wood dwelt a chief herdsman, very wealthy
+in cattle and rice, owning land far-spreading and fertile in the rich
+water-meadows by the river, and he had a daughter fair and wise, named
+Sujata. And reaching womanhood this fair maiden had made a vow to the
+Tree-Spirit of the forest, saying:
+
+“If I should wed a husband of equal rank with myself and my first-born
+should be a son, then would I make a noble offering every year, never
+forgetting the benefit.” And this prayer was heard, and her first-born
+son lay upon her bosom.
+
+So wishing to make her offering on the day of the full moon, she
+pastured a thousand cows in the woods, and with their milk she nourished
+five hundred cows, and with theirs two hundred and fifty, drawing life
+through life until at last she possessed eight cows thus fed on the
+strength and life of a thousand, and no purer nor stronger milk could
+be. And this being ready Sujata rose earlier than dawn and, went to the
+byre with her pails, and as she came near the milk flowed in streams
+without milking, even as when the calves crowd for their food about
+their mothers.
+
+So she took it and placed it in a new vessel and added rice, and herself
+made a fire and cooked it. And the bubbles rose and froth, but not a
+drop ran over the brim, and the fire burned clear and steady without
+smoke or blackness. And as a man crushes golden honey from the comb that
+has formed about a stick—the very essence of honey—so into that pure
+food was infused a marvellous sustenance.
+
+And Sujata said to her waiting-maid, Punna:
+
+“Punna, dear girl, surely the deity is auspiciously disposed to us. The
+omens are good. Run therefore and get all ready beneath the tree.”
+
+And Punna answered obediently:
+
+“Yes, lady,” and ran.
+
+And when she came to the tree, the Bodhisattva—the Buddha-to-be—sat
+beneath it, and it appeared to her that his body shone like light and
+she flushed and trembled with terror, saying:
+
+“Good indeed are the omens, for this is the Tree-Spirit himself come to
+receive our offering!”
+
+And with all her might she ran to tell this to her lady, and when Sujata
+heard it she cried out:
+
+“From this day be to me as a daughter, for this great good news!”
+
+And running to where she kept her jewels she put upon the happy Punna
+all those ornaments suitable to a daughter of the house. And she
+thought; “What more can I do? For this is a great day,” and so took up a
+precious golden dish and into this she poured the milk-rice, and it
+rolled in like drops of water slipping off a lily-leaf and filled the
+vessel, neither more nor less. Then, covering it with a golden cover,
+she adorned herself with her best jewels and went stately to worship and
+make her offering.
+
+So she came along the banks of the river, glad in the dawn, robed in
+grey like a cloud before sunrise, and about her slender wrists were
+bracelets of white chalcedony and the grey and white of them resembled
+the colours of the rounded river-bubble before it breaks, and she came
+as softly.
+
+And parting the boughs she saw the Prince, his head fallen back against
+the tree, eyes closed and helpless hands beside him, and deep pity and
+veneration stirred in her heart, and seeing it was no Tree-Spirit but a
+holy man she thought “May he accept it!”
+
+And bowing repeatedly she raised the dish in both hands, entreating his
+greatness and thus offered it humbly, saying:
+
+“Lord, accept my gift and go where it seems good to you.” And he, seeing
+in this the accomplishment of his purpose, received it, and partook of
+that pure food while the happy giver watched with such delight as when a
+mother feeds her only child and beholds new life flow through his veins,
+and the very air about the Prince appeared to distil in dews of visible
+blessing upon her head and joy hitherto unknown possessed her noble
+soul. And she said:
+
+“Lord, may your wishes prosper as mine have done!”, and so departed,
+caring no more for her golden dish than as if it had been an autumn leaf
+upon the ground.
+
+But the five ascetics, watching far off with greedy eyes, said:
+
+“The ascetic Gotama has failed. He is now mere man. Like the common herd
+he eats and drinks. He has nothing to teach us—nothing! Mistaken indeed
+were we in thinking to learn from a mere backslider! It is done and
+over, and the Gods are angry with him.”
+
+So they turned their backs in scorn and departed to Benares, there to
+resume their austerities.
+
+But when Sujata was gone, timidly receiving thanks, the Future Buddha
+arose and stood beneath the tree, refreshed in heart and body, his face
+shining with renewed strength, his energy swelling like a river in spate
+rushing rejoicing to the sea.
+
+And he knew that that place where for six years he had pursued a
+vanishing truth could hold him no more, its use being ended, and he set
+steadfast steps toward the tree.
+
+O Tree of Wisdom, Tree of Knowledge unsearchable, Tree whereunder the
+world’s deliverance was attained,—through all the rain of years between
+our sight and thee, shall we not look back and behold and veil our
+faces? For beneath this Tree was Wisdom perfected.
+
+Then taking his way, Bodhisattva begged from a man cutting grass for his
+cattle, an armful of pure and pliant grass, and, going onward, he saw
+before him that Tree of Knowledge, broad-leaved, noble, a tower of
+leafage, and knowing that this was where time and place meeting clasped
+hands, he spread the grass and seated himself with folded hands and feet
+beneath the pillared stems and the night came quietly down the woodland
+ways and veiled him from the sight of man.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Yet of what follows I veil my face in writing, for it is high, holy, and
+beyond the mind of man to conceive, nor can it be told but in great
+parables, for by pictures we teach little children. It is the Arhats
+only,—the perfected saints,—who comprehend and can distinguish the
+symbol from the truth.
+
+Bodhisattva was tempted in the wilderness. Against him that Wicked One
+led his hosts, strong and cunning to daunt and allure. And as our Lord
+sat there in peace, suddenly the calm sea, heaven-reflecting, of his
+mind, was tossed and torn into wild billows as in a furious storm, and
+foes which he had thought conquered, rose mighty against him, some most
+infinitely sweet, piercing the heart with a pain more to be desired than
+joy.
+
+For, shaping on the dark like a picture—but real, so real that he had
+but to rise and enter, came the lost heaven of Kapila, where Rohini
+flowed in liquid light, and there in cool green shades he beheld those
+loveliest in whose arms once he lay. Soft bosoms, intolerably sweet
+after long pain and loneliness, entreated him to rest. Deep eyes,
+love-filled, invited. And at the last one alone drew near him and it
+seemed that in that one fair face was centred all beauty that was his in
+those far days. In one all wooed him.
+
+“Come to me—Come to me. Dear lord, you have borne torture for long
+years and grief exceeding. You have hungered and thirsted and wept tears
+of blood and still the Way eludes you, and all was vain. There is no
+Way. It is delusion. Vain it must be: not thus is Paradise found. Love
+is heaven—there is no other.”—So said the Beautiful kneeling before
+him, most dear and desirable, with passionate dark eyes more eloquent
+than music plucked on harp or sitar, words spoken between kisses and the
+slackening and straining of arms that are the bonds of love. On his
+knees he felt the warmth of her golden bosom, sun-kissed fruit for the
+tasting, on his hands the clasp of those little fingers that once
+clenched his heart.
+
+“Put away your pale dreams of Heaven. O Prince beloved!” she pleaded.
+“Heaven is here and now by bright Rohini. Come, taking and giving joy. O
+sad and wearied, and utterly foredone, come back to us and be made whole
+and glad. Am I not yours? Rest in my arms. Forget the cold ascetic, and
+be again our Prince, our warrior. Come! Time goes swiftly and the sands
+of life are blown about the desert and man knows them no more.”
+
+She moved as if to draw him with her, and all her naked loveliness swam
+rose and gold before his eyes, long hair, brightening at the
+tendril-ends, caressing the slender curves of perfect feet, the smile of
+victory touching soft lips,—breathless beauty waiting its fruition,
+queen and slave of men, thinking its victory won, looking downward half
+amazed at its own perfection.
+
+Then lifting her head that Beautiful regarded him in triumph as the moon
+rides serene over tossing waves, and lo! he sat motionless and unmoved,
+with eyes looking past her to a distant hope, and his face was set and
+calm as doom.
+
+And suddenly, shuddering together with the sighing shudder of leaves in
+cold rain, the sweet shape wavered, trembled like an image in water when
+the rings widen outward and all is dispersed, and it was gone, for the
+waste night closed about it and took it.
+
+But the garden remained—that home beloved, and a new and dearer shape
+wandered lonely by the river bank gazing steadfastly upward to the
+bright billows of the silver peaks, remote and pure as they, and she led
+by the hand a child. And surely he whom lust cannot conquer may
+unashamed kneel at the feet of love pure as the very sources of light!
+And his heart said “My Princess!” and almost ceased to beat, so strange,
+so sweet, that living bleeding memory;—and whether it was the voice of
+his own soul or hers he could not know,—but she seemed to shape the one
+word, “Beloved”, and so withdrawing her gaze from the mountains, looked
+at him, all love, all entreaty in those sunken eyes—beauty faded by
+grief, but stronger a thousandfold to plead with him, and mutely she
+showed the child, and so stood, waiting to know his sentence whether she
+must live or die.
+
+And round her like mourning shadows swept the image of his father, aged
+by grief and visibly stooping under the heavy burden; the gentle queen,
+sister of his mother, who had fed him from her own bosom, wrung her
+hands beside him and all the faithful friends and servants who had
+guarded his youth; and together they were the very voice of home, and
+his own heart asked itself, “Have I the right to hurt these faithful
+ones! But what are they and myriads like them to her—my wife, my son!”
+
+And whether he would have moved to reach her, I cannot tell, but
+suddenly, past all knowledge, he certainly knew that never could that
+great lady his wife present herself as an obstacle and a temptation, and
+that this was but a shift and a shape-changer not to be trusted,
+dangerous and cunning like the first, and steadfastly he gazed past her,
+his face set and calm as doom, and shrieking horribly she fled.
+
+And then, thick as rain in _Wasa_, fell delirious dreams and delusions,
+and there came about him frightful things, misshapen, goblin, the very
+spume and smoke of the pit, and there was a noise in the air, that
+stupified the brain, of shrieks and shouts and groans and terrible cries
+and far off wailings and it appeared as though great spirits fought in
+the air about him with the black armies of the Wicked One.
+
+And upon the night the Tempter flung a vast phantasmagoria of the power
+and splendour awaiting the Prince if he would but stoop to grasp them.
+King of the earth, throned and crowned, he saw himself. And flames shot
+about the pictures and huge confusions, and an ocean of terrors broke
+against him, and the billows threatened to overwhelm him, and he knew
+that did he relax but for the instant that a man blinks his eye, all
+were lost.
+
+But he sat motionless his face fixed and calm as doom, and it is told
+that in all the tumult not one leaf of the Tree flickered but hung still
+as if carved in stone. Within its shadow was calm: without tumult as
+when heaven and earth break together in storm.
+
+So the strife raged about him and Lust and Love, and Power and Wealth
+thundered or pleaded at his ear and could not move him. And huge
+elemental Powers led on their armies, deep instincts from the abyss of
+the primeval life of man, conqueering, cunning, rock-rooted, hard to be
+fought, beckoning, alluring, threatening. And some, robed like heavenly
+spirits, showed, as it were, the Way, but it was no way, and very
+terrible were the confusions, sights and sounds of that night of dread.
+Nor is it possible or lawful that all should be uttered.
+
+But when the worst and utmost were done and endured and no more
+remained, the Wicked One and his hosts, outwearied, ceased their
+torment, and very slowly the angry roar of the billows subsided and the
+foam of their fury stilled, and the mind of the Blessed One relaxed into
+peace, and the great darkness thinned as at the cold breath of dawn.
+
+The moon and the stars reappearing shed dying light, the barriers of the
+dark being removed. And now—the marvel,—the marvel!
+
+Let the Three Worlds wait in silence.
+
+Thus have I heard.
+
+For the east became grey, and all being now hushed, our Lord passed into
+deep and subtle contemplation and entered thus upon the First Stage of
+Ecstasy, and this was the First Watch.
+
+And, consciousness withdrawn into the Infinite, passing through the
+bounds of human comprehension, seeing the world as it truly is, not as
+it appears, his mind moved swiftly onward and upward as the eagle soars
+effortless to the sun, or rather, as the swimmer daring the current, is
+caught up and carried strongly and without volition to his desired end.
+For, be it known, this world about us is far other than it appears, and
+with enlightenment we pass free from the fetters of illusion. And this
+is Perception in which time as it is known in this our world ceases to
+exist.
+
+And in this Perception he beheld his past lives and all his former
+births, with their gains and losses, their sins and purities, as they
+passed steadily onward and led him inevitably to the Tree; seeing all at
+once as a picture.
+
+And soaring higher, carried ever more swiftly onward, ever more
+profoundly withdrawn, in the second watch he beheld with diamond-clear
+perception all that lives, and the round of birth and death of all
+mankind, hollow all and false and transient, built upon nothingness—the
+piers and fabric of a dream; and saw before him erring creatures born
+and born again to die, the righteous and the evil heirs alike of pain
+self-inflicted, and stabbed with daggers their own hands have forged.
+
+And he saw the transient heavens gained through desire, won through
+righteousness that craves reward, and beheld these longer-lived than the
+joys of earth yet transient also, for he who desires the joys of an
+individual heaven and pays down righteousness as the coin of its price,
+he too is still held within the pitiless fetters of craving, though it
+be for heaven, and nothing rooted in desire is eternal, but must pass
+and be done.
+
+And he saw the hells that, gorged with suffering, yet again yield up
+their prey to the weary round of rebirth and lo—heaven and hell and
+earth empty and vain, the Wheel of Birth and Death revolving evermore,
+hopeless and without delay or stay, now heaven-high, now low as earth,
+but ever and ever a whirling Wheel without rest. And in the third watch
+there came Perception higher still and our Lord entered upon the deep
+apprehension of Truth.
+
+And in this the secrets of birth and death were apparent and he became
+assured that age and death have their source in birth and are rooted in
+it as trees in the ground, for the body and earthly self implicate man
+in all evils, divided thus from the Source, and, in a word, life in this
+world of ignorance, is suffering. For here men walk blinded with
+ignorance, not knowing whence nor whither, and the high things move
+veiled about them and are not seen.
+
+And as to rebirth, he saw that its cause is in deeds done and thoughts
+thought in former lives.
+
+Swept on and up in ecstasy, perception becoming ever clearer, he beheld
+the so-called soul-self of man unravelled into its component parts and
+laid before him like the unwoven threads of a garment, and behold in
+these was no durability nor immortality, for there is but one Immortal,
+one Infinite, and the man who claims his own, his separate immortality,
+is dying and reborn through the ages and but the fierce desire of life
+gives him its simulacrum and the long-linked chain of births and deaths
+and griefs immeasurable.
+
+So then, swept on and up in ecstasy, he beheld the causes of the
+long-linked chain of existence stretching from Infinite to Infinite.
+
+And these are they, and this is the lineage of suffering:
+
+ Contact brings forth sensation.
+ Sensation brings desire.
+ Desire produces the clinging to shows and illusions.
+ Clinging to shows and illusions produces deeds.
+ Deeds engender birth.
+ Birth produces age and death.
+
+
+And this is the weary round, the offspring of Ignorance repeated in the
+endless turning of the Wheel, the dragging of a lengthening chain of
+births. For the ignorant man, desiring the things that are worthless,
+transient, illusory, seeing about him false shows instead of the high
+things which are real, creates in himself a passion which in turn
+creates more and more dangerous illusions, and thus is his own victim.
+But when false desire dies, illusions end, and Ignorance, dispersing
+like the night, gives place to the Sun of Enlightenment and the world
+lies about such a man as it truly is. And he _knows_, being no more the
+prisoner of time and space and their brood of follies, for Ignorance,
+the true cause of all ill, in him is dead.
+
+And having thus perceived the world as it is, our Lord was perfected in
+wisdom, and shows and illusions being ended for him, there died in him
+that false self which will have all for its own; never again to be born,
+utterly at an end,—even that false ego shut in the prison of itself.
+And in him was completed the destruction of craving and evil desire, as
+a fire goes out for lack of fuel. For the man in whom is no separation
+from the Source, in whom is no ignorance, how shall he desire that which
+has no eternity but is transient as a morning dream? And over him Desire
+and Death—which indeed are one—had no more dominion.
+
+Thus first he found the way of perfect knowledge, and in the broad east
+the onrushing of the sun’s golden wheels was heard afar.
+
+So he reached at last the unfathomable source of Truth, beholding past,
+present, and future as one, having passed beyond the glimmer of the six
+senses into true perception, no longer gazing through a narrow window,
+but about and around him the wide horizon—and more.
+
+Illumined with all wisdom sat the Buddha, the Perfected One, having at
+last attained, and the light strengthened and grew in rapture. And about
+him the world lay calm and bright and a soft breeze lifted the leaves.
+
+And for seven days and nights sat our Lord beneath the Tree, lost in
+contemplation of the World as it Is, submerged in the ocean of love,
+having entered the Nirvana, most utterly at peace, and day and night—or
+what men call such—made their solemn procession about him unheeded, for
+he was lost in bliss, and his heart said:
+
+“Now, resting here, have I attained my birth-weary heart’s desire,
+having traversed many lives to this goal. Now have I slain the self, and
+the fetters are broken, and not for myself alone.”
+
+And lifting up his voice he cried aloud this song of triumph in the
+hearing of all worlds.
+
+ “Many a house of life
+ Has held me, seeking ever that which wrought
+ These prisons of the senses, sorrow-fraught,
+ Sore was my ceaseless strife.
+ But now,
+ Thou Builder of the body-prison,—Thou!
+ I know thee! Never shalt thou build again
+ These walls of pain,
+ Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay
+ Fresh rafters on the clay.
+ Broken the House is, and the ridge-pole split,
+ Delusion fashioned it.
+ Safe pass I hence, deliverance to attain.”[3]
+
+-----
+
+[3] For this verse I have used Edwin Arnold’s translation slightly
+modified.
+
+-----
+
+For now he knew that the builder of the prison, the cause of rebirth,
+the hinderer from the Peace was his own false self, the dreamer of
+dreams, the creator of false desires and illusions, and in him this
+false self was dead, and only the true, the Self that is mysterious and
+high and One with the One survived.
+
+And next, sending his sight through the invisible (for when
+enlightenment is attained all bars of time and space fall and man is no
+longer blinded by his eyes and deafened by his ears), he considered all
+that live, and like a swelling tide there rose in him compassion for
+their darkness and misery, and in deep contemplation he considered how
+to gain deliverance for them also, and with this came the thought:
+
+“Shall I teach? And how?” for he doubted that any would believe and
+relinquish that false and illusory self which holds men from the light.
+And he said:
+
+“How can they believe the world is other than it seems and the very sea
+and sky and mountains far differing from what they have supposed? And
+they the prisoners of Ignorance.” And a deep voice from the Divine
+within and without him answered:
+
+“O let your heart most loving be moved into pity toward the people, most
+ignorant, toiling amid deathly illusions to a goal unknown.”
+
+And as this purpose rooted and flowered within him—a mighty blossom
+opening its chalice of perfume to all worlds and heavens, the dawn of
+the seventh day broke resplendent, as it were a new heaven and a new
+earth and it was light.
+
+Light also within him and a great flooding of light, for not only was
+the Way opened but the steps now lay clear before him—the Noble
+Eightfold Path whereby men setting one foot before the other achieve the
+first heights, the true Self developing as does the body from lowly
+beginnings to great ends and royalties, but all in order and gradually,
+each step rising by the stepping stones of dead selves in dead lives to
+higher.
+
+O peace: O bliss inexplicable, not to be confounded with others, but
+singular, lovely, and alone! Not in the heavens, unattainable save by
+the strength of Gods, but within reach of all who set their faces to the
+heights in true and steadfast endeavour, proceeding step by step in love
+and patience. For the lowly, the little children of the Law, as for the
+wise and noble. For he who is ruler over a few things in this life shall
+in lives to come be ruler over many, so he be found faithful. And at the
+last—not the dewdrop lost in the ocean, but the ocean drawn into the
+dewdrop and eternal Unity.
+
+And in his heart this thought arose.
+
+“I will proclaim accordingly the way unto the further shore!”
+
+As he saw it, so he told it: He the stainless, the Very Wise, the
+Passionless, the Desireless Lord; for what reason should he speak
+falsely?
+
+Thus, flooded with sunshine and bathed in peace sat the Perfect One.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII
+
+
+NOW as the Blessed One sat beneath the Tree in the Dawn, two merchants
+bound on their way passed through the wood, and within them spoke the
+Voice of Wisdom, saying:
+
+“In this wood, outspread upon the spurs of the mountain, dwells a
+Rishi—a wise ascetic—deeply to be reverenced; go then and make him an
+offering.”
+
+And with joy they went, glad in the opportunity of righteousness, and
+found him enthroned beneath the Tree, laving his feet in the ripples of
+the Sea of Bliss; and with reverence they placed food in his bowl, a
+simple gift and good; and they were respectfully silent while he ate,
+but when they saw that the Exalted One, his need over, had washed his
+bowl and hands in the mountain stream, they bowed their heads to his
+feet, saying:
+
+“We who are here take refuge in the Perfect One and his Law. May the
+Blessed One accept us as his adherents from this day forth throughout
+our life, who have taken refuge in him.”
+
+And they were accepted as lay followers and went on their business
+rejoicing in peace; and these were the first persons who accepted the
+Law, with faith in the One Enlighted and his teaching, for as yet the
+communion of the Order was not. And their names were Bhallika and
+Tapussa.
+
+Yet, having risen, he paused, and again seated himself in meditation,
+for he doubted again whether it were either wise or possible to make
+known the great Law to the world.
+
+And into the mind of the Exalted One yet retired in solitude, came this
+thought.
+
+“I have penetrated this deep truth of the abandonment of the imprisoning
+self, hard to be perceived, difficult to grasp. Man moves in an earthly
+sphere, and there has he his place and delights, tapestried about with
+illusions real indeed to the dim feelers of his poor senses. For such it
+will be hard to grasp this matter, the chain of causes and effects, for
+man sees the effect but not the cause. And hard indeed to grasp are
+withdrawal from earthly illusions, extinction of desire, cessation of
+longing, and the deep mysterious Peace. Should I now preach the Law, it
+would gain nothing—grief and weariness would be the only fruit of
+labour. The truth remains hidden from men absorbed by hate and greed. It
+is deep and difficult, veiled from the coarse mind. How shall he
+apprehend it whose thought moves in the darkness of earthly
+preoccupations?”
+
+And this was without doubt the last, the uttermost temptation of that
+Wicked One, and the subtlety of it stirred a vibration in the highest of
+the Divine Beings, and this thought arose.
+
+“Truly the world is lost, truly the world is undone if the heart of the
+Perfect One be set on abiding in peace without revealing the Law.”
+
+And instantly this Divine thought was light in the heart of the Exalted
+One and its symbol was that he beheld a Divine Being who raised his
+folded hands before him, saying:
+
+“May it please the Perfect One to preach the Law! There are a few whose
+eyes are not dimmed with the dust of earth. They will see. They will
+hear. Open, O Wise One, the door of Eternity. He who stands on the
+mountain peaks looks out over all peoples. Go forth to Victory.”
+
+Then, hearing this voice in his ears, the Exalted One turned the gaze of
+perfect enlightenment upon the world, and he beheld this:
+
+As on a lotus stem bearing the lotus blossom of ivory, some flowers do
+not rise out of the water but are below the surface, and others float on
+the calm surface, and others rise high, reflecting themselves in its
+mirror, so are men—some pure, and some impure, some noble and some
+ignoble, some strong in mind and intellect, others weak and dull,—but
+all needing what they are qualified to take of the light of wisdom. And
+perceiving this, he replied as it were to the Divine Voice:
+
+“It was because I believed the toil fruitless, Holy One, that I have not
+yet uttered the Word.”
+
+And the Divine Voice perceived what would be, saying:
+
+“It is done. The Perfect One will preach the Law,” and the matter being
+thus ended the Divine Voice returned to its source and the Buddha passed
+onward in majesty, musing on the first means whereby the Law should be
+made known. And since a man owes deep duty to his teachers who, if they
+have not opened the gate have yet directed him in the Path, his though
+hovered first over Alara and Uddaka the Brahmans,—but the diamond-clear
+inward sight revealed to him that in the six years of his asceticism
+they were dead.
+
+And next he remembered the five ascetics who had scorned him when in
+starving he had tasted of the food offered by the lady Sujata, thinking
+“These shall be the first fish I catch in my net!”—and because they had
+betaken themselves to Benares, he resolved that leaving the Forest of
+Enlightenment he would go to that great and ancient city bathing her
+feet in holy Ganges and there for the first time make known the Pearl he
+had found.
+
+So, alone in the wood, he arose from beneath the Tree and turning
+regarded it steadfastly, saying:
+
+“O Tree, because of this, many generations of men as yet unmanifested on
+earth, shall hold your name in honour and a leaf of you shall be
+precious. Rejoice therefore and accept the sunshine and rain gladly,
+knowing that life is in the least of your leaves for ever and ever.”
+
+Then with eyes deep and kind, shedding light, as it were about him,
+steadfast in noble composure did he advance through the Wood of Wisdom,
+taking the way to Benares, strengthened as one fed on food divine. And
+beside the way to Benares, journeying on in peace, he met a young and
+haughty Brahman, proud in the possession of his greatness, whose name
+was Upaka, and as this man went he repeated the mystic word “Aum,” of
+which the three letters are the Threefold and the word the One, and in
+this he put his faith. And seeing the Exalted One passing by, rapt in
+meditation, he cried aloud with scorn:
+
+“Ha, Master,—what constitutes the true Brahman?” hoping to trip him in
+his answer. And from the heart of his calm the Exalted One replied:
+
+“To put away all evil, to be pure in thought, word and deed, to
+transcend pride and desire,—this it is to be a true Brahman.”
+
+And the answer astonished the proud young man, and turning suddenly he
+looked into the face of the Perfect One and said slowly:
+
+“How comes it that your face is so beautiful, shining like the full moon
+reflected in water, your form so stately? And whence the peace that
+surrounds you? What is your noble tribe, and who your master? Here, in
+this country, where each man struggles to find the Way, what is your
+way?”
+
+And, glad at heart, the Perfect One answered:
+
+“Happy the solitude of him who is full of joy, who has seen the truth.
+Happy he who in all the wide world has no ill-will, self-restrained and
+guided, Happy—happiest is freedom from lusts and desires. And highest
+is the bliss of freedom from the pride of the thought _I am I_. No
+honourable tribe have I,—no Teacher. I go alone and content.”
+
+And the Brahman heard in great astonishment, for much as he had heard of
+religion it was not this. And he said, hesitating:
+
+“And where, sir, are you bound?” And the World-Honoured replied:
+
+“I desire to set revolving the Wheel of the Excellent Law, and therefore
+I go to the great and ancient city of Benares, to give light to them
+that sit in darkness and to open the gate of true Immortality to men.”
+
+And when the Brahman Upaka heard this his pride was revolted and he was
+angry that a man should assume to himself such mastership, and he
+replied curtly:
+
+“Reverend person, your way lies onward,” and struck into the opposite
+path, yet as he went, he stopped, proceeded, stopped again, lost in
+thought, for there was that in the occurrence which startled him from
+his equanimity. So the moment goes by us, and we do not know it! But the
+Blessed One, proceeding quietly day by day, came at last to Benares, to
+the Deer Park of Isipatana where now dwelt the five ascetics who had
+scorned him. And there they sat practising the weary round of their
+austerities, not knowing that the Perfect One who approached them had
+discovered the way that leads from the world of sorrowful becoming and
+the flowing stream of transiency into the world of happy being where all
+is beheld as it is.
+
+For to the man who knows not the way all things flow and pass in
+unreality and nothing abides; but the foot of him who has thus attained
+is set on the Eternal and in That is no motion nor any change.
+
+So when they saw him coming the five ascetics were angry, and they said
+to one another:
+
+“Friends, here comes the ascetic Gotama [using in contempt his family
+name] he who eats rich food, who lives in self-indulgence and has given
+up his quest. Let us show him no respect nor rise up to meet him, nor
+take his alms-bowl nor cloak from him. Let us only give him a seat as we
+would to any person, and he can sit down if he likes.”
+
+But the nearer the Exalted One came to the five the more did the majesty
+of his presence precede him, and the less could they abide by their
+resolution. Slowly they rose, and went forward, and one took the cloak
+and alms-bowl—another brought a seat, a third brought water, and
+accepting the water the Blessed One sat down and bathed his weary feet.
+
+And then they addressed him as “Friend” and “Gotama” but he replied:
+
+“It is not seemly, monks, that you should address Him who has thus
+Attained as ‘Friend’ and ‘Gotama.’ For I am now the Enlightened. Open
+your ears: I teach you the Law. If you will learn, the Truth shall meet
+you face to face.”
+
+But, still in much doubt, they said:
+
+“If you were not able, friend Gotama, to attain full knowledge by
+mortification of the body, is it likely you can attain it by
+self-indulgence and a worldly life?”
+
+And thus replied the Blessed One:
+
+“Monks, I do not live in self-indulgence although I torture my body no
+more. Nor have I forsaken my quest. Open your ears. Found is deliverance
+from death and illusion!”
+
+And because the five still doubted, the Blessed One said to them:
+
+“Tell me, monks,—when we dwelt in the forest, did I ever before speak
+to you in this manner?”
+
+And they said:
+
+“Sir, never.”
+
+And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very Evening opened
+their ears and heard.
+
+So, with the five about him, the Perfect One spoke the first words of
+the Teaching of the Law, the first ever heard in this world,—and where
+the last shall be spoken who can tell? But it is needful that all to
+whom their happy Karma allows it should hear and ponder these words for
+in them is all truth. Now this is the high teaching in the Deer Park of
+Isipatana, as dusk came on and the shadows.
+
+And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very evening appeared
+to bow at the knees of the Exalted One—the World-Honoured, that she
+might hear his word. Like a maiden she came, the stars the pearls about
+her throat, the gathering dark her braided hair, the deepening vastness
+of space her cloudy robe. For a crown had she the holy heavens where
+dwell divine spirits. The Three Worlds were her body, her eyes were as
+blue lotus blossoms opening to the moonlight, and her voice of stillness
+as the distant murmur of bees. To worship and to hear the Perfect One
+this lovely maiden came.
+
+And though our Lord spoke in the Pali tongue each man heard his own. And
+thus said the Blessed One, the Tathagata, He who has thus Attained:
+
+“Monks, there are two extremes which he who would follow my attainment
+must shun. The one is a life of pleasure devoted to desire and
+enjoyments. That is base, ignoble, unworthy, unreal, and is the Path of
+Destruction. The other is the life of self-mortification and torture. It
+is gloomy, unworthy, unreal. It is nothing and leads to nothing. But
+hear and be attentive, monks, for I have found the Middle Way which lies
+between these two, the way which in a spiral of eight stages ascends the
+Mount of Vision even to the summit where dwells the glory of the Peace.
+
+“This is the Noble Eightfold Path, and the stages in their order. Right
+Comprehension. Doubts and wrong views and mere opinions must be laid
+aside. The man must perceive the distinction between the Permanent and
+the Transient. He must behold facts behind hypotheses. Realization of
+the need of truth is the attitude for its reception. This is the first
+stage.
+
+“Right Resolution. This is the will to attain, based on self-discipline
+and the vision which has perceived that attainment of perfect knowledge
+is possible. This is the second stage.
+
+“Right Speech. This is the first step in the practice of
+self-discipline. Indiscretion, slander, abuse, and bitter words are
+forbidden. Only such words must be uttered as are kind, pure, true. This
+is the third stage.
+
+“Right Conduct. Deeds which are blameless, true, and noble. These only
+must be done. Put away all thought of gain or reward here or hereafter,
+for the motive is the deed. Retaliation is dead. Impulse cannot exist
+with discipline. Deeds actuated by likes and dislikes are
+forbidden,—let each action be guided by inward Law irrespective of whom
+it concerns. Act only from this Law which is in its highest Love and
+Pity, and very swiftly will come the insight to distinguish which deeds
+are in harmony with the Law and which gainsay it,—and that blessedness
+will follow which the doer has not thirsted to gain or garner. This is
+the fourth stage.
+
+“Very difficult to climb are the two stages of Right Speech and Right
+Conduct, but, when they are surmounted, fair and wide and noble is the
+prospect seen from those heights, and very great self-mastery is gained.
+
+“Right Living. And this includes the right means of earning a livelihood
+for there are means a man cannot follow and maintain his integrity and
+purity. Let him take heed to avoid these dangerous circumstances, and
+which they may be that man’s mind shall declare to him if he have
+trodden the Four First Stages. Such a man cannot be in doubt. And so is
+the learner become a Master. This is the Fifth stage.
+
+“Right Effort. Now, loving, wise, and enlightened, he apportions all his
+strength to wise purpose, fully comprehending his deed and its aim. He
+who has reached this noble stage does all, whether eating or drinking,
+sleeping or waking, working or resting, in harmony with the great Law,
+for in his obedience he is perfect, and the Law is his life, nor does he
+need to consider longer than while a man in health need count his
+heart-beat. And this is the Sixth Stage.
+
+“Right Meditation. This is the right state of a mind at peace, self, he
+considers only the truth, and having utterly abandoned the thought of
+self he is clear in perception, having slain illusion and stood face to
+face with Reality as a man speaks with a friend. He is the Knower of
+Truth. More, he _is_ the Truth, and this is the Seventh Stage.
+
+“Right Meditation. This the right state of a mind at peace. At peace
+indeed, for what is left for grief? Nothing is here to wail, nothing but
+what must quiet us. Doubt and fear, trouble and confusions are dead.
+Groundless beliefs, false hopes and fears are forgotten, and in this
+stage is the attainment of the Peace which passes understanding. This is
+the Eighth Stage from which, having attained, a man cannot fall.
+
+“But, monks, you may ask, what is the cause from which springs the need
+for the Noble Eightfold Path? It is this. Hear the Four Noble Truths.
+
+“Birth is the cause of suffering, for life is suffering, passing through
+all the stages of grief from birth to death. This is the first Truth.
+The cause of birth is the thirst for living, leading from birth to
+birth, fed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of
+life. This is the second Truth.
+
+“The cure of the cause of birth is the extinction of this thirst for
+living by complete extinction of wrong desire, letting it go, expelling
+it, giving it no room. This is the third Truth.
+
+“And the fourth Truth is the Noble Eightfold Path. These are the four
+Truths.
+
+“So by the truth of suffering, monks, my eyes were opened to these
+conceptions and judgment and vision were opened in me. Not by sacrifice
+nor mortification nor prayer, but by that which a man has in himself is
+the Way of Deliverance opened. And as long as I did not know this I had
+not received enlightenment. But now have I attained, and deliverance is
+secured, and henceforth I shall no more go out into birth and death.
+Death has no more dominion over me.”
+
+This is the first Teaching and it was spoken in the Deer Park at
+Isipatana,—and the five ascetics sat about to hear, and borne on these
+great words, their eyes were opened and with joy they accepted the Law,
+and the chief of them, Kondanna, since called “Kondanna the Knower,”
+entreated the Lord that he would receive them as disciples, and in these
+words he received them:
+
+“Draw near, monks, well preached is the Doctrine. Walk in purity to the
+goal of the end of all suffering.”
+
+And further he taught them of the transiency and impermanence of all
+earthly things and of the Truth that lies beyond when the world is
+apprehended as it is, free of illusion, free of the fleeting
+apprehensions of the senses, and knowing this, they entered into the
+Peace.
+
+And when it was ended the darkness was deep about them and the night of
+rest was come.
+
+
+
+
+ PART III
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+SO for a time the World-Honoured dwelt in the Deer Park of Isipatana,
+and men came eagerly to hear him, for his teachings resembled none they
+had heard as yet and delivered them from the yoke of priests in
+teachings and beliefs which if they could not inwardly accept made them
+very sorely afraid of the anger of the Gods and compelled much
+ceremonial and expiation.
+
+But He, who has thus Attained, the Tathagata, taught them thus:
+
+“No priest, no God, can deliver a man. By himself is evil done, by
+himself he endures the shame and pain. By himself and his own will and
+struggle he becomes pure. There is none can save a man but himself—No,
+none in heaven or earth. It is he himself who must walk the Way: The
+Enlightened can but show it. Therefore where and how can a priest aid
+you?”
+
+And this appeared to them a most wonderful doctrine, inspiring with
+great courage and resolution, and looking upon each other they said:
+
+“If it be thus, and a man holds deliverance in the hollow of his hand,
+it can be done. To-day, brother, let us take the first step.”
+
+And so the Exalted One taught them to break the fetter of the delusion
+of self—the delusive belief that the individual self is real and
+self-existent. For to abide contented in the prison of this apparent
+self not looking forward to its expansion into the Universal self is the
+shadow of egoism and egoism is the mother of sin.
+
+And he broke off them the fetter of the belief that outward
+righteousness of conduct will deliver a man, or that safety lies in
+rites and ceremonies, for truly a man can never say within himself, “I
+have placated the Gods and may now go my way in peace.”
+
+Now at this time there was in the great city of Benares, a noble youth
+named Yasas, son of a rich man, master of one of the city guilds, and on
+this son his parents had lavished every good thing. He possessed a house
+of cool shades for summer, and another for the season of the rains. And
+his houses were full of delicately beautiful dancing girls, jewelled and
+perfumed, and what pleasure was absent, whether of food or wines, or
+music or any other?—None indeed, for the rich merchants dwell in luxury
+resembling that of kings.
+
+And at first all this was good to him and he asked no more; but
+fulfilled every desire on the instant. There are men so embruted that
+this will content them until bodily power fails, but the noble youth
+Yasas was not of these.
+
+And suddenly in the midst of his pleasures deep loathing fell upon him
+and secret disgust because he had sounded the utmost of pleasure and no
+more or better remained, and it was like vomit in his mouth, revolting
+to his soul.
+
+And one night as he lay among his women, and they, abandoned to sleep,
+surrounded him, lovely as maidens of Mount Sumeru, he leaned against his
+silken cushions and the hall became hateful to him and he could no more
+endure it, but rose softly and put on his gilded shoes and went out into
+the midnight gardens where dripping dew impearled every leaf and blossom
+and glittered in pure moonlight, and the cool and calm were excellent.
+And he walked under the black and white light and dark of a long path by
+trees whose carven leaves hung like sculptured stone in the stillness of
+the air and their shadows flitted like dreams over his robes and face as
+he went, meditating upon the unspeakable weariness and distaste that
+filled him and the uncomforted wretchedness of youth that in all the
+world can find no good. And he said aloud:
+
+“O my heart, how oppressive it is! O, my soul, the speechless weariness!
+Who in all the world shall show me any good.”
+
+So, in his walking, he came to the gate of the garden and it stood wide
+open and the porter lay drowned in sleep, his face hidden from the
+moonlight, and there was none to see who came or went, and Yasas
+wandered on through dewy ways and silver pools of moonlight, not knowing
+where he went, having fled the house because he could no longer endure
+his despair. And as he came at last to the Deer Park of Isipatana the
+darkness began to thin for dawn.
+
+And so it was that the Lord had risen from sleep and walked beneath the
+trees of Isipatana in meditation and he saw a young man coming, and in
+the great stillness heard him say:
+
+“O my grief, how deep is my wretchedness,” and he pitied him, for he
+himself had been a rich young man, and he knew his heart.
+
+So, taking his seat, the Blessed One said aloud:
+
+“Sir, you are weary, but I hold in my hand a life that is neither
+grievous nor wretched. Sit down beside me and hear the Law. This
+doctrine, Yasas, is not oppressive. This is not afflicting.”
+
+And Yasas seeing beneath the trees a young man of royal bearing and
+beauty like to but surpassing his own, yet robed as a monk, was
+startled. Nor could he refuse, and he took off his gilded shoes and
+having saluted the stranger with courtesy sat down beside him, and in
+the quiet of the coming dawn, the Blessed One spoke. And first he spoke
+of the misery, worthlessness and ruin of lust, of the strong calm of
+renunciation, of the high way of the Law, and as he heard, in place of
+burning disgust there flowed into the heart of Yasas the refreshing
+streams of wisdom, as when a man sets hot and travel-worn feet in the
+coolness of a pellucid lake. And there was that fruit of former births
+within the noble youth which drew him to high things, even as a pure
+silken fabric is with ease dyed a noble colour.
+
+And the Lord saw this, and knowing his heart elate and ready he then set
+before him the Four Noble Truths of Sorrow and the Noble Eightfold Path,
+and the eyes of Yasas were opened and conquering joy possessed him, and
+the sun rose within and without him in splendour, and it was day.
+
+Then Yasas arose and said:
+
+“It is impossible that I should return to my former life for I see it
+now unreal and foolish, a tale told by a madman signifying nothing. Let
+me receive from the Lord ordination and admission to the Order that I
+may spend eternity in acquiring knowledge.”
+
+And the Blessed One answered:
+
+“Come, monk. The Doctrine is well taught. Lead henceforward a new life.”
+
+So he was received into the Order.
+
+And presently his father, the rich guild-master, came running, eagerly
+asking whether the Exalted One had seen his son pass that way. And thus
+he fell into talk with the Tathagata, (even with Him who has thus
+Attained) and he too became ensnared by that great Presence and great
+Doctrine as a bee with perfumed mogra blossoms, for sweet, sweet is the
+Truth to them who are akin to it; and last he exclaimed:
+
+“Wonderful, great sir, most wonderful! This truly is showing the way to
+the lost and setting a lamp in darkness. I take refuge in the Lord, the
+Law, and the Assembly. May the Lord take me as a lay-disciple
+henceforth, while my life lasts.”
+
+And he was accepted, and looked upon his son, now divested of jewels and
+clad in the yellow robe with bared shoulder, and the Exalted One said to
+him:
+
+“Is it possible, householder, that Yasas, the noble youth should return
+to a worldly life of lusts and pleasure?”
+
+And he replied:
+
+“Sir, it is not possible. It is gain to Yasas the noble youth, that his
+mind should be set free. Will the Exalted One consent this day to take
+food with me, with Yasas beside him as a younger brother?”
+
+And the Buddha by silence gave his consent. So were these two freed from
+the bonds of desire and entered into the Peace. For they knew the Truth,
+and this was their desire.
+
+ “From the unreal lead me to the real,
+ From darkness to light.
+ From death to immortality.”
+
+And of the light companions of Yasas, many, allured to the teaching by
+his joy, heard and were glad and followed, and many more, too many to
+tell, women as well as men (for the Blessed One welcomed women also,
+regarding neither sex nor caste) sought the Deer Park of Isipatana and
+followed the Law.
+
+And these are the commandments they accepted, and be it understood that
+the first five only are binding upon laymen and women, but the whole ten
+are binding on the Brotherhood, and they may not marry nor take upon
+them the householder’s life while they are a part of the Order.
+
+ 1. Thou shalt not destroy life.
+
+ 2. Thou shalt not take what is not given.
+
+ 3. Thou shalt abstain from unchastity.
+
+ 4. Thou shalt not lie nor deceive.
+
+ 5. Thou shalt abstain from intoxicating drinks.
+
+ 6. Thou shalt eat temperately and not after noon.
+
+ 7. Thou shalt not behold dancing, singing, music, or plays.
+
+ 8. Thou shalt not wear garlands, perfumes, ornaments and
+ adornments.
+
+ 9. Thou shalt not use high nor luxurious beds.
+
+ 10. Thou shalt not accept gold and silver.
+
+And now, when sixty of the disciples had attained complete
+enlightenment, it came into the mind of the Blessed One that the time
+was come to send them forth into the world to spread the high Doctrine,
+and he said to them:
+
+“See now!—You have passed the river and reached the shore of peace, and
+for you birth and death are no more, being one with the Unchanging. Go
+then through every country, teach those who have not heard. Make known
+the Teaching, lovely in its origin, its progress, and most lovely in its
+consummation. Make it known both in the spirit and the letter, Go!—each
+one travelling by himself (But later they went two together) rescue and
+receive. I too will go—for the work is begun.”
+
+But Yasas he would not send out into the world for his aged parents had
+need of him in Benares.
+
+Then the sixty having in all reverence received his commands went forth,
+for in those days books were not and each man was a book of the Law, and
+the Lord himself went on to Gayasisa, followed by many who had been
+ascetics. And great joy went with them and a shining peace, for like a
+swelling wave exaltation lifted their souls so that each looking on the
+other was glad.
+
+It was at Gayasisa that the Exalted One uttered the great Fire teaching.
+
+And the cause of it was this. As he and his disciples sat on the
+Elephant Rock near Gaya, with the wide and pleasant valley of Rajagriha
+outspread beneath them, a jungle fire broke out across the valley and
+they watched it, and thus spoke the World-Honoured; drawing a lesson as
+they looked.
+
+“Everything about and within us, brethren, is on fire, and how? The
+senses are afire with passion, hate and illusion. The mind with its
+perceptions and sensations is afire with passion, hate and illusion,
+betrayed and deceived every way. Every approach by which a man beholds
+and comes in contact with life is afire with passion and illusion, and
+these all in turn supply fuel to the burning. And the wise and noble
+disciple, perceiving this, is indifferent to the lies of the senses and
+the sensations arising from them whether pleasant or unpleasant. He is
+indifferent to mental perceptions whether pleasant or unpleasant. And
+this indifference extinguishes the fire and cools its ashes and deprives
+it of fuel and thus frees him from passion and illusion, and being free
+he recognizes his freedom. He clings no more to the individual and
+selfish self. Rebirth is destroyed, the life of pure duty and love is
+lived, and the world has no more wherewith to tempt him.”
+
+And many heard and accepted the teaching and found peace, having seen
+that behind this false world of illusion created by the senses lies the
+true world of things as they are.
+
+And from Gaya, the World-Honoured, followed by his disciples, went
+onward to the city of Rajagriha, the chief town of King Bimbisara, and
+with him went Kassapa, a great disciple, and wise, who had been a
+worshipper of the pure element of the sacrificial fire until he had
+heard the teaching of the Buddha, and so great and wise was this man
+that many of the people of Rajagriha doubted which was the Master and
+which the disciple. But the Exalted One willing to honour the disciple
+addressed him thus in presence of the King and people.
+
+“Welcome, great Master, welcome! Rightly have you distinguished Law,
+winning the highest wisdom. And now, as a wealthy noble displays his
+treasures to bring forgetfulness of sorrow to those who love beauty, so
+do you!”
+
+And it is told that immediately Kassapa, composing himself into ecstasy,
+was raised up in the air before the eyes of all and this wonderful sight
+drew their eyes in adoration of so mighty a marvel, so that with
+different mouths but in language one they magnified the Buddha,
+exclaiming:
+
+“Let the World-Honoured be our teacher. We are his disciples.”
+
+And perceiving them eager to hear, he addressed them on the false self
+the lying, that is nothing but claims all within and without as fuel for
+its greed.
+
+Hear and be wise.
+
+“The mind, the thought and all the senses are subject to the law of life
+and death, and, understanding the self and the transient things of which
+it is compounded and how the thought and senses act, there is no room
+left for this individual _I_ nor any ground for this _I_, for it is this
+belief in _I_ which gives rise to all sorrows binding us as with cords
+to the world of illusion. But when a wise man knows there is no such _I_
+and that it does not exist, the bonds are severed.
+
+“Of those who believe in this false _I_, some say it endures beyond
+death some say it perishes. Grievous is the error of both. For if they
+say this _I_ is perishable, then all the fruit of their striving
+perishes and there is no hereafter, and who can call this deliverance?
+
+“And if they say this greedy _I_ is immortal, then in the midst of all
+life and death in this world of illusion there is but one identity that
+is not born and does not die—even this greedy _I_. And if the one
+immortal thing is this greedy _I_ which arrogates all to itself then is
+it the one thing in the whole Universe that is self-perfect, and there
+is no need of high and noble deeds,—this greedy self is lord and master
+of all, and what need to strive for what is already done? For if this
+greedy _I_ is lasting and imperishable then can it never be changed.
+
+“But when a man has learned there is _no_ greedy _I_, that it does not
+exist, that it can do nothing, is but an illusion, then, freed, he
+passes on to the wider outlook, the nobler knowledge, and he passes on
+also in other lives the same yet not the same, as the shoot springs from
+the seed, and the seed is not the shoot, not one and yet not different.
+Such is the birth of all that lives. Learn therefore that this _I_ does
+not exist, and the illusion of it conceals That which Is.”
+
+So the World-Honoured, the Happy One, great and glad, addressed the King
+and people, and very joyfully they heard, understanding that in the
+egoism of the _I_ lives all curse, all ignorance.
+
+And the King became a lay follower and throughout his life was faithful
+and many of the noble young men about him believed also, and many of the
+people.
+
+It was here too, in happy Rajagriha, that the Perfect One, gained the
+two greatest of his Arhats, his perfected saints, and thus it befell.
+
+On a day to be remembered, it so chanced that Assaji, a disciple, walked
+in the streets, collecting alms of food in his bowl, and he walked in
+the shade, in the yellow robe, one shoulder bare, composed and with
+majesty, musing as he went. And he was thus observed by a young Brahman
+of noble birth who was studying spiritual things in the city under a
+teacher, and when he saw him the dignity of his serene presence moved
+the heart of the Brahman Sariputta, and he thought:
+
+“Surely this is one who has already attained the way of purity! I will
+go and ask him in whose name he has renounced the world and by what Law.
+Not yet, for he is collecting alms, but presently.”
+
+Therefore he watched, and when the venerable Assaji had received food
+from the householders he turned back, and Sariputta approached him with
+a courteous salutation, which having concluded, he said:
+
+“Friend, your eyes are shining, your colour pure and clear. Great is
+your composure. In whose name have you renounced the world and who is
+your honourable Master?”
+
+“Friend, my master is the Son of the Sakya House, the descendant of
+Kings; I am but a novice. As yet I cannot tell the great heights of the
+Law, but in a few words I can give its spirit.”
+
+“Be it so, friend. Instruct me.”
+
+And musing a moment, Assaji said this:
+
+“The Perfected One teaches how existences apparently separate are
+dependent upon One Cause, how they depend upon one another, their
+apparent separateness springing from ignorance and illusion as its
+cause, and how these existences can be ended and the Truth of Unity
+appear. This is the teaching of the Son of the Sakyas.”
+
+And as he heard these words, suddenly their implications and how they
+affect all within and without us and the whole Universe, flashed into
+the clear vision of Sariputta, and he understood as a consequence:
+
+“Whatever is subject to the law of beginning that also is subject to the
+law of decay, and how should the _I_ be excepted? There is but one
+Unchanging, motionless and eternal.”
+
+And deeply moved, he said to Assaji:
+
+“If the teaching were nothing else but this you have at any rate
+overpassed suffering. That which many ages have not seen is revealed to
+us now.”
+
+And leaving Assaji, who pursued his way in peace, Sariputta hastened
+with winged feet to his friend and fellow-student Moggalana, and
+Moggalana seeing him cried out.
+
+“Your eyes are shining. Your colour is pure and clear. Have you then
+found deliverance from death?”
+
+“I have found it. I have found it.”
+
+And standing there breathless he told him of Assaji and his words, and
+on the great mind of Moggalana, strong in clear perception, flashed also
+the truth of the nonentity of the greedy _I_, and unable to delay,
+panting for the truth, they left the ascetic who taught them, and
+hurried to the wood where the Perfect One taught sitting among his
+disciples, and when he saw the two young Brahmans approach full of
+eagerness and awe, he said to those about him. “Welcome these two, for
+they shall be my greatest—the one unsurpassed for wisdom, the other for
+supernormal power.”
+
+And he himself welcomed them with joy, seeing that they would stand
+about him as bright stars about the moon.
+
+So when they had told him their case and heard his words, he said:
+
+“Come, monks, the Doctrine is well taught! Lead henceforward the pure
+life for the extinction of suffering,” and thus received them to be his
+own.
+
+And shortly after this he founded the Sangha, the Brotherhood formally,
+and drew up the first code for its governance.
+
+And the number of his followers grew and increased mightily, for not
+only the people but many of the noble youths of the Kingdom of Maghada
+joined themselves to this most noble young man, the Son of the Sakyas,
+so much so that some of the people were angry and said:
+
+“The ascetic Gotama is come to bring childlessness and widowhood and the
+decay of families,” and they made a verse that was repeated in the
+streets:
+
+ “The great monk has come through the wood-ways:
+ he sits on the hill,
+ And whom will he steal from us next,
+ for he takes whom he will?”
+
+And his disciples hearing this verse went to the Exalted One and
+repeated it, dwelling on the anger of some of the people. But the
+Perfect One smiled, for the young monks were angry.
+
+“Seven days will this excitement last, monks, and for that time only.
+But if they taunt you with that verse, reply with this:
+
+ “The heroes, the Perfect Ones, lead by the Truth:—
+ and who calls it amiss?
+ If the Buddha persuades by the truth, will ye
+ blame him for this?”
+
+And the disciples smiled also and were content, and in seven days it was
+forgotten, and still the great and lowly flocked to hear.
+
+Now of the people who flocked to him many desired signs and wonders that
+so they might be convinced of the truth, but these were not given in
+that manner and the Blessed One forbade his disciples to exalt
+themselves thus. For there is nothing but the taintless beauty of Law
+throughout the worlds, and the wise know there is no miracle at all, but
+only a higher law, not known to the ignorant, which in its action
+appears to them strange and a miracle. Yet did our Lord teach that for
+the instructed there are the powers, since to them in their higher
+consciousness the bonds of time and space and form exist no more. But it
+is useless and perilous to expose these mysteries before the ignorant
+who can but see in them the breaking of the law, and see it either with
+fear or greed. Therefore he taught that those who have attained should
+be wise and silent in knowledge where the occasion does not demand
+speech or action, and very rarely can they be demanded, for each stage
+has its own knowledge and cannot rise to the knowledge of a
+consciousness above its own. Hence all this foolish talk of miracle and
+the like. But for those who know even in part the fetters are
+broken:—the binding fetters of form, time and space. And of such a case
+the Lord told this story, while he rested at one time at Jetavana:
+
+“There was a faithful, noble, joyful disciple who desired to hear again
+the words of Him who has thus Attained, and he came in the evening to
+the river Aciravati, hoping to cross by the ferry. But so it was that
+the boatman had himself gone to hear the great words and there was no
+ferry. Then, joyful in meditating on the Light, and lost of all else,
+that faithful disciple walked on the water of the river, and his feet
+made no holes in the water, and he went as if on dry land. But suddenly
+in the middle of the river he saw waves, and his joy sank and his feet
+with it, for fear entered his soul and fear is a fetter of the world of
+form, so that he immediately became subject to it. But again he
+strengthened his inmost self in meditation on the Enlightened One, and
+again he walked on the water and so came to Jetavana and saluted the
+Blessed One, and took his seat respectfully beside him, and the Lord
+asked: ‘Disciple, did you come with little fatigue by the road? Have you
+lacked for food?’ And he replied:
+
+“Lord, in my joyful meditation I received support so that I walked on
+the water and did not sink, and thus have I come to Jetavana as though I
+walked on dry land.”
+
+And the Lord said: “So also has it been in past lives.”
+
+For he taught that though there are times and seasons for the powers to
+be manifested to the ignorant, they are very few.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+NOW while the Perfect One dwelt by Rajagriha there came to him a message
+from Kapila, from his father, the Maharaja Suddhodana, and it said this:
+
+“My son, tidings have reached me of great things concerning you and the
+fulfilment of prophecies. But of these I will not speak for it is
+fitting that I should hear them from your own lips. But this I have to
+say: Is it not just and right that I should see my son before I die?
+Come to me.”
+
+And when this reached the Enlightened One it was impossible that he
+should doubt or hesitate, for who had more right to call upon him? And
+so, preparing himself for the journey on foot with certain of his
+disciples, once more he set his face to Kapila looking toward the
+mountains.
+
+And many things filled his heart, of memory and of affection, but all
+now controlled and guided by divine knowledge and certitude so that he
+went surrounded by peace and glad in that he carried a great gift to his
+father exceeding all gold, all jewels of all kings, if so it could be
+received, repaying thus the tenderness which had guarded his youth.
+
+And when the Maharaja and the people of Kapila heard he would come, from
+that day forth they watched the ways to the city that they might with
+due eagerness and joy welcome the great return of their Prince. For they
+said proudly:
+
+“Our Prince who left us to seek enlightenment has now found it, and
+gloriously returns!” and they thought:
+
+“To what kingdom has the like happened?”
+
+So journeying on foot, the Blessed One, crowned with the Ten
+Perfections, at last approached Kapila, and those who were the far
+outposts of the watch ran back to the next and those to the next until
+it reached the city crying:
+
+“The Prince comes! The Prince comes!”
+
+And the Maharaja having prepared himself, surrounded by his lords and
+all the neighbouring nobility, went forth along the flower-strewn ways
+(for the people hurried with flowers and banners and perfumes) to meet
+the great guest. And the heart of the Maharaja was hot within him and
+exulted, thinking:
+
+“He returns and the clouds are past and the sun of his glory drowns all
+in its brightness, and my good days are come again.”
+
+So they paused in the principal street of the town and there waited in
+the shade, with banners and flowers making gay the blue air about them.
+
+Then at long last moving through the streets, followed by two others,
+the Maharaja and his nobles saw a young monk clad in the yellow robe,
+with one shoulder bared, who in his hands carried an alms-bowl, and at
+each house door stopped and silently tendered the bowl, receiving with
+majesty what was given, and passing on with patience when it was
+refused. And it was his son.
+
+Then shame and love and anger contended in the heart of the Maharaja and
+tore him like a whirlwind among the leaves of a tree, and he clenched
+his robe across his breast and cried out aloud to Siddhartha:
+
+“I am put to shame—to horrible shame. My son a beggar! Our race is
+beaten to the earth with shame.”
+
+And standing calmly before the angry Maharaja the Blessed One after due
+salutation lifted his eyes and replied:
+
+“Maharaj, this is the custom of our race.”
+
+“This horrible thing is not so. Not one of our ancestors has ever begged
+his bread.”
+
+“Maharaj, you and your high race claim descent from kings,—but my
+descent is far otherwise. It is from the Buddhas of ancient days, and as
+they have done, begging their food from the charitable, so do I, nor can
+I otherwise.”
+
+But seeing his father still in pain from anger and sorrow, the Perfected
+One spoke thus:
+
+“Do I not know that the King’s heart bleeds with love and memory, and
+that for his son’s sake he adds grief to grief? But now let these
+earthly bonds of love be instantly unloosened and utterly destroyed, for
+there are greater and higher. Ceasing from thought of such love, let the
+King’s mind receive from me such spiritual food as no son has yet
+offered to father, a gift most beautiful and wonderful.”
+
+So leading the King by the hand they went together to the palace, the
+mind of the Maharaja quieted and subdued as after a storm the billows
+sink to rest.
+
+And within the palace the Perfected One looked for Another, but she was
+not there, for her very life beat against her body in agony,
+remembering, remembering, and she said in her heart:
+
+“I will not go. I cannot go. If I am of any value in his eyes, I, the
+mother of his son, he will come to me. I cannot go to him.”
+
+So, when a little time had passed, the Perfected One arose, and attended
+by the two mightiest of his disciples and followed by the Maharaja went
+to the Palace of his wife, and as he went, he said:
+
+“Monks, if this lady should embrace me, do not hinder her, though it be
+against the rule.”
+
+And pacing silently beside him, the two comprehended the wisdom and
+compassion of the Lord, bowing their heads.
+
+And they entered the hall where the Princess stood unveiled, the glory
+of her hair shorn, clad in a coarse robe of yellow resembling his own,
+and divested of all jewels and splendours, and she stood like the marble
+image of a woman as he entered, pale in the shadows.
+
+Then, seeing him, suddenly love and manifold anguish broke in a freshet
+in her heart as when the melting snows fill Rohini until she floods her
+banks; and pride and love, each stabbed to the heart, strove within her,
+and with piteous eyes she looked upon her Lord once so near and now so
+far, as he stood calmly regarding her with a look she could not
+understand, and love had the victory, and she ran to him and falling on
+the ground laid her face upon his feet and embraced them weeping most
+bitterly.
+
+And there was silence, none hindering or speaking, and he looked down
+upon her.
+
+So she lay.
+
+But after awhile remembrance returned to her and his silence and the
+distance wide as heaven and earth between them, and she rose with
+majesty and withdrew herself to one side and stood with bowed head while
+the Maharaja declared to the Perfected One her griefs and patience and
+mortifications so that she might resemble him, abjuring her bed for a
+mat laid upon the ground, and the feasts of the palace for one poor meal
+a day, and much more. And the Prince heard and speaking slowly, still
+with his eyes upon her, said:
+
+“This is true. Great also was the virtue of this high lady, the mother
+of Rahula, virtue in a former life which I remember and she too will
+remember one day with gladness. Lady, mother of my son, the way that I
+have opened is open for you also. Come and hear.”
+
+And with his eyes upon her to the last he turned and went away.
+
+So that evening, seated by the bank of Rohini, the Perfect One taught
+the Way before his own people, and they crowded to hear; and this high
+lady seated, veiled so that none might see her hidden eyes, heard also,
+and as she listened, illusion fell from her; she perceived the
+Unchanging, the Formless, the Beautiful, and the illusory forms of this
+world and the delusion of time fell from her also, and she beheld her
+love no longer past and done with, but eternal as the eternity of the
+Self that alone endures, and the imprisoning self which alone can suffer
+died within her and left her enfranchised, and inward light shone upon
+her and she knew the truth.
+
+So also was it with the Maharaja and the Maharani Prajapati and many
+more.
+
+But on the next day the Princess Yashodara called to her son Rahula and
+dressed him in his best until he shone bright and beautiful as a star,
+and she laid her cheek against his, saying:
+
+“Go now, beloved, and seek your father and ask for your inheritance.”
+
+And he answered:
+
+“Mother, I know of no father but the Maharaja. What father? And why
+should he withhold my inheritance?”
+
+And she said: “Go and ask. But first see, that you may know him.”
+
+She led the boy to the window and pointed.
+
+“That monk, clothed in the yellow robe, he whose face shines like the
+sun in its strength, is your father. And he has great wealth—riches,
+not to be told in words. Go, son, and demand your inheritance.”
+
+And the boy went, wondering and desiring, and in the garden he ran
+quickly and catching the robe of the Blessed One, he said:
+
+“My father, how happy I am to be near you. O day of gladness,” and tears
+of joy overflowed his eyes, seeing his father so great and beautiful.
+But to test him, the Blessed One was silent, pacing toward the Nyagrodha
+grove, and still the child followed, entreating for his inheritance.
+
+Then when they reached the grove, the Perfected One turned smiling to
+Sariputta the great disciple, and he said:
+
+“Monk, what think you? For worldly wealth perishes, but this remains.
+Shall I make my son heir to the Greatest? Let us admit him to the
+Order.”
+
+And it was done, and the heart of the Princess sang within her for
+bliss, and henceforward the boy trod the way of Peace.
+
+So leaving joy and tranquillity behind him and measureless content in
+the soul of Yashodara, the Blessed One returned to Shravasti on the
+river Rapti and there a rich merchant, Anathapindika, gave to the Order
+a pleasant grove named Jetavana, and a monastery, and there during the
+rains our Lord dwelt and many of his teachings and discourses were
+spoken at Jetavana.
+
+And this was the manner of his life.
+
+The Blessed One would rise early in the morning, and that some one of
+his followers might gain merit he accepted service, and water was
+brought to him for ablution, and having performed this he would sit
+alone until it was time to go and beg his food. Then he would put on his
+tunic, girdle, and robe, and taking his bowl would enter the village or
+town for alms. Sometimes alone, sometimes with other monks, many of them
+men of great and noble birth. And it seemed that gentle breezes cleared
+the air for him and clouds let fall rain to lay the dust, and where he
+placed his foot the way was even and pleasant and flowers blossomed. And
+it appeared to those who saw, that rays of radiance surrounded his
+person, since he possessed the attributes of that true world which
+encompasses the illusions of the false world perceived by the senses.
+
+By all these tokens and more did the people know who approached, and
+they said to each other:
+
+“Bhagavat—the Blessed One—has now entered for alms,” and robed in
+their best, with perfumes, flowers, and such offerings as they could
+give, they came into the street. There, having paid their homage, some
+would implore him:
+
+“Reverend sir, let us feed ten monks,” and some, “Let us feed twenty,”
+and the rich “Let us feed a hundred.” And the most fortunate would take
+the bowl of the Blessed One and fill it with food.
+
+When he had finished his meal, the Blessed One considering what was
+suited to the minds of those who listened, would so teach them the Law
+that many would attain to the fruit of knowledge in its different
+degrees, and some in the highest—that of a clear perception in
+saintship,—and having thus given his good gifts to the multitude he
+would rise and return to the quiet monastery.
+
+On his arrival there he sat in a pavilion shaded from the sun, on an
+excellent Buddha-mat which had been spread for him, and there waited for
+the monks to finish their meal, and when this was done he entered his
+chamber and bathed his feet from the dust of travel.
+
+Then, standing, he exhorted the assembly of monks, saying:
+
+“Monks, diligently work out your salvation, for not often is a
+Buddha—an Enlightened One—seen in the world—not often is it possible
+thus to hear the Law. And if even an animal can keep the Precepts, how
+much more a man.”
+
+And at this point some would ask the Blessed One for exercises in
+meditation and to each he assigned what suited best their characters.
+And then all did obeisance to the Perfect One, and dispersed to the
+places where they were in the habit of spending the night or day, some
+to the forest, some to the foot of trees, some, in meditation, to the
+heavenly places.
+
+And the Blessed One, then entering his chamber, would, if wearied, lie
+down for awhile, not sleeping but mindful and conscious and on his right
+side, as a lion takes his repose. And when refreshed he rose, and sent
+his gaze through the world (for to the Illuminated this is possible), to
+see who it was possible he might aid.
+
+And after this, the people of the village or town near which he might be
+dwelling assembled, again in their best robes, and he, approaching with
+majesty, took his seat on the Buddha-mat in the little audience hall,
+and declared the doctrine to his hearers who sat before him rapt in
+hearing.
+
+And when they had made obeisance and departed it was the custom of the
+Perfected One to bathe himself, and after that to assume his tunic and
+girdle, and throwing his robe over his right shoulder to go into his
+chamber and there fall into deep meditation, and after that was the rest
+of the day given to the monks who assembled, coming from here, there,
+and everywhere, to question the Blessed Lord and ask his instructions or
+plead for a sermon and all this he very gladly gave, so consuming the
+first watch of the night.
+
+And during the middle watch of the night he would commune with the
+blessed spirits of the Universe, they drawing very near him in the true
+accord.
+
+And the last watch of the night he divided into three parts, and weary
+with much sitting he paced up and down considering many things, and in
+the second part would enter his chamber and rest, and in the third,
+seated, send the diamond-clear ray of his perception through the world
+that he might commune with any soul who needed that communion.
+
+And thus were spent the days of him who had attained the _Paramitas_,
+the Ten Perfections.
+
+And if there be any who would know of the ten, these are they.
+
+Almsgiving, morality, long-suffering, manliness, meditation, mystic
+insight, resolution, strength, knowledge, and skill in the choice of
+means.
+
+In all these was our Lord perfected. And above even these in Love. For
+hear the teaching of the Lord:
+
+“As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her
+only son, so let the disciple cultivate love without measure toward all
+beings. Let him cultivate toward the whole world above, below, around, a
+heart of love unstinted, unmixed with differing or opposing interests.
+And let a man maintain this mindful love whether he stands, walks, sits
+or lies. For in all the world this state of heart is best.”
+
+For the Lord, the Blessed One, taught that this love must increase until
+the wide Universe is suffused with its radiance.
+
+“Our mind shall not waver. No evil speech will we utter. Tender and
+compassionate will we abide, loving, void of malice. And with rays of
+love shall we suffuse all that is, even with love grown great and
+measureless.”
+
+And because of this high teaching many men and women attained to
+Arhatship, becoming perfected saints, seeing things as they are in
+themselves and not according to their illusory appearances in this world
+of illusion,—and they made great songs of triumph and victory, saying
+that when the Hindrances are removed from a man he is as one set free
+from debt, imprisonment, and slavery.
+
+“For when the five Hindrances are put away within him, he is a free man
+and secure, and gladness springs up within him, and joy, and so
+rejoicing all his frame becomes at ease, and in that peace his heart is
+stayed.”
+
+And again, this song of Right Rapture.
+
+ “It is in very bliss we dwell, we who hate not those who hate us:
+ Among men full of hate we dwell, who are void of hate.
+ It is in very bliss we dwell, we in health among the ailing.
+ Among men weary and sick, we continue well.
+ It is in very bliss we dwell, we, free from care among the careworn.
+ Among men tortured with unrest, we are calm.
+ It is in very bliss we dwell, we who have no hindrances.
+ We have become feeders on joy, like to the shining Gods.”
+
+“The shining Gods.” What then are these Gods and Shining Ones? Thus have
+I heard.
+
+Surely the Gods are they who having acquired mighty merit by great good
+deeds reign and shine for ages until the power of their good deeds is
+exhausted. For they knew not the Nirvana and the disintegration of the
+false self, and so desired Paradise as their reward, and Paradise they
+have. But though it last for ages, when the power of their good deeds is
+exhausted then they too must enter again by the gate of birth and humbly
+learn to extinguish all desire, even though it be the desire of Heaven,
+and to know that the greedy _I_ which desired these things is
+non-existent, until they too, treading the Noble Eightfold Path, enter
+upon the highest wisdom and attain to the Nirvana, the Peace, for this
+alone is that comprehension which beholds the heavens and hells as
+pictures, as illusions, as nothing,—and whoso possesses it sits above
+manhood and Godhead alike, having utterly attained.
+
+Thus it must be when ignorance is dead and wisdom made perfect, for the
+vain shows of ignorance are dispersed in clear perception of the things
+that are true and eternal.
+
+When the wise man by earnestness has driven vanity far away, he has
+climbed the terraced heights of wisdom, and, care-free, looks down upon
+the illusory world, the careworn crowd, as he who standing upon a
+mountain top watches serenely the toilers in the plain.
+
+And a man must have what he desires, be it the Paradises that pass, or
+the Peace that is eternal.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Now persons of all castes, high and low, women as well as men, sought
+the teachings of the Lord—and he received all with courtesy and
+gladness, for he said:
+
+“There is no caste in blood and tears.”
+
+So they brought him their griefs and questionings. And very strange to
+them did it seem to behold a great Prince surrounded by young men of the
+noble families who each and all had thrown off the Hindrances of the
+illusory world and forsaking all had followed the Truth.
+
+But when they themselves had seen the light no longer did it appear
+strange, for who will stay to watch a fragment of broken glass flash in
+the sun, when before him pulse the great lights of a royal jewel,
+brother of the sun and stars.
+
+And about this time the beautiful harlot of Vaisali, the Lady Amra,
+lovely as the divine Shri rising from the ocean, heard that a great Lord
+of Wisdom was come to Vaisali, and she offered him the use of her Garden
+of Mangoes outside the city that he might rest in the delicious shade of
+her trees and in the little pavilion where she took her pleasure, for
+she was rich in gold and jewels and resembled a great Princess in pride
+and beauty. But she did not herself think to see him, for the joy of
+life held her as the nectar of flowers holds the clinging bee, making
+his wings heavy so that he scarce can fly.
+
+But her steward came to her, saying:
+
+“O auspicious lady, I know not how it is, but all the nobles and people
+are afoot, making their way to the Garden of Mangoes, and when I asked
+the reason they replied:
+
+“It is because of the man who rests there. There is none like him—none!
+And he is the son of a King and has forsaken his kingdom that he may
+find a greater.”
+
+And she leaped to her feet laughing, ever ready for some new sight,
+saying:
+
+“Is it so? Then make ready my vehicle and I will go with Subaddha to see
+the man.”
+
+And they harnessed her velvet-white oxen with tassels of gold to her
+gilded car, and she took her place with the lady Subaddha at her feet
+and a golden canopy above her head, shining like the moon in her glory,
+and she went as a queen, casting proud glances about her.
+
+Now it was so early in the day that folk were busied with their labours
+and the nobles were yet sleeping and the way was clear before her, and
+the oxen trod quietly between the neem trees and fan palms until she
+came to the gate of her Garden of Mangoes, and there they halted in
+young sunlight and the dew of dawn. And a man stood by the gate as
+though he guarded it, and he was robed in yellow with one arm and
+shoulder bare, and when she would have entered he stretched out his arm
+and forbade her, saying:
+
+“Lady, being such a woman as you are, how is it seemly that you should
+enter this garden? Return whence you came.”
+
+And the blood fell away from her face and left her pale at that saying,
+for she had lived all her life like a queen, and now it seemed that
+scorn and the end were come upon her, and her beauty nothing though she
+shone like a night of moon and stars in her woven webs of gold. And
+silence fell upon her as she looked upon this noble young man serene and
+beautiful, who regarded her not, nor could she say, “The garden is
+mine,” for she was afraid.
+
+So then, between the feathering palms and the bamboo leaves that floated
+on still air, came another man, also clothed in the yellow robe, but
+walking like a Prince, and he said softly to the other:
+
+“Stay her not, brother Yasas, for our Master would look upon her beauty.
+Descend, Lady, and follow.”
+
+And a little comforted at his saying she descended from beneath the
+canopy and followed through the palms and the mango trees that were her
+own and now seemed not hers. And there was great quiet, for the monk
+said no word and the leaves forbore to stir and not a cricket chirped
+and the sun was very early and dewy in the green ways. And she thought:
+
+“What shall I see? For kings and princes have feared my beauty and I
+mocked them. And if he be wise, yet have the stern ascetics of the
+forests—those whose power the very Gods dreaded,—been seduced from
+their wisdom by the nymphs of Heaven. They have gone utterly astray, and
+very certainly I am beautiful as Menaka or Urvasi.”
+
+And, now they turned into a green way beside the still pool where the
+lotuses bloomed, and it was cool and dim with a deep shade of trees, for
+they let down pillared stems to root again in earth and make a forest
+temple that scarcely a ray might pierce. And within the shade was One
+seated with folded hands and feet and behind his head a raying light
+that shone like the midnight moon, and, lost in calm, he looked out into
+the worlds.
+
+And the man beside her fell on his knees and hid his face.
+
+Not for me, O, not for me, least of all the disciples is it meet that I
+should tell of this or of the similitude of the Blessed One—the very
+wise, the passionless, the desireless Lord in the eyes of such as loved
+him. Only this I know, that the woman stood amazed, forgetting her
+beauty, forgetting herself, forgetting all in the Three Worlds but only
+that One. And the rock crystal that was her heart melted within her and
+flowed away in a river of tears: nor could she stay her feet, but
+slowly, very slowly, she approached and before his feet she fell and
+laid her face on the earth.
+
+Now after awhile the Exalted One commanded her to rise and be seated,
+and he incited and gladdened her with high discourse so that she could
+no longer fear but only love in hearing these great words with ears that
+drank them as the parched earth yearns for the rains. And if it be asked
+how a woman of evil life should thus be honoured, should thus harken
+with love and understanding, I tell this thing.
+
+Many lives ago was there a deep forest where beasts and birds dwelt and
+nourished their young in peace, but one day a wind blew and brought on
+its wings a great fire. And none had pity on the beasts and birds but
+one pheasant, glorious of plumage, and this, caring nothing for her own
+life, plunged into a stream of pure water, and flying upward shook the
+drops from her feathers on the flames. Therefore Indra, King of the
+Gods, seeing said:
+
+“Foolish bird! and what can this do? You weary yourself in vain! This is
+a deed for the great and not for a little bird!”
+
+And she: “You are Indra, King of Heaven, and with a wish you could
+quench this fire, yet do not. But as for me while it burns I have no
+time for words.”
+
+And again she flew against the fire, sprinkling water. And the Great God
+blew with his breath, extinguishing the fire, but the pheasant had
+perished. Now in that former life was the Lady Amra that bird, and
+because the fruit of a high deed can never perish so, passing through
+many lives, she attained at last to lie at the feet of the Blessed One.
+Just and perfect is the Law.
+
+So, seated, at his feet, she received the Heart of Wisdom and accepted
+the first noble Truth, the Truth of suffering. And when the Exalted One
+judged that she could receive no more that day, he dismissed her, and
+she bowed at his feet and said this:
+
+“O, may the Lord in deep compassion do me the honour of eating at my
+house to-morrow.”
+
+And all assembled thought this could not be, but the Blessed One gave by
+silence his consent, and circling reverently about him three times she
+departed glad of heart, and the people made way for one so honoured.
+
+Now the nobles of Vaisali had come out to meet the World-Honoured and
+they were on the road, and Amra in the dancing joy of her heart drove up
+against them, axle to axle, and they said angrily.
+
+“How is it, Amra, that you, being such a one, drive up against us?”
+
+And she cried aloud.
+
+“Noble persons, I have bidden the Exalted One for tomorrow’s meal, and
+he comes—he comes!”
+
+And they halted amazed, and said:
+
+“Sell us the honour of his company for great weights of gold.”
+
+And she, glowing with joy.
+
+“Noble persons, were you to give me Vaisali and all its subject
+territories yet would I not give up this honourable meal.”
+
+And the angry nobles cast up their hands, crying.
+
+“We are outdone by this mango-girl! We are out-reached by this
+mango-girl.”
+
+And in anger they proceeded to the garden and went in before the Lord
+where he sat surrounded with calm, and they said:
+
+“May the Exalted One do us the honour of taking his meal together with
+his disciples at one house to-morrow?”
+
+But he replied:
+
+“Noble persons, I have promised to eat with the Lady Amra.”
+
+And again they threw up their hands exclaiming:
+
+“We are outdone by this mango-girl. Great shame to us is this!”
+
+And the Lord Buddha robed himself early in the morning and took his
+begging bowl and his disciples followed, and he went to the Street of
+Flowers, and Amra set sweet milk-rice and cakes before the Lord and his
+followers and she herself attended upon them in great humility and they
+ate the food they had not thought to eat, and when it was eaten, she sat
+lowly by his side and folding her hands, said:
+
+“Holy One, I present this house to the Order. Accept it, if it be your
+will.”
+
+And the Blessed One accepted the gift, seeing the heart that made it,
+and after inciting and gladdening her with high discourse, he rose and
+went his way.
+
+And in merciful deeds and right living this lady grew, and the Heart of
+Wisdom strengthened in her, and in this very life she became a perfected
+saint—a great Arhat—and entered the Nirvana—the Peace. For, as the
+lotus flowers do not grow on dry land but spring from black and watery
+mud, so even by the strength of her passion and sin and the deeps of
+experience she reached the heights. And she it was who made The Psalm of
+Old Age, and smiled in its making.
+
+ “Glossy and black as the down of the bee my curls once clustered.
+ They, with the waste of years, are liker to hemp or to bark-cloth,
+ Such and not otherwise, runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.
+
+ Lovely the lines of my ears as the delicate work of the goldsmith.
+ They, with the waste of years, are seamed with wrinkles and pendent.
+ Such and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.
+
+ Full and lovely in rounding rose of old the small breasts of me.
+ They, with the waste of the years, droop sunken as skins without water.
+ So and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.
+
+ Such hath this body been. Now age-weary, weak and unsightly,
+ Home of manifold ills: old house whence the mortar is dropping
+ So and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.”[4]
+
+-----
+
+[4] Translated by C. F. Rhys Davids.
+
+-----
+
+And inasmuch as the Sister thus discerned impermanance in all phenomena,
+knowing the world we see is but the creation of our senses, she, making
+clear her insight, attained, leaving behind her all fear and grief. For
+who shall measure the bounds and deeps and height and length of that
+wisdom that is one with Love?
+
+Hear also the story of the very wise and glad and gay Lady Visakha—that
+pillar of the Order, who abiding in the world as a great lady of riches
+yet gave her heart to wisdom and the Law of the Perfect One, for open is
+the way to all.
+
+She was daughter to a great man, Balamitra, and was a young maiden in
+her father’s house, when a Brahman commissioned by the Treasurer Migara
+to choose a wife for his son came that way, and when he arrived he saw
+Visakha and other girls going into the wood in search of amusement, and
+he watched them idly.
+
+Now the other girls were frivolous, running, skipping, whirling about
+and singing, but Visakha walked quietly with them, observing all and
+saying little. And when they came to the tank the others carelessly
+stripped themselves and began to play in the clear water. But Visakha
+lifted her clothes by degrees as she entered and by degrees lowered them
+as she came out, careful and modest in her conduct. And, after this,
+food was distributed, and the other girls ate hurriedly and greedily and
+then gave the remnants to their attendants. But Visakha gave food first
+to those who served her, and then ate temperately herself.
+
+And the Brahman, still watching, saw that as the girls returned there
+was water across the path and the others took off their shoes and waded,
+but Visakha remained shod, and when they came to a wood she kept her
+sunshade up though the others had lowered theirs.
+
+And there the Brahman came up with her, in much astonishment and
+questioned her, and seeing him to be a holy and dignified person she
+replied with respectful courtesy. And thus he said:
+
+“Dear girl, whose daughter are you?”
+
+“Sir, I am the daughter of Balamitra.”
+
+“Dear girl, be not angry if I question you.”
+
+“While those girls were skipping, dancing and twirling, with other
+unseemly manners, you walked quietly; why, dear girl?”
+
+“Because, great sir, all girls are their parents’ merchandise. If in
+leaping and twirling I were to injure myself, I must be kept by my
+parents while I live, for none would woo me.”
+
+“Good, dear girl. I understand. Now, in entering the water your
+companions stripped themselves but you went clothed and modest. And
+why?”
+
+“O uncle, maidens must be shame-faced. It is not well for them to be
+seen unclothed.”
+
+“Dear girl, there was none to see.”
+
+“Uncle, you saw.”
+
+“Good, dear girl. And again, the others neglected their attendants, but
+you fed yours first. And why?”
+
+“For this reason, uncle; we have easy days and feastful; they, hard work
+always.”
+
+“Good, dear girl. And why in wading through the water did you keep your
+shoes on?”
+
+“Because in water one cannot see where one plants one’s feet. I would
+not cut mine!”
+
+“And in the wood, dear girl, you kept your sunshade open. Why? For then
+there was shade from the trees?”
+
+“But also, uncle, the droppings of birds, the malice of the monkeys
+letting fall unpleasant fragments, the falling of leaves and twigs. In
+the open this seldom happens; in a wood often.”
+
+So full of delight at her good sense, the Brahman went to her parents,
+and asked her in marriage for the son of Migara. And he said:
+
+“This girl will make a noble wife and a great lady, for she is full of
+thought for others and wise with the very wisdom of the Law. Give her to
+the son of Migara.”
+
+And it was granted and they sent her to her husband in the city of
+Savatthi. Now Visakha was one who followed the Enlightened One with all
+her wise heart, but it was not so with Migara, her husband’s father, nor
+yet with his household. But she gratified their eyes for they demanded
+the Five Beauties in a daughter of the House, and these five she richly
+possessed namely, beauty of hair, beauty of flesh, beauty of bone,
+beauty of skin, and beauty of youth.
+
+And beauty of hair is when the hair resembles a peacock’s tail, falling
+to the end of the tunic where it curls upward. Beauty of flesh, when the
+lips resemble a bright red gourd. Beauty of bone, when the teeth gleam
+between the rosy lips like cut mother-of-pearl, with even division.
+Beauty of skin, when without the application of any cosmetic it is
+smooth as a lotus-wreath and white as Kanikara flowers. Beauty of youth
+is the endurance of the gaiety and freshness of youth after many
+child-births. All these had Visakha, and yet another, for her voice was
+sweeter than music, like the silver sounding of a little gong. And on
+parting her father presented her with a magnificent jewel adornment
+known as the Great Creeper Parure, and a part of it consisted of a
+peacock with five hundred feathers of red gold in each wing, the beak of
+coral, the eyes of jewels and likewise the neck and tail-feathers. And
+on Visakha’s head it resembled a peacock perched on a height, and it
+gave forth music and appeared to be real.
+
+But when she was established in her new home she found that Migara, her
+father-in-law, was a follower of the naked ascetics, and they and he
+cast scorn on the Perfect One, and this disturbed her much, and the
+ascetics said to Migara:
+
+“O householder, you have introduced into your family an arrant
+misfortune breeder, a disciple of the monk Gotama. Expel her instantly.”
+
+“And that is not easy!” thought Migara, “for she comes of a great
+family,—But I will take measures.”
+
+So he sat down and began to eat sweet rice-milk from a golden bowl, and
+Visakha stood before him, dutifully fanning him. And a holy mendicant
+entered with his begging bowl for alms, but Migara made as though he did
+not see him, and ate on, keeping his head down.
+
+“Pass on, reverend sir!” said Visakha with courtesy. “My father is
+eating stale food—it would not be agreeable to you.”
+
+And when she said this, Migara leaped to his feet and cried:
+
+“Take away this food and drive the girl from the house. To think the
+slut should accuse _Me_ of eating stale food, and at a time of
+festival!”
+
+“Father!” said Visakha, with composed serenity. “I shall not easily
+leave the house. For I am no harlot picked up at some river bathing
+place, but a great lady. And my father foresaw such a case, and when I
+left commanded eight householders of this town to investigate any charge
+brought against me. Summon them now.”
+
+And Migara agreed joyfully, knowing what they must adjudge to such
+insolence.
+
+Then they came—eight grave and wise men, and the story was told. And
+when it was heard:
+
+“Dear girl,” said the eldest householder, “is it as he says?”
+
+“That is not as _I_ say! For when my father-in-law ignored the monk I
+said ‘He is eating stale fare.’ And I meant this—He is uselessly
+consuming the merit acquired in a former life instead of making fresh.
+Now, what fault was that?”
+
+“None, dear girl. Our daughter speaks justly. Why are you angry with
+her, sir?”
+
+“Sirs, granted that was no fault,—But when she came to us her mother
+gave her ten admonitions of a hidden meaning, and I dislike them. First:
+‘The indoor fire is not to be taken out of doors.’ Now you know it is
+the friendly custom to send fire to our neighbours.”
+
+“Is it as he says, dear girl?”
+
+“Good sirs, this is the meaning: ‘If you notice any fault in any of your
+new family, never tell it outside the house. For there is no worse fire
+than this.’ Was this a fault in me?”
+
+And Migara was ashamed and said:
+
+“Sirs, I grant this. But she was also instructed thus: ‘Outdoor fire
+must not be brought indoors.’ It is the custom to accept fire if ours
+should go out, and therefore this was an unseemly instruction.”
+
+And seated in a row and consulting, the householders appointed their
+eldest to answer.
+
+“Is it as he says, dear girl?”
+
+“No, good sirs. The meaning is—‘If any outside the house speak ill of
+any within, never repeat it within doors. For there is no fire like the
+tongue.”
+
+“Well and good, dear girl. And the rest?”
+
+And she repeated.
+
+“I was instructed. ‘Give to him who gives and also to him who does not
+give,’ and this means ‘Be liberal to needy relatives and friends whether
+they can repay you or no.’ And again: ‘Sit happily.’ And this
+means—‘When you see your father-in-law or his wife or your husband, you
+must rise and stand before them.’ ‘Eat happily.’ This means—‘They must
+be served by you before you eat yourself.’ ‘Wait upon the fire.’ This
+signifies, ‘These three must be looked upon as beautiful as a flame of
+fire or a royal serpent.’ ‘Reverence the household divinities.’ This
+means that these three are your divinities indeed. ‘Sleep happily.’ This
+means ‘You must not lie down to sleep till you have done all possible
+services for them.’ All these rules, good sirs, I have kept. Now am I in
+fault?”
+
+And Migara sat with downcast eyes and the eight said to him:
+
+“Treasurer, is there any other sin in our daughter for she is clear of
+any wrong in all this.”
+
+And he said:
+
+“No. None.” But Visakha then arose in just anger.
+
+“Good sirs,” she said, “It would not have been fitting that I should be
+dismissed, yet now I am found guiltless I will go. It is a good time.”
+
+And she ordered her many carriages and slaves to be made ready. But
+Migara implored her to remain with them, half in fear and half in shame.
+And when she refused he redoubled his entreaties, and asked her
+forgiveness earnestly. And she replied:
+
+“Good sir, what there is to pardon I pardon cheerfully. But I am
+daughter to a family which follows the Law of the Exalted One. If I can
+be allowed to attend upon the Assembly, then I will stay. Not
+otherwise.”
+
+And he replied:
+
+“Dear girl, wait on your Assembly as you please.”
+
+And the end of the matter was that Migara went with Visakha to hear the
+World-Honoured, doubtful and unwilling, and it appeared to Migara, as it
+did always to all, that the eyes of the Buddha were fixed steadfastly on
+him and his proclamation of the Law addressed to him, and to him only.
+And Migara heard and the words reached his innermost being and he became
+established in the truth and acquired an immovable faith in the Three
+Refuges—the Law, the Lord, and the Assembly. And he said:
+
+“Truly it was for my advantage, truly it was for my good that my
+daughter-in-law came to my house,” and when he returned, he touched her
+breast with his hand, saying:
+
+“Henceforth you are as my mother,” thus giving her the position of
+honour. And he caused to be made for her an ornament known as the Highly
+Polished Parure, and gave it to her under the eyes of the Buddha.
+
+And she continued to give alms and to do many deeds of merit, and as the
+crescent moon rounds in the sky she became great in sons and daughters,
+ten of each. She lived to be an hundred and twenty years old, and not
+one grey hair was seen upon her head, insomuch that when she walked to
+the monastery with her children and their children, people asked:
+
+“Which is the great Visakha?”
+
+And they said: “That great lady who walks so lightly,” and the others
+replied:
+
+“May she walk further! Our lady looks well when she walks.”
+
+And those who saw her stand, sit, or lie, would say:
+
+“I hope she may do each a little longer. Our lady looks well in all she
+does.”
+
+So that it could not be charged against her that there was any posture
+in which she did not look well.
+
+And great and magnificent were her charities to all who needed. And even
+the great Creeper Parure she gave for the needy, and redeemed it with a
+King’s ransom, and she attended upon the sick, healing them with wise
+medicaments, and she built a monastery and it is easy to rehearse what
+she did not do that was good, but impossible to rehearse all her
+innumerable nobilities of deed and thought.
+
+And it was of her the One who is Awakened said:
+
+“Just, monks, as a skilful garland-maker if he obtain a heap of flowers
+will go on making beautiful garlands without end, even so does the mind
+of Visakha incline to do all manner of noble deeds weaving them into
+loveliness.”
+
+And this is the history of that great, generous and happy lady, the
+daughter of the Law.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+At this time the Queen Prajapati, she who had nourished the Blessed One
+with noble milk when his mother Maya was received into Paradise, sent to
+our Lord, with a message from herself and from the Princess Yashodara
+and other ladies of the royal family, and it was this.
+
+“Full of hindrances is the household life, very free the life of the
+homeless for such as would walk in the way. Let the Blessed One, the
+Happy One, permit that women also retire to the peace of the homeless
+life under the discipline taught by the Exalted Lord.”
+
+But he was silent, and a second time they made their petition, for they
+thought:
+
+“Much need have women of the Peace, and is the way closed to them only?”
+
+And the Queen Prajapati came herself and besought him with tears, and he
+replied:
+
+“Enough, Lady. Do not make this request,” and weeping and saluting him
+with reverence she left him.
+
+So wandering from place to place and teaching by the way, the Blessed
+One came to Vaisali and stayed awhile in the Pagoda Hall, and when she
+knew where she could find him the Queen Prajapati with shorn hair and
+yellow robes, followed by a number of the Sakya women journeyed along
+the dusty ways to Vaisali and stood in the porch of the Pagoda Hall
+weeping and very sorrowful.
+
+Now it so chanced that the disciple Ananda, cousin of the Exalted One
+and much loved by him (and he was chosen to wait always about his
+person), saw those weeping women stand in the porch, dusty and foreworn
+with the long journey and their tender feet swollen and cut with
+unwonted travel, and he pitied them and inquired into the cause of their
+grief.
+
+And having heard all he approached the Blessed One with reverence where
+he sat full of peace looking out into the green shade of the nyagrodha
+trees, and after salutation Ananda the beloved sat down beside him
+waiting until the Lord turned his eyes serenely upon him. And then said
+Ananda:
+
+“Reverend Sir, here in the entrance stands Prajapati the Queen with
+swollen feet, sorrowful and weeping, and her word is that the Blessed
+One will not permit women to retire to the homeless life. Exalted One, I
+beseech you for these. Let their petition be heard.”
+
+But the Blessed One replied:
+
+“Enough, Ananda. Do not ask this.”
+
+And again and yet again the beloved Ananda besought and still the Lord
+refused. And then the thought occurred to Ananda that he might ask in
+another manner with more success, for he pitied the women for this great
+denial of their hope. And he said:
+
+“Lord, if women retire to the homeless life is it possible for them to
+attain to the goal of returning only once more to rebirth? Is it
+possible that escaping from sorrow they should attain to saintship?”
+
+And the Blessed One in whom is all truth, answered:
+
+“This is possible.”
+
+And the face of Ananda gladdened even like his name which signifies Joy,
+and he said:
+
+“Then I beseech the Perfected One to consider how great a benefactress
+to the Order has been the Queen. She is sister to the mother of the
+Blessed One and at her breast was he nourished. I beseech and yet again
+beseech that they be admitted, for if it be possible that they thus make
+an end of sorrow shall not this be permitted?”
+
+Then said the Blessed One:
+
+“Hard is it to refuse and I cannot. If therefore these women will accept
+eight weighty regulations in addition to those accepted by the
+Order—eight weighty regulations making them subject to the Order, it
+shall be reckoned to them for ordination.”
+
+And when he had received the eight weighty regulations hard to be borne,
+for they set the oldest and most venerable of nuns below the youngest
+and least of the Order, Ananda went out to the Queen and told her all as
+she stood patiently with the wearied women. And when they heard the
+regulations sorrow passed from them as when the moon escaping from a
+cloud floats in pure radiance in pure air, and the Queen answered for
+Yashodara and for all those tender ones:
+
+“Reverend Ananda, as a woman young, beautiful, and loving to beautify
+herself, having obtained a wreath of blue lotus-flowers, or of perfumed
+jasmin, takes it and wreathes her head with joy, so do we. O venerable
+Ananda, we take up those eight weighty regulations, not to be
+transgressed while life lasts.”
+
+And that was their ordination, as the Exalted One had said, and Ananda
+returned to the Lord and told him of their joy. And he meditated and
+said:
+
+“If, Ananda, women had not retired to the homeless life, under my
+discipline then would religion have endured long in this country, even a
+thousand years. But now, not very long will the discipline and religion
+endure. And just as a man prudently builds a dike in order that water
+confined may not transgress its bounds, have I laid down the eight
+weighty regulations. Yet shall it not endure, since women have accepted
+the rules.”
+
+And true it is that in India the faith has not endured, but over the
+rest of Asia has it spread, strong and mighty.
+
+But the women were glad at heart, for the homeless life drew them with
+the very passion of peace and many became great saints, some dwelling in
+forests and in caves, and great to them was the joy of peace in the
+solitudes far from crowds, and they were filled with the life of trees
+and great forests and the strength of the up-running sap and the
+speechless communion and growth of trees and plants. And in many joy
+broke forth in words and they made the Psalms of the Sisters, even as
+their brothers the monks also sang for joy and could no more be silent
+than birds at dawn, and the world they had known called to ears that
+heard no longer. And thus it called:
+
+“Young art thou, sister, and faultless—what seekest _thou_ in the holy
+ life?
+Cast off that yellow-hued raiment and come!”
+
+And each replied in her own manner.
+
+ “I what was well to do have done, and what
+ Is to my heart delectable. Therein
+ Is my delight, and thus through happiness
+ Has happiness been sought after and won.”
+
+Young and old they rejoiced, and the solitudes were kind to them,
+admitting them to fellowship. And one aged sister spoke this:
+
+ “Though I be suffering and weak and all
+ My spring of youth be gone, yet have I come
+ Leaning upon my staff and climbed aloft
+ On mountain peak. My cloak have I thrown off
+ My little bowl o’er-turned; so sit I here
+ Upon the rock. And o’er my spirit sweeps
+ The breath of Liberty. I win, I win
+ The Triple Lore! The Buddha’s will be done.”
+
+For now, they who had been the prisoners of man and of opinion learnt
+the beauty of the solitudes, and knew the silence that is in the starry
+sky, the sleep that is among the lonely hills, and it became theirs, and
+they attained to the coolness, purity and luminance of the Peace,
+bathing in it as in moonlit water. For they had passed through the Three
+Grades of Training, the Higher habit of Conduct, the Higher
+Consciousness, and the Higher Wisdom, and thus, knowing the world, not
+as it appears to be but as it is, knowing “This is Ill; this is the
+cause of Ill; this is the way leading to the cessation of Ill,” they
+were glad, and right ecstasy was theirs and joys that cannot be told,
+and they were free.
+
+And another said this:
+
+ “Nirvana have I realized and gazed
+ Into the mirror of the holy Norm.
+ I, even I, am healed of all my hurt.
+ Down is my burden laid, my task is done,
+ My heart is wholly set at liberty.”
+
+And again:
+
+ “One day bathing my feet, I sit and watch
+ The water as it trickles down the slope.
+ Thereby I set my heart in steadfastness,
+ As one shall train a horse of noble breed.
+ Then, going to my cell, I take my lamp,
+ And seated on my couch I watch the flame.
+ Taking the pin I pull the wick right down
+ Into the oil. Extinguished is the fire.
+ Lo, the Nirvana of the little lamp.
+ Emancipation dawns. My heart is free.”
+
+For as the flame is quenched so are all lusts, desires and cravings
+extinguished in the clear waters of Nirvana. There is no fire so burning
+as the greed of passion, no luckless cast of the dice so cruel as hate,
+no ill so miserable as that of the ego that would claim all. Nor is
+there any bliss to be compared with the Nirvana.
+
+And the monks, also musing, made psalms that cannot die, for upon them
+also was the bliss.
+
+ “When in the lowering sky thunders the storm-cloud’s drum,
+ And all the pathways of the birds are thick with rain,
+ The brother sits within the hollow of the hills
+ Alone, rapt in thought’s ecstasy. No higher bliss
+ Is given to men than this.
+
+ Or where by rivers flowers crowd the bank,
+ And fragrant rushes scent the tranquil air
+ With heart serene the brother sits to see,
+ Alone, rapt in an ecstasy. No higher bliss
+ Is given to men than this.”
+
+And another:
+
+ “Whene’er I see the crane, her clear pale wings
+ Outstretched in fear to flee the black storm cloud,
+ A shelter seeking, to safe shelter borne,
+ Then does the river Ajakarani
+ Give joy to me.
+
+ Who shall not love to see on either bank
+ Clustered rose-apple trees in bright array
+ Beyond the great cave of the hermitage?
+ Or hear the soft croak of the frogs, their foes,
+ The legions of the air, withdrawn, proclaim
+ Now from the mountain streams is’t time to-day
+ To flit. Safe is the Ajakarani.
+ She brings us luck! Here it is good to be.”[5]
+
+-----
+
+[5] These Psalms are all translated by C. F. Rhys Davids.
+
+-----
+
+Thus very great joy had come to be by the Blessed One’s sufferings, and
+for each pang he had paid came a golden harvest of the peace of others.
+
+To Him who had thus Attained came men and women from far and near with
+doubts and questions, and seated with dignity (for his noble Aryan birth
+was upon him as well as the Peace) he received them all, answering and
+resolving their doubts, nor was it difficult for him to do this for his
+eyes were as the sun in his strength to divide light from darkness.
+
+Yet let it be well understood that of certain things he would not speak,
+counting them beyond human knowledge and knowing well that in no human
+speech are there words to bear the burden of the Ineffable. Therefore
+when men asked him of the Beginning, how division from the Eternal into
+the false ego-self came into the world and from what well of bitterness
+evil thought and evil doing flowed to become tears and blood in their
+flowing, he would not answer, for none but a Buddha can comprehend the
+deepest, and he only in ways beyond transmission to others. And he would
+say:
+
+“The arrow sticks in the wound, will you wait before the healer draws it
+out to enquire of what wood is it made and whether the bowstring is of
+hair or vegetable fibre? Life is ebbing while you theorize credulously
+about present and future, self or identity. Of the origins I do not
+teach.”
+
+And when again they besought him to say whether life or nothingness lay
+beyond death, only his own nearest disciples could read the fathomless
+depths of his calm, looking rather to this than to his speech. For he
+said, being alone with them to whom it was given to know:
+
+“In this world of forms and illusions created by our senses, according
+to our illusion a man either is or is not, either lives or dies, but in
+the true and formless world this is not so for all is otherwise than
+according to our knowledge and it is easier to answer in negatives than
+in affirmatives. And if you ask Does a man live beyond death, I answer
+No, not in any sense comprehensible to the mind of man which itself dies
+at death. And if you ask does a man altogether die at death, I answer
+No, for what dies is what belongs to this world of form and illusion,
+that is the false I, but beyond this is another world incomprehensible
+as yet to such as are not instructed and beyond all human categories, so
+that if I would I cannot tell you of it, but I would not, for the things
+are disturbing and do not aid the traveller on the only path which can
+bring him to their threshold. Therefore of that and of the origins I do
+not teach.”
+
+But this ego which the unenlightened believes to be himself, very
+certainly falls apart and dissolves at death, nor is there any place of
+continuance for it, and it is wholly extinct.
+
+And it so happened that one day a wandering monk, by name Vacchagotta,
+came to the Exalted One, and saluting him with friendly greetings he sat
+down beside him, and he asked:
+
+“How does the matter stand, venerated Gotama? In a man is there the
+Ego?”
+
+And the Exalted One was silent, and Vacchagotta asked again and yet
+again and still there was silence, and after awhile he rose and went
+away.
+
+But the beloved Ananda came to Him who has thus Attained, and said:
+
+“Why, sir, did you not answer the wandering monk Vacchagotta?” And,
+smiling, he looked in the face of the beloved Ananda.
+
+“If, Ananda, when he asked me, I had answered ‘The ego is,’ then that
+reply would have confirmed the teaching of those who believe in the
+permanence of that false ego which is a bundle of tendencies and
+consciousness and proudly calls itself I and the Soul; and if I had said
+the ego is not, this would have confirmed the teaching of those who say
+there is annihilation and nothing beyond death. For neither of these
+schools, nor yet Vacchagotta, know the distinction between the ego of
+which he asked me and the true Ego, for this last is eternal and beyond
+comprehension, and the false ego passes and is gone like a dream in the
+awakening of dawn. Therefore since Vacchagotta has not attained to the
+threshold of that knowledge, being prisoned in the world of appearances,
+what could I do but keep silence?”
+
+And the beloved Ananda laid his hand upon his mouth and retired, for
+with all his heart of love he had not yet attained to the full insight
+of the unreality of appearances, but where he could not understand he
+loved. And love is also the Way, as witness the monk Purna who was about
+to carry the light into a land of violent and perilous people. So the
+Perfected One sent for him, and asked:
+
+“And if, monk, these people abuse and injure you, what will be your
+thought?”
+
+“That these people are good in that they only abuse me and do not beat
+me.”
+
+“But if they beat you?”
+
+“Then I shall think they are good in that they only beat me and do not
+stab me with swords.”
+
+“But if with swords?”
+
+“Then I shall think: They are good. They leave me my life.”
+
+“But if they take your life?”
+
+“Then,—They are good to me in that they have lifted a burden from me.”
+
+And looking upon his face the World-Honoured said:
+
+“Well have you spoken, Purna. Go and deliver, you who have delivered
+yourself. Comfort, for you are comforted. Guide to the Peace, for you
+have entered it.”
+
+So Purna went in joy.
+
+And there was a monk named Yamaka who, considering the teaching,
+believed that on the dissolution of the body the man who has lost all
+depravity is annihilated and exists no more. And his fellow monks having
+in vain urged him to abandon so wicked a heresy called upon Sariputta
+the Great to teach him better, and by his silence he consented.
+
+So when the evening was come, Sariputta the Great rose from deep
+meditation and drawing near to Yamaka he greeted him with courtesy as
+one monk should another and sitting down respectfully beside him he
+questioned him thus:
+
+“Is the report true, brother Yamaka, that the wicked heresy of
+annihilation has sprung up in your mind?”
+
+“Even so, brother, do I understand the teaching of the Blessed One.”
+
+And Sariputta the Great mused a moment and resumed:
+
+“What think you, brother Yamaka;—is his bodily form the saint?”
+
+“No indeed, brother.”
+
+“Are sensation, perception, predispositions, the saint?”
+
+“Certainly not, brother.”
+
+“Then can you consider the saint as apart and distinct from form,
+sensation, perception and predispositions?”
+
+“Brother, I cannot.”
+
+“And if separately they are not, are they when united the saint?”
+
+“Brother, no.”
+
+“Then what think you, brother Yamaka? If you cannot prove the very
+existence of the saint in this world of forms and appearances, is it
+reasonable for you to say that at death the saint is annihilated and
+does not exist.”
+
+And holding down his head for shame Yamaka answered:
+
+“Brother Sariputta, it was through ignorance I held that wicked heresy,
+but now I have acquired the True Doctrine.”
+
+For Sariputta the Great taught as did his Master that the true being is
+detached from each of these delusive selves of consciousness, sensation,
+perception, and predispositions, and the saint who has attained has
+detached himself even in this life from belief that these are
+himself—his ego. How then should it be that the essential perishes when
+these dissolve with the dying brain in death? Yet has this wicked heresy
+been spread, though clear as day must it be made to those who tread the
+way that it is a lie and no truth.
+
+For thus have I heard. After the death of the Perfected One, the King of
+Kosala, journeying from Savatthi, met with the learned nun Khema,
+renowned for wisdom, and the King, respectfully saluting her, asked her
+of the Teaching.
+
+“Venerable Lady, the Perfect One is dead. Does he exist after death?”
+
+“Great King, the Exalted One has not declared that he exists after
+death.”
+
+“Then, venerable Lady, does the Perfect One not exist.”
+
+“The Perfect One has not declared that he does not exist after death.”
+
+“But, venerable Lady,—does and does not? How is this possible?”
+
+And, smiling a little, the learned nun replied:
+
+“Great King, have you an accountant or a mint-master who could count the
+sands of Ganges and lay the figure before you?”
+
+“Venerable Lady, no.”
+
+“Or who could measure the drops in the ocean?”
+
+“Again no, venerable Lady.”
+
+“And why? Because the ocean is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable. So also
+is it if the existence of the Perfect One be measured by any human
+category, for all statements of bodily form are abolished in the Perfect
+One; their root is severed; they are done with and can germinate no
+more. The Perfect One is released from the possibility that his being
+can be gauged in any human terms. He is now deep, immeasurable and
+unfathomable as the ocean, and neither the terms of existence or of
+non-existence as understood by the world fit him any more.”
+
+Then there was a long silence and the King having heard the nun Khema’s
+words with approbation, rose and bowed reverently before her and went
+his way.
+
+Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can the tongue tell of such
+matters for they are beyond and above us. And it is for this reason that
+the Blessed One replied thus to the venerable Malukya, when he
+reproached the Perfect One as follows:
+
+“Is the world eternal or the slave of time? Does the World-Honoured live
+on beyond death? It pleases me not at all that all these important
+matters should remain unanswered. May it please the Master to answer
+them if he can. And if he does not know let him say so plainly.”
+
+But the Master replied with his smile:
+
+“Did I say to you, Malukya,—‘Come and be my disciple, and I will teach
+you whether the world is everlasting or finite, whether the vital
+faculty is separate from the body or one with it, whether the Exalted
+One lives or does not live after death?’ Did I promise all this?”
+
+“No, sir, you did not.”
+
+“And, Malukya, if a man is struck by a poisoned arrow, suppose he
+says—‘I will never allow my wound to be treated until I know who shot
+the arrow—was it a man of high or low caste. And I must know whether he
+is tall or short, and how his bow and arrows are made!’—Would this be a
+sensible proceeding? Surely no. He would die of his wounds.
+
+“Why have I not made these things clear? Because the knowledge of them
+does not conduce to holiness nor right detachment, nor to peace and
+enlightenment.—What is needed for these I teach, the truth of suffering
+and its origin, the truth of the Way to its cessation. Therefore let
+what I have not revealed rest, and follow that which I have revealed.”
+
+And Malukya was content, knowing at last that in this life these
+questions are deep, mysterious and unanswerable, and the sole way to
+their understanding is to live the life, untroubled by controversy and
+dogma on such things as cannot be uttered in terms of human knowledge.
+
+For there is a Knowledge veiled in excess of light which dazzles the
+eyes to blindness. Let words be few. Let good deeds be many. He
+understands it for whom it passes thought. Who thinks of it can never
+know it. And if it could be told in words it would not be the Truth.
+
+And there is yet another example of this. For once in early days the
+Blessed One sat high among his own upon the Peak of Vultures, and there
+came before his quiet feet a Shining One and laid there a golden flower,
+praying that he would speak and in sweet speech instruct them of the
+innermost of the Peace. The Blessed One received the golden flower
+within his hand and sat in utter calm but spoke no word and all the
+Assembly mused what this might mean, and, musing, could not know. But at
+long last, Kassapa the Great smiled, also in silence, and the Blessed
+One said softly:
+
+“I hold within my heart the Treasure of the Law, the wondrous knowledge
+that is the Peace. This have I given to Kassapa wordless, and wordless
+he has seen and known.”
+
+So passes the vision from heart to heart. But words cannot tell it to
+the brain.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+A Brahman, high and haughty, having great possessions and full of this
+world’s power, raised his voice railing against the teaching of the Holy
+One, saying:
+
+“But this is against the teaching of the Vedanta! Who shall hear Gotama
+the Sakya when he teaches thus?”
+
+And he came proudly from Rajagriha far off, and stood beside to hear,
+that he might scoff at his ease, but the nobleness of the teacher drew
+him as with the kindred understanding of high birth, and the marvellous
+deeps of the Law caught him by the pride of his intellect for he thought
+it was too high for the foolish, and the wisdom beyond all words that
+falls like dew on the thirsty soul subdued him into an amazing quiet,
+and when it was done he went alone into the wood and sat himself in the
+shade by a clear running stream and considered these things in his
+heart.
+
+But he could not stay away for cords drew him and bonds were forged
+between him and That Other and they were smithied in iron unbreakable.
+So after awhile he rose, and hanging his head went back to the Jetavana
+monastery and demanded to see the World-Honoured, and when he came, this
+Brahman Vasettha made due salutation and seated himself respectfully
+beside him, and he said:
+
+“It has been told to me, Gotama, that the monk Gotama knows the way to
+the state of union with the Ultimate.”
+
+And the Perfect One replied:
+
+“What is to be known I know.”
+
+“So has it been told to me, Gotama. It is well. Let the venerable Gotama
+be pleased to show me the way.”
+
+Then said the Happy One:
+
+“Know, Vasettha, that from time to time is born into the world a fully
+Enlightened One happy with knowledge of the Truth, a Blessed Buddha, and
+he sees as it were face to face this Universe, freed from his senses in
+that they no longer can shape illusions to blind and deceive him, for
+with ordinary men their thought creates shapes about them, a false world
+in which they believe and are blinded. But it is not so with the Buddhas
+for they see things as they are. Then do they proclaim this truth of the
+Universe as it is, lovely in origin, lovely in progress, lovely in
+consummation, and this is to be known by the higher life, which is the
+Way to Wisdom in all its purity and perfectness.”
+
+And the Brahman Vasettha as in a dream, fixed, unconscious of all else,
+said:
+
+“Speak, Lord,—I hear.”
+
+And the Lord said:
+
+“There are two levels of the Way. One for the monk, one for the
+householder, and of the monk I speak first.
+
+“He takes nothing that is not his own. He is content with what is given,
+and honesty and a pure heart are his.
+
+“His life is pure, having put aside the habit and thought of sexual
+intercourse. This is for the householder only, but in all purity.
+
+“From truth in speech he cannot swerve, faithful and trustworthy, he
+hurts no man by deceit.
+
+“Slander is not for him, and calumny dies upon his tongue. He is a
+binder together of those who are divided, a peacemaker, a peace-lover,
+impassioned for peace.
+
+“From him come no harsh words. Whatever word is humane and lovely,
+pleasing and comforting, that he speaks.
+
+“Foolish talk and idle words are not his. In season he speaks what
+redounds to profit and wisdom.
+
+“He will not injure any creature. He eats but once a day. Gay and
+trivial shows are not for him. He does not adorn himself richly, for
+this is folly for a grown man.
+
+“For riches, be it in silver and gold and jewels, or flocks and herds he
+has no desire, and putting field to field does not tempt him who knows
+the world as it Is. And as for any deed of fraud or violence the
+possibility of it is not in him.
+
+“Nor will he teach magical spells nor gain a living or influence by any
+such arts or lying practices. And among the disturbed and careful, he
+moves serene and pure, as the moon, freed from clouds, pursues her way
+in midnight skies, shedding her light abroad to guide the wayfarer.”
+
+And Vasettha, musing, said:
+
+“This is no low teaching. This is the way of a great nobleman, and such
+are his manners.”
+
+And the Blessed One:
+
+“It is true. And there is more. Having attained right conduct within and
+without, he sets his mind free like a bird uncaged from the self, to
+pervade the four quarters of the world with love and sympathy, and as a
+mighty trumpeter makes himself heard with ease in all the four
+directions, so there is no living thing he passes by, but surrounds them
+with love, grown great and beyond measure.
+
+“And when Love is attained, the way to be one with the Supreme is known
+and is not far from him.”
+
+And there was a silence, and the Brahman Vasettha said slowly:
+
+“Venerable Gotama, I have been a liberal giver: justly I sought riches,
+bountifully I bestowed them. Was this well?”
+
+And the Blessed One replied:
+
+“Well. Yet have I shown you a more excellent way, for love is the path
+of wisdom to true understanding and union with all that is.”
+
+And the Brahman said with passion:
+
+“Instruct me.”
+
+So the Perfect One opened to him the Way and, seated beside him, the
+Brahman Vasettha learned the Four Noble Truths of suffering, the truth,
+the cause, the cessation, and the way that leads to its extinction. And
+immediately there arose within him forgetfulness of all his riches and
+wisdom came upon him—the Light-bearer, so that he knew illusions for
+what they are and saw the Universe about him wholly fair, being united
+with it as a bridegroom with a bride. And seeing being substituted for
+blindness, he said:
+
+“Most excellent, Lord, are the words of your mouth, most excellent! Just
+as if a man were to bring a lamp into the darkness so that all is seen
+clear, so is the truth made known by the Blessed One. And I, even I,
+betake myself to the Blessed One as my refuge, and to the Truth and the
+Brotherhood. May I be accepted!”
+
+And the Blessed One replied:
+
+“Come, monk! Well taught is the Doctrine. You have broken every fetter.
+You have made an end of pain.”
+
+So Vasettha was made one of the Brotherhood and glad at heart he exalted
+the word of the Blessed One.
+
+And so it was that even the Shining Ones desired instruction of the
+Perfect One.
+
+Thus have I heard.
+
+When He who has thus Attained dwelt in the monastery of Jetavana, once
+there came to him a Shining One in the dead of night, and the place was
+lit up by the clear luminance that streamed from his body. And this
+Shining One placed himself neither too far nor too near, but where he
+should rightly be, and bowing low thus he addressed the Buddha:
+
+“Most Excellent, during the twelve years of teaching many Shining Ones
+desiring to reach the holiness of the Peace have striven to discover
+what things are blessed, and still are ignorant. Instruct us therefore
+in those matters which are most blessed. Pronounce the Beatitudes.”
+
+And the Perfected One replied:
+
+“Son of Light, to shun the company of the foolish, to pay homage to the
+learned, to worship what is worship-worthy, these are blessed things.
+Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to dwell among good men: to hold within the consciousness
+of good deeds done in a former state of existence, to guard well the
+actions;—Son of Light, these are blessed things. Mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to hear and see much in order to acquire knowledge, to
+study all science that does not lead to sin, to use right language, to
+study right manners, these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them
+well.
+
+“Son of Light, to treat parents with tenderness and love, to guard wife
+and children, to do no evil when tempted, these are blessed things. Son
+of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to make offerings and give nobly, to follow the precepts
+of law and virtue, to assist relations and friends: these are blessed
+things, Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to avoid sin steadfastly, to abstain from strong drink,
+to lay up great treasure of good deeds: these are blessed things. Son of
+Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to reverence those who are worthy of veneration, to walk
+in humility, to dwell in content and gratitude, to hear the teaching of
+the Law; these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to be patient and endure suffering, to rejoice in good
+words, to visit saintly persons when possible, to talk on high matters;
+these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to practise holy austerities, to walk steadfast in the
+Truth with eyes fixed on the attainment of the Peace: these are blessed
+things. Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“Son of Light, to be unmoved, to be of serene mind, exempt from passion,
+composed and fearless amid all earthly dangers: these are blessed
+things. Son of Light, mark them well.
+
+“O Son of Light, whoever possesses these blessings shall never be
+overcome; shall in all things find joy. Son of Light, mark them well,
+thus attaining the peace of the Arhats, the Perfected Saints.”
+
+Thus replied the World-Honoured and the Shining One heard and went away
+content. And it is told that it was the beloved Ananda who handed down
+this discourse to the ages, having received it from the Blessed One, and
+mark it well, for in a little compass it contains all.
+
+Praise be to the Possessor of the Six Glories, the Holy, the All-Wise!
+
+Now of the bodily presence of the Blessed One will I say this.
+
+When age came upon him it came with beauty, so that all hearts fell at
+his feet and embraced them because he was as one to whom all evil things
+must fly for refuge that being delivered from the self they might be
+made one with him and the Truth. And none could see him without this
+desire. Nor in his presence was virtue remembered for he was virtue’s
+self made manifest in love, and in the ocean of love were all submerged
+who saw him.
+
+His face was worn and calm as in an image of royal ivory, his nose
+prominent and delicate, bespeaking his Aryan birth, his eyes of a blue
+darkness, and he carried himself as one of the princes. But all this
+might be said of another, and there was none like him—none! For Wisdom
+walked on his left hand and Love on his right, and light as of the sun
+surrounded him. Wise and piercing were his words, delighting even those
+who would have scoffed.
+
+And once the Holy One approached with his begging bowl the ploughed
+fields of a rich man and stood apart, waiting, and the man saw this
+saying:
+
+“Having ploughed and sown I eat. You also should plough and sow, for the
+idle shall not eat.”
+
+“I also, Brahman, plough and sow.” Thus said the Perfected One.
+
+“Yet we do not see the plough of the Venerable Gotama!” so said the
+other, mocking. And the World-Honoured answered:
+
+“Faith is the seed, understanding the yoke and plough, tenderness the
+deliverance. So is my ploughing done. And the fruit is immortality, and
+having thus ploughed a man is freed of all ill.”
+
+And the Brahman poured rice-milk into a bowl and offered it, saying:
+
+“Let the Blessed One eat of the rice-milk for he also is a ploughman who
+makes to grow the fruit of immortality.”
+
+And this man also entered the Way and became glad at heart, having heard
+the Truth.
+
+And the Holy One talked with men and women of all ranks and affairs, so
+that the mind of none was hidden from him, and, even as they felt, he
+knew, and their hopes and fears were not far from him. Fathomless were
+the wisdom and compassion of Him who has thus Attained.
+
+So also with women, from the queens to the weaver-maidens they feared
+not to implore his mercy. Very patiently and according to the measure of
+their weakness he instructed them, and they grew like bamboos in a night
+shooting up to the light with glory of leaf and stem. And surely in
+these tender ones the Lord beheld the likeness of his mother, of whom it
+was said, “Joyful and reverenced of all, even as the young moon, strong
+and calm of purpose as the earth, pure of heart as the lotus, was Maya
+the Great Lady.” And of these women many became nuns and teachers, and
+not a few attained unto the Perfect Enlightenment passing even in this
+life into that Nirvana wherein are no more birth and death. And even the
+light women sought him in hope and he drove them not away, and wisdom
+rose within them like a wind of fire and burnt away all dross and alloy
+and they too entered the Way and wielded the powers, perceiving the Love
+in which all loves are one.
+
+Yet let it not be thought that because of this compassion the Lord at
+any moment relaxed the watchfulness of those who followed him, knowing
+well that of all snares women may be the very worst. Stern were the
+rules he made for the men who live on the austere heights of
+contemplation, strait the fences about the way. For the householders,
+purity in marriage, kindness reverence to mother, sister, wife,
+daughter, in their daily duties. For all, watchfulness and discipline
+lest the foot slip in the mire.
+
+And one day, when they rested in the shade on a journeying, Ananda the
+well-beloved, cousin of the Lord, asked an instruction.
+
+“Lord, how should we who are monks, conduct ourselves with regard to
+women-kind, for this is a hard matter.”
+
+And the Excelling One said:
+
+“See them not, Ananda.”
+
+“Even so, Lord. But if we should see them, what then?”
+
+“Abstain from speech, Ananda.”
+
+“Even so, Lord. But if they should speak to us, what then?”
+
+“Keep wide awake, Ananda.”
+
+And O that it were possible to set down the laughter of the Lord among
+his own, and the sweet converse when he related to them the stories of
+his former births, and whether parables or truths, how is it possible
+for the not wholly enlightened, who know not their own chains of births,
+to say? But wise were these stories and sweet and full of teaching for
+the little ones of the Law and babes might run to hear and laugh, and
+yet again the wisest pause and ponder the noble truths hidden in them.
+
+Hear now a Birth Story of the Lord. For this is called the Holy Quail,
+and the Blessed One told it as he and his went through a jungle. For
+there a very great jungle fire arose and roared toward them very
+terribly, and some would have made counter-fire and burned the ground
+before it, but others cried aloud:
+
+“Monks, what is it you would do? Surely it is madness, for we journey
+with the Master who can do All. And yet, making a counter-fire you would
+forget the power of the Buddhas! Come, let us go to the Master.”
+
+So they went, and the flame came roaring on to the place where they
+stood, and when it came within fifteen rods of the Blessed One it was
+extinguished like a torch plunged in water, and they magnified him. But
+he said:
+
+“Monks, this was not due to my power but to the faith of a Quail. Hear
+this.”
+
+And they said:
+
+“Even so, Lord.”
+
+And the beloved Ananda folded a robe and spread it as a seat and he sat
+and told this tale:
+
+“In this very spot long, long ago, was a young Quail, and he lay in the
+nest and his parents fed him, for he could neither fly nor walk. And
+with a mighty roar there came a jungle fire and all the birds fled
+shrieking away and even his parents deserted him.
+
+“So the young Quail lay there alone, and he thought this:
+
+“Could I fly, could I walk, I might be saved, but I cannot. No help have
+I from others and in myself is none. What then shall I do?”
+
+And he reflected thus.
+
+“In this world is Truth if it can be found. There are also the Buddhas
+who have seen the Truth and have shown it abroad, and in the Buddhas is
+love for all that lives. In me also is the Truth (though but a poor
+little Quail) and faith that has power. Therefore it behoves me, relying
+on these things to make an Act of Faith and thus to drive back the fire
+and find safety for myself and the other birds.
+
+“So the Quail called to mind the Powers of the Buddhas, the Truth-Seers,
+and making a solemn asseveration of faith existing in himself he said
+this:
+
+ “Wings have I that cannot fly,
+ Feet I have that cannot walk.
+ My parents have forsaken me,
+ O all-devouring fire, go back!”
+
+“And before this Act of Faith the fire dropped and died, retreating. And
+the Quail lived his life in the forest and passed away according to his
+deeds, and because of his strength of faith fire dies for ever when it
+touches this spot.”
+
+So said the Excellent One, and when he had finished this discourse he
+made the connection and summed up, saying:
+
+“My parents at that time were my present parents, and the Quail was I
+myself.”
+
+And they marvelled and were instructed.
+
+And one day two monks approached him, having travelled far, and
+according to his manner he said in welcoming them:
+
+“Is it well with you, monks? Are you able to live? Have you passed the
+rains in peace and unity, and have you experienced any lack of support?”
+
+And they replied:
+
+“It is not well with us, Blessed One, for there is great anger between
+us, and we devour our hearts with bitterness and know no peace.”
+
+And they laid their case before him in mutual hatred, and he said:
+
+“He abused me! He beat me! In those who harbour such thoughts how can
+hatred die? By oneself evil is done. By oneself one suffers. The swans
+go on the path of sun, they go through the air by means of their
+miraculous power. In a man’s power is his salvation from evil. There is
+no fire like passion: there is no losing throw like hatred. Let a man
+leave anger, let him forsake pride. Let him overcome anger by love and
+conquer the liar by truth. For hatred ceases not at any time by hatred,
+but only by love. This is an old rule.”
+
+An old rule. Yet when the Lord spoke it from his heart of bliss it
+became a new commandment and wisdom. So these two saluted one another in
+love before the face of the Perfect One, and, hand clasped in hand, they
+left him.
+
+And again when a young monk was led away by the transient smile of a
+woman to his undoing, the Perfected One said this:
+
+“Rise above the five senses which see things as they are not, and open
+the sight which see things as they are. Even the Divine Beings may well
+envy him whose desires like horses well broken are utterly subdued. Him
+whom no false desires can lead captive any more, by what temptation can
+he be felled—he the Awakened, the all-seeing, the desireless? And make
+thought pure, for all that we are is the result of what we have thought.
+It is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man
+speaks or acts from an evil thought pain follows him as the wheel
+follows the ox that draws the carriage. Earnest among the thoughtless,
+awake among the drowsy, the wise man presses steadily onward to joy.”
+
+And they said, “Even so, Lord,” and seeing their faces glad about him,
+he added:
+
+“As on a heap of refuse cast forth by the highway a lily may grow
+filling the air with sweetness, thus the disciples of the true Buddha
+shine forth among the people who walk in darkness.”
+
+And on another day when they talked of the lures of desire, the Lord
+said this:
+
+“As long as the evil deed does not bear fruit the fool thinks it sweet
+as honey, but later comes the bitterness.
+
+“And when the evil deed is thrown upward in recklessness, like a stone
+it falls back on the fool and breaks his head.
+
+“For those who will not learn, who cannot as yet understand, hard to
+follow is the path of the wise man, like that of birds flying home
+through trackless depths of air. But what is difficult may with taking
+thought be done. The arrow-maker trues his arrow, the carpenter shapes
+his log, the wise man shapes himself, for no other hand can do it.
+Tranquil are his thoughts, serene his meditation when he has obtained
+freedom by knowledge. But the beginning is this—Let no man think
+lightly of the beginning of evil, saying—‘It is only a little thing,’
+for by the falling of water drops one by one, a pit is filled, and so is
+it with a little evil,—and with good it is the same. Little by little
+do good thoughts and deeds grow into the Peace.
+
+“By a man’s self is evil done, by himself he suffers, by himself comes
+good, by himself purification, and by none other.
+
+“This is the sole victory that brings gladness, for in the world of
+forms victory breeds hatred for the conquered is unhappy. He who has
+given up both victory and defeat, he is the taster of bliss.”
+
+I write and men read, but who can declare the wisdom of the Lord? For as
+mists ascend at dawn so illusion was dispersed before his radiance and
+the veil was lifted and men beheld about them the true Universe of the
+Powers and the Truth,—the One, the Alone, in which we live and move and
+have our being.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+THUS have I heard.
+
+Yet another thing, and heed it well for it was a day precious as clean
+gold.
+
+As the Lord went with his disciples, they came to the river by the
+fields of Dhaniya the herdsman, a rich man who trusted in his goods, but
+kindly and simple, such as the Blessed One loved. And here he stayed his
+feet, smiling a little as at a thought of his own; and his disciples
+stood about him, and he said this:
+
+“Here we see great riches of beasts and pasture; surely the man owning
+these good things is well content!”
+
+And Dhaniya seeing the Holy One, drew near in his peasant’s pride and
+addressed him:
+
+“I have boiled my rice, I have milked my cows,” so said the herdsman
+Dhaniya. “I dwell near the banks of the Mahi, my house is roofed, my
+fire kindled. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+For believing his riches a strong shield he feared nothing.
+
+“I am free from anger, free from stubbornness,” said the Blessed One,
+“For one night I abide by the Mahi river. My house is unroofed, the fire
+of passion is extinguished. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!” And
+he smiled.
+
+“Gadflies are not found with me,” said the herdsman Dhaniya. “In meadows
+rich with grass my cows are roaming, and well can they endure rain when
+it falls. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“I have made a raft, I have passed over to the shore of the Peace,” so
+said the Blessed One. “Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“My wife is obedient!” boasted the herdsman Dhaniya. “Winning she is,
+and I hear no ill of her. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“My mind is obedient, delivered from all worldly matters,” so said the
+Blessed One. “And in me there is no ill. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O
+sky!”
+
+“I support myself by my own riches!” so said the herdsman Dhaniya, “and
+my children are healthy about me. I hear nothing wicked of them.
+Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“I am no one’s servant,” so said the Perfect One, “with what I have
+gained I wander through the world. For me there is no need to serve.
+Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“I have cows, I have calves!” so said the herdsman Dhaniya. “I have also
+a bull as lord over the herds. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“I have no cows, I have no calves!” so said the Happy One, “—And I have
+no bull as lord over the herds. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“The stakes are driven in and cannot be shaken,” so said the herdsman
+Dhaniya. “The ropes are new and well made: the cows cannot break them.
+Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+“Having, like a bull, rent the ropes: having like an elephant broken
+through the tangle,” so said the Blessed One, “I shall no more be born
+to death. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”
+
+And he smiled as one at rest, enthroned above pain or change.
+
+Then all at once, from a full-wombed cloud, a shower poured down,
+filling both land and water. And the eyes of Dhaniya were enlightened,
+and seeing the true riches of the empty hand and freed soul, the
+herdsman spoke thus, bowing at the feet of the Perfect One.
+
+“No small gain has indeed accrued to us since we have seen the Blessed
+One. We take refuge in thee, O Wisest. Be thou our Master.”
+
+“He who has cows has care with his cows,” so said the Blessed One,
+concluding the matter. “But he who is free of these things has not
+care.” So Dhaniya entered the Way of Peace, and taking the vow of the
+householder was at rest.
+
+And now in this of Dhaniya is a thing much to be pondered. For it is
+observable that the Holy One said these words to him:
+
+“I have passed over to Nirvana—to the Peace.” How could this be and he
+yet living in the world of form? What then is the Nirvana? For, since
+the departing of Him who has thus Attained, the ignorant have taught the
+heresy which Sariputta the Great rebuked in the monk Yamaka,—even that
+the true Nirvana is extinction, is dispersal of all that once was the
+man, the ego known to himself and others, he being annihilated in death
+as a flame blown out in vast darkness. Yet no, and again, not so, though
+not in words may the Truth be fully told. Yet—if a man may attempt to
+throw a stone at a star, this that follows may be told of the Nirvana.
+
+They who talk of existence and non-existence are ignorant, for these are
+words only. There is no existence or non-existence, but in their stead
+reality and unreality, and in this world of form is unreality and in
+That World, reality. So that the unreal ego which we here believe to be
+the man is nothing and whether here or there has no reality but is a
+compound of causes which dissolve at death, while the reality of the man
+abides whether here or There. True it is that after death no longer can
+it be perceived, no longer can it be guessed by the bodily senses—the
+liars, the deceived, the slaves; yet in a profundity beyond all depths
+of all oceans it abides. The rest is silence.
+
+Thus, the Blessed One and they who with him attained, were in life
+delivered from the illusion of the world of forms and seeing all as it
+is were glad. For the true Nirvana is an extinction—not of the
+eternal—but of craving, the lust of the flesh, the lust of life, and
+the pride of life. And when the inward fires of lust, and hatred and
+pride are extinguished, then that man has entered into the Nirvana
+whether here or there. And surely this was the Lesson of Lessons, and
+many a parable, many a teaching did the World-Honoured utter in all
+solemnity that we might know it is the self—the individual self lurking
+in a man like an ape in the boughs, clutching, greedy, foul, foolish,
+that is the cause of all evil and sorrow and of his separation from the
+universe of life and light that lies about him. And he must learn that
+this foul and foolish chatterer is dream and illusion of the senses and
+consciousness, for when this teaching is mastered we lift the true eyes
+of wisdom and look about us seeing at last that the world is wholly
+fair. Know this, for it is the very kernel of the nut. This is the Way
+of Peace, this is the Gate of the Ten Perfections whereby we also are
+perfect being One; this is the Nirvana, absolute in joy and bliss
+immortal.
+
+Be not misled. If this false belief of annihilation be accepted the
+belief in the Karma and its awful justice falls to the ground, and the
+Blessed One is made to utter words unreal and deceptive. It is not well
+to traduce the teaching of the Blessed One, for what he taught he knew,
+and where he was silent it was from knowledge too great to be uttered
+save to his high initiates, and they too, knowing, were content. For a
+man can but receive as he is able, and the Truth needs two servants—the
+one to speak and the other to hear.
+
+True is it that the Lord before he passed away from the world of the
+senses said to the beloved Ananda, this:
+
+“I have preached the truth, Ananda, and in respect of the Truth He who
+has thus Attained had no such thing as the closed fist of the Teacher
+who holds back his knowledge.”
+
+Yes, but a man can but take what he can, and where the great saints of
+the Lord knew and were content, the lesser men guessed and stumbled
+blindly by excess of light and this was unavoidable for they were not
+prepared, and in future lives they have learned, will learn, and they
+too be content in wisdom.
+
+Therefore when men ask the disciple of the Nirvana, and say:
+
+“Is it annihilation? Is it the end of all, for so many teach?” reply
+thus:
+
+“It is the annihilation of ignorance and passion and all their brood. It
+is the annihilation of conditioned being and of all the illusion that
+fettered us. It is the rending of the painted veil of life that hides
+from us the light. It is the end of all turning of the wheel of the long
+pilgrimage through self-shaped dream-worlds of deception. It is the end
+of grief and self-deceit. It is awakening from the dream of life, from
+the crippling of the ego-self, into freedom. It is beyond all that we
+call life, and death is unknown to it. It is All and One and above right
+and wrong and in it are all things reconciled.
+
+“And it is us and in us and we in it for ever.”
+
+Open the eyes of understanding and see and know, as he the Awakened, has
+taught.
+
+And now must the story turn to the Princess Yashodara, released from
+grief and grown strong in wisdom.
+
+Musing night and day on these thoughts and this blessedness the Princess
+excelled in knowledge and in her true eyes the light shone brighter and
+more bright in the deep contemplation of her heart, and when in the
+passing of the years the wealth of the Maharaja fell into her hands she
+valued it nothing, placing it where most good and least harm could flow
+from it. And with attendant princesses she walked nearly five hundred
+miles, refusing all offers of assistance, that she might be near the
+World-Honoured, breathing the same air, sometimes attendant upon his
+teaching, sometimes sending dutifully to enquire after the health of the
+monk Rahula, her son.
+
+So, having grown old, but still eminent in the nobility of her beauty
+and its calm, as she sat alone one day she remembered many of her
+friends who through the Peace here to be attained had departed to that
+Other. And she thought this:
+
+“I was born on the same day as my lord, the Awakened One, and in the
+regular order of things I should on the same day enter the Great Peace.
+But this is an honour too great for me and far beyond my deserts, nor
+can it be. I am now seventy eight years in this world of illusion, and
+in two years from now, he, the Blessed One, will enter that which cannot
+be named. I will therefore request permission to precede him, as the
+lower should precede the great.”
+
+So, accompanied by her attendants, the Princess went to the Vihara, the
+monastery, where the Lord sat at the time with a company of disciples,
+and presenting herself before him humbly asked forgiveness for any
+faults she might have committed. And he replied:
+
+“You are the most virtuous of women. But from the time you received the
+Light, you have done no marvels, so that many have not known the power
+that is in you, doubting whether you were indeed an Arhat. There is a
+company assembled about us, who know not the Powers. Show them.”
+
+But the Princess, doubting in her humility that this should be, doubting
+whether a woman should display the beauty of her person to onlookers,
+was not assured that this was well. Yet, with the insight to which time
+is nothing, she spoke, rehearsing the mystery and marvel of all her
+former lives, for now having vanquished rebirth she was as the traveller
+who nearing the mountain top and the eternal purities sees the way by
+which he has come, rejoicing in perils escaped and rest unending. And
+all sat entranced, listening to the music of her voice and the marvels
+she—to whom time was no more than a child’s toy cast aside—unfolded
+before them. And suddenly, as she ended, the air upbore her light feet
+and a marvel was done before them, for in the air she prostrated herself
+before Him who has thus Attained, attributing to him the knowledge that
+had guided her into bliss. And those who saw hid their faces.
+
+And when all was concluded she retired to her own dwelling and there,
+that same night, rising from contemplation to contemplation, she beheld
+the Peace, being delivered for ever from all illusion, and so passed
+into That which is to come.
+
+And of her son—the monk Rahula—this also must be told:
+
+At one time the Lord, with robe and bowl, went to Savatthi in search of
+alms, and his son Rahula followed step for step, and the Blessed One,
+turning, said this:
+
+“Whatever form one bears, monk, is to be viewed with perfect wisdom and
+the understanding—‘This is not mine; it is not I. This is not my true
+self.’”
+
+And Rahula answered:
+
+“And only form, O Lord, and only form, O Happy One?”
+
+“Form, Rahula, and sensation and perception and the tendencies and
+consciousness. These also are not the true self.”
+
+And Rahula, being thus addressed with an Instruction, would not go to
+roam and beg among the people, but set aside his bowl, and sat beneath a
+tree to meditate upon the Instruction. And in the evening, having ended
+his calm contemplation, he sought the Blessed One and saluting him
+reverently seated himself respectfully beside him and besought him to
+instruct him on the discipline of meditation and training, and the
+Blessed One instructed him in all the processes, even to the ruling of
+the breath in inspiration and expiration so that the false senses may be
+lulled and the true eye of wisdom opened, and pleased and gladdened was
+the venerable Rahula with that high instruction.
+
+And thus Rahula in time became first a great warrior for the Truth and
+then a great Arhat: a perfected saint. And in what way did he become a
+warrior? Even as a monk asked of the Awakened One:
+
+“Warriors, warriors, we call ourselves, O Happy One, and in what way are
+we warriors?”, and had this reply:
+
+“We make war, monk. Therefore are we warriors?”
+
+“And for what do we make war, O Leader?”
+
+“For perfect virtue, for high endeavour, for sublime wisdom. To see in a
+world of blindness, to be free in a world of slaves,—therefore, do we
+make war.”
+
+And when is the victory gained?—When the dark night of I-ness is
+enlightened,—when the man is no longer a swimmer struggling for life in
+agony against the waves, but the grey gull borne on the winds in bliss
+or floating at peace on the billows of eternity.
+
+This is the victory of the monk Rahula and of the wise.
+
+
+
+
+ PART IV
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+SO continued our Lord, wandering from place to place, or resting in the
+season of the rains in the monasteries provided by the supporters of the
+Brotherhood, and, followed by his own, he taught the Breaking of the
+Fetters—and the fetters he broke are these:
+
+The delusion of self—namely that the individual ego is real and
+self-existent. For what can exist outside the Universal Self? And egoism
+is the very root of death.
+
+Doubt. For who can advance boldly, doubting the way and where he shall
+set the next step?
+
+Belief in good works and ceremonies. For what good work can open a man’s
+eyes if his motive is mean, and what value have rites and ceremonies in
+themselves?
+
+Fleshly lust. By no means did the Lord command a cruel asceticism, for
+this he had tried to the uttermost and having laid it aside, passed on.
+No, but a joyous temperance, the child of wisdom and duty, the fosterer
+of endeavour. And duty in all things, a strength by some to be attained
+now, by others with patience in later lives.
+
+Ill-will. For this is a cruel fetter, biting to the very bone of the
+wretch who carries it, and it is forged indeed from the black iron of
+egoism and belief in the separate ego.
+
+And this being all accomplished the last fetters to be broken are:
+
+The desire for separate and individual life in the world of forms we see
+about us.
+
+The desire for separate life in the formless world to which we shall
+attain.
+
+Pride—the very snarer of Divine Beings.
+
+Self-righteousness, the womb-sister of pride.
+
+And last, the most terrible of fetters—
+
+Ignorance—mother of a deadly brood.
+
+And where he went these fetters fell before him, and prison doors were
+opened and they who had sat in darkness walked in light. And they
+aspired to perfection for he taught that Perfection was their heritage,
+if not now, then in some future life where the sown seeds of good
+expanding should throw out strong arms and glorious blossom.
+
+And they believed, and some set tottering steps in the path, and some
+advanced with wings rather than feet, but all were seekers and finders.
+
+But he compelled none, nor threatened, for by a man’s true self comes
+his salvation, and seated among his own he said:
+
+“The Tathagata—He who has thus Attained, does not think that it is he
+who must lead the Brotherhood or that the Order is dependent upon him.”
+
+Only, steadfastly pointing the way, he rejoiced that men should follow
+it, casting forth his light like the sun, not compelling men to guide
+their steps by it.
+
+Nor did he teach resignation to sorrow nor its acceptance as a blessing
+and discipline. Far from it. For in the clear percipience of the Lord
+sorrow is ignorance and shameful.
+
+“One thing only, monks, now as always I declare to you—sorrow and the
+uprooting of sorrow.”
+
+For what man would wander in the mist of sorrow when he may walk glad
+and straight to the goal in the sunlight of wisdom. And sorrow
+understood is sorrow ended.
+
+Therefore the Lord taught understanding of sorrow, as the first need and
+therefore says the wise Nagasena:
+
+“As a boy I was admitted to the Order, and nothing did I know of the
+goal. But I thought—‘These men taught by the Awakened One will teach
+me.’ And they taught, and now I know with understanding the foundation
+and the crown of Renunciation.”
+
+And what the Lord taught he knew: that there is no sorrow for the wise.
+
+And thus when he stayed at Alavi, by the cattle-path in the forest he
+rested on a couch of leaves, and it so chanced that a man of Alavi as he
+went through the forest saw the Exalted One sitting absorbed in
+meditation, and greeting him with respect this man sat down at his side
+and said:
+
+“Master, does the World-Honoured live happily?”
+
+And the Perfect One answered:
+
+“It is so, young man. Of those who live happily in the world I also am
+one.”
+
+“Cold, Master, is the winter night, the time of frost is coming: rough
+is the ground trodden by cattle: thin is the couch of leaves: light the
+monk’s yellow robe: sharp the cutting winter wind.”
+
+For his heart pitied the aging of the Exalted One. But he replied, again
+smiling:
+
+“It is so, young man. I live happily. Of those who live happily in the
+world I also am one.”
+
+And so it was, and with his own also. For his mendicants rejoicing said
+to one another:
+
+“We who call nothing our own, drenched with happiness, we in this world
+cast out light like the radiant Gods.”
+
+And their song was—
+
+ “Abolished is the round of birth: Completed the ascetic life;
+ Done what was to do.
+ This world of form is no more. This we know.”
+
+And sometimes proud and learned Brahmans would come to dispute haughtily
+with the Perfect One, and they, full of pride and anger, would rage and
+trip in their discourse thinking to show their much learning rather than
+to seek the truth. But like the waves of a muddy river lashing rock so
+were they, and the Lord sat there always, answering duly, teaching duly,
+clothed in serenity, his skin the colour of bright gold, his eyes bright
+and calm, for he said:
+
+“That in disputation with anyone whatsoever I could be thrown into any
+confusion or embarrassment,—there is no possibility of such a thing,
+and because I know of no such possibility I remain quiet and confident.
+And even when I am carried here upon a bed shall my intellectual
+strength remain unabated.”
+
+And his monks said:
+
+“Truly from the Exalted One comes all our wisdom.”
+
+And because he was so near the Blessed One many monks would come to the
+venerable Ananda and say:
+
+“It is long, brother, since we heard a discourse from the Exalted One.
+It were very good if we might hear one now.”
+
+“Well, venerable ones, betake yourselves to the hermitage of the Brahman
+Rammako. Perhaps you will get to hear a discourse from the lips of the
+Exalted One.” For Ananda was wise in the ways of the Master.
+
+Now after the Perfected One had returned from his begging-round, he
+turned and said:
+
+“Come, Ananda, let us go to the East Grove, to the terrace of the Mother
+of Migara, and stay there until the evening.”
+
+So they went, and when he had finished his meditation he turned to the
+venerable Ananda:
+
+“Come, Ananda, let us to the Old Bath and refresh our limbs.”
+
+So they went. Then the beloved Ananda addressed the Perfected One thus:
+
+“The hermitage of the Brahman Rammako, Master, is not far from here. It
+is pleasantly situated in peaceful solitude. Good were it if the Master
+should betake himself there.”
+
+And the Blessed One signified by silence his assent. And there they
+found many monks in edifying discourse. And he waited till they were
+done, and cleared his throat and rapped at the knocker, and they opened
+the door, and the World-Honoured entered in and seated himself and
+incited and gladdened them all with great and high discourse.
+
+So they got what they needed, for very wise was the beloved Ananda in
+dealing with the Master.
+
+Amazing indeed were the experiences of those who followed the Lord, and
+not to be understood of those who have not stood face to face with Truth
+and Love unveiled and terrible in beauty, and terrible also in the loves
+they inspire. What can words avail?
+
+And where he went the Awakened One strewed little precepts like flowers,
+easy for a child to remember yet each an upward spiral on the Way.
+
+“If all knew the fruits of alms-giving as I, monks, know them, most
+surely they would not eat the last least mouthful without dividing it
+with another.”
+
+And they answered, “Even so, Lord,” and gave of their food, living in
+peace amidst the Transient, until even its semblance should pass for
+ever away. And nothing else than food had they to give, being monks.
+
+And one asked of the learned nun Dhammadhina:
+
+“And how, venerable Lady,—how and what has the Blessed One taught about
+the arising of the false ego in the beginning of things? How came it to
+be? What does he teach of this?”
+
+“It is the lust of life that sows repeated being in successive lives.”
+
+“And how is the annihilation of the false ego to be attained, Venerable
+Lady? How has the Exalted One taught?”
+
+“Even by the complete annihilation, rejection, and driving forth of the
+lust of life—this is what was taught by the Exalted One.” So answered
+the nun Dhammadhina. “Even through the breaking of any attachment to the
+Transient.”
+
+But of how Attachment began to be in the beginning of things the Lord
+would not answer. The Way out, he taught; the way in concerns not at all
+the man who is fleeing for his life to peace and safety from attachment
+to the Transient and its illusion.
+
+And again:
+
+“But what follows after death? What follows after the extinction of
+illusion?” the seeker asked of the learned nun Dhammadhina. And she
+replied:
+
+“Abandon the question, brother. I cannot grasp the meaning of the
+question. If you will, go to the Enlightened One and ask him.”
+
+And he went, and the Lord answered:
+
+“Wise is Dhammadhina and mighty in understanding. My answer is hers.”
+
+For the Unknown cannot be known until the way is built to it. Build then
+the way, and knowledge will come in time. But, without words, to the
+few, the very few, this knowledge has come, as has been told.
+
+And when the nun Gotami asked him:
+
+“Will the Exalted One teach me the very quintessence of the Law,” he
+answered thus:
+
+“Whatever teaching leads to passion and not to peace, to pride and not
+to humility, to desire of much in place of little, to love of society
+and not of solitude, to idleness and not to striving, to a mind of
+unrest and not to a mind at peace—that, O Gotami,—note well!—that is
+not the way,—that is not the teaching of the Master.”
+
+And as they sat in the calm of the sunset and discoursed, Sariputta the
+Great said this:
+
+“I desire not life. I desire not death. I wait until my hour shall come
+like a servant that waits for his wage. I await the coming of the hour,
+conscious and of thoughtful mind.”
+
+Thus steadfast in the way they continued, not cruelly mortifying the
+body but in the true asceticism of the heart that cannot be tempted. For
+the Awakened One said this:
+
+“I teach asceticism inasmuch as I teach the burning away of all evil
+conditions of the heart. And the true ascetic who thus lives may fitly
+and rightly eat of the food that is given him in alms, of rice
+pleasantly prepared and such-like, and it will do him no ill.”
+
+So quietly and in radiance life went on as a summer day which from dewy
+dawn passes through every gradation of light until the night comes,
+taking the world in her net of stars and laying all to rest.
+
+And still the Exalted One journeyed and taught, now being very aged, and
+the seeds of his doctrine were carried as if by far-flying birds into
+the outer lands which had never felt in this life the tread of his
+blessed feet nor seen the calm of his face nor the majesty that attended
+him. And taking root these seeds shot up later into mighty trees of
+glorious growth.
+
+And still he journeyed to and fro, and the people said to the monks:
+
+“Let not the World-Honoured overweary himself, for in what are we worthy
+that our well-being should cost the world its Light?”
+
+And they answered:
+
+“All he does is well. This also is well and could not be otherwise.”
+
+But the beloved Ananda saw with fear that the World-Honoured moved more
+slowly and with more painful effort on each journey he made. And awe and
+grief possessed Ananda, seeing this, for he had not as yet attained to
+perfect enlightenment,—and with many cares he compassed the Blessed and
+followed him wherever he went.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XX
+ THE LAST JOURNEY
+
+
+AND the Blessed One passed through Pataligama and went on to the river
+and at that time Ganges was swollen and brimming, and some with him
+began to seek for boats and some for basket-rafts that they might pass
+over. But the Exalted One, swiftly as a powerful man could stretch out
+his arm and withdraw it, vanished from the hither side of the river and
+stood on the other bank with the brethren. And he uttered this verse:
+
+ “Those who cross the stormy sea
+ Making a firm way for their feet,
+ While the blinded tie their basket-rafts,
+ These are the wise, these are the safe and glad.”
+
+And they passed on to the villages of Nadika and at the last the Happy
+One rested at the Brick Hall, and the beloved Ananda (who tended him
+always) came and sat down respectfully beside him, and having passed
+through the village and heard of the deaths of several devout followers,
+men and women, who had followed them formerly, he asked the Lord of
+their destiny and of what had befallen them.
+
+And naming them each and all by name, replied the Exalted One:
+
+“Of those men and women there are some who in their first return to this
+world will make an end of sorrow and illusion and return no more. And
+some there are for whom having attained the highest knowledge, it is no
+longer possible that they should return to mortal birth, for they are
+now assured of final salvation.”
+
+And in the Brick Hall at Nadika he taught the people, saying:
+
+“Great is the fruit, great the advantage of earnest contemplation when
+adorned with right doing. And great the fruit of high intellect adorned
+with earnest contemplation. For the mind set round with intelligence is
+thus delivered from sensuality, from the false ego, from delusion and
+ignorance.”
+
+And they went on to Vaisali, and from thence to Beluva, and there the
+Blessed One rested in the village. And he said to the brethren:
+
+“Mendicants, do you take up your abode round about Vaisali for the
+rains, each according to his friends. For I shall enter upon the rainy
+season here at Beluva.”
+
+“So be it, Lord,” said the brethren in assent, and so it was done.
+
+Now when the Blessed One had thus entered on the rains at Beluva there
+fell upon him a sickness, and sharp pains came upon him even to death.
+But mindful and self-possessed he bore them without complaint. And this
+thought came into his mind:
+
+“It would not be right for me to pass away without addressing the
+disciples, without taking leave of the Order. Let me now by a strong
+effort of the will bend down this sickness and keep my hold on life
+until the allotted time be come.”
+
+And he bent that sickness down and it abated.
+
+And when he began to recover he went out of the little vihara—the
+monastery, and sat down behind it on a seat spread out for him. And the
+venerable Ananda went where the Blessed One was, and sat respectfully
+beside him, and said this:
+
+“I have seen, Lord, how the Blessed One suffered, and though at that
+sight my body became weak as a creeper, yet I had some little comfort in
+thinking that the Blessed One would not pass from existence until at
+least he had left some instructions touching the Order.”
+
+“What then, Ananda? Does the Order expect that of me? Now, He who has
+thus Attained thinks not that it is he who shall lead the Order or that
+it is dependent upon him. I too, Ananda, am now grown old and full of
+years. My journey is drawing to its close. I have reached my sum of
+days, I am turning eighty years of age. And just as a worn-out cart can
+only with much additional care be made to move, so, I think, the body of
+the Tathagata can only be kept going with much additional care. It is
+only when ceasing to attend to any outward thing he becomes plunged in
+devout meditation concerned with no material object,—it is only then
+that the body of the Tathagata is at ease.”
+
+And there was a long pause, and the venerable Ananda remained
+steadfastly gazing at the Perfect One, absorbed in his words as
+foreseeing the end. And the Lord resumed:
+
+“Therefore, Ananda, be lamps unto yourselves. Betake yourselves to no
+external Refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Look not for refuge
+to anyone beside yourselves. And whoever after I am dead shall be a lamp
+unto themselves and holding fast to the truth look for refuge to no one
+outside themselves, it is they, among my mendicants, who shall reach the
+Height.”
+
+And again the Blessed One robed himself early in the morning and taking
+his bowl went into Vaisali for alms and when he returned he sat down
+upon the seat prepared for him and when he had finished eating the rice
+he said:
+
+“Take up the mat, Ananda,—I will go to spend the day at the Kapila
+Ketiya.”
+
+“So be it, Lord,” said the venerable Ananda, and he followed step for
+step behind the Blessed One.
+
+And when he had come there the Blessed One sat down upon the mat spread
+out for him, and the venerable Ananda took his seat respectfully beside
+him. And the Blessed One said:
+
+“Whoever, Ananda, has developed himself and ascended to the very heights
+of the four paths to Power, thus transcending bodily conditions and
+using these Powers for good may if he desires it, remain in the same
+birth for an age, or that portion of the age which is yet to run. Now He
+who has thus Attained has developed these Powers and could therefore
+live on yet for an age or that portion of the age which has yet to run.”
+
+But even though this suggestion was given by the Blessed One, the
+venerable Ananda did not comprehend it, nor did he say, “Vouchsafe,
+Lord, to remain! Live on for the good and happiness of the peoples, out
+of pity for the world and the weal of Divine Beings and men.”
+
+And a second time did the Blessed One say this, and yet did not the
+beloved Ananda speak.
+
+Now the Blessed One addressed him thus:
+
+“You may leave me, Ananda, for awhile.”
+
+And rising from his seat, Ananda saluted the Lord, and sat down at the
+foot of a tree not far off, and when he was gone, the Evil One, the
+Tempter, approached the Lord and stood beside him, and he said:
+
+“Pass away now, Lord, from existence. Let the Blessed One die. For did
+he not say that when the Order was established, and the lay-people, and
+the truth made known, that then the time would be come? And all this is
+now done, and the time is here. Pass away now, therefore, Lord. Let the
+Blessed One die.”
+
+And when he had spoken, the Blessed One said to the Evil One:
+
+“Be happy. At the end of three months from this time the Blessed One
+will die.”
+
+Thus did the Lord deliberately and consciously reject the rest of his
+possible sum of life. And there followed an earthquake and tremblings
+and thunders.
+
+And Ananda returned in haste and said:
+
+“Wonderful and marvellous is this earthquake, Lord, and what is its
+cause?”
+
+And the Lord said:
+
+“Of the eight causes of earthquake and tremblings, this is one—when an
+Awakened One,—He who has thus Attained, consciously and deliberately
+rejects the remainder of his life, then is the earth shaken.”
+
+And, still speaking of the mastery of the Powers, the Lord continued:
+
+“Now I call to mind, Ananda, how when I used to enter into an assembly
+of many hundred nobles with discourse of religion I would instruct and
+gladden them, and they would say,—‘Who may this be who thus speaks? A
+man or a God?’ And having taught and gladdened them, suddenly I would
+vanish away. But they knew me not even when I vanished away, and they
+would say in bewilderment, ‘Who may this be who has thus vanished away?
+A man, or a God?’”
+
+And he spoke also of the eight stages of deliverance from errors of
+perception, passing beyond the apprehension of form through infinite
+space and infinite reason and finally beyond sensation and ideas, even
+into the eighth stage of deliverance.
+
+And having given this instruction the Lord related to the venerable
+Ananda how that in three months’ time he should hear his voice no more,
+and the venerable Ananda cried out vehemently:
+
+“Vouchsafe, O Blessed One, to live. Stay with us for the weal of Divine
+Beings and men.”
+
+But the Lord answered:
+
+“The time for making such a request is past.”
+
+And a second and a third time Ananda entreated and the Lord replied,
+saying:
+
+“Verily, the word has gone forth from Him who has thus Attained. That
+the Tathagata for the sake of living should repent of that saying can in
+no wise be. Come, Ananda, let us rise and go to the Mahavana.”
+
+And they went to the Mahavana, to the Service Hall, and he commanded
+Ananda to assemble there such of the brethren as dwelt in the
+neighbourhood of Vaisali. And when they were assembled the Blessed One
+sat down upon his mat and addressed them. And he said:
+
+“The truths, monks, which I have made known to you and you have
+mastered, these practise, meditate, and spread abroad, that it may
+continue to be for the good and happiness of great multitudes.
+
+“Behold, monks, now I exhort you. All component things must grow old and
+pass away. Work out your salvation with diligence. At the end of three
+months from this time He who has thus Attained will die. My age is now
+full ripe: my life draws to its close. I leave you, I depart, relying on
+myself alone. Be earnest, holy, full of thought. Be steadfast in
+resolve. Keep watch over your own hearts. Who wearies not, but holds
+fast to the Law, shall cross this sea of life, shall make an end of
+grief.”
+
+So he spoke, and they dispersed silently.
+
+And the Blessed One robed himself early in the morning and took his bowl
+and went into Vaisali for alms and when he had eaten his meal and was
+returning, he gazed steadfastly at Vaisali and he said this:
+
+“This is the last time, Ananda, that He who has thus Attained will
+behold Vaisali. Let us now go to Bhandagama.”
+
+And they went, and the Lord rested in the village itself, and there he
+addressed the brethren, saying:
+
+“It is through ignorance of the Truths that we have had to run so long,
+to wander so far in this weary road of rebirth—you and I. But when the
+noble conduct of life, noble meditation, noble wisdom and noble freedom
+are realized and known, then is the craving for existence rooted out,
+the chain broken and we return to earth no more.”
+
+And it was there also that he delivered the high discourse on the nature
+of the Four Truths; and having done this he pressed on with the
+venerable Ananda and a great company of his own to Pava. And there he
+stayed in the Mango Grove of Chunda, and Chunda was a smith by family.
+
+And when Chunda heard that the Perfect One had come to Pava and rested
+in his Mango Grove, he went to him and saluted him joyfully, and with
+reverence took his seat beside him, and the Blessed One gladdened him
+with talk of high things. And, so gladdened, he addressed the Lord, and
+said:
+
+“May the Blessed One do me the honour of taking his meal, together with
+the brethren, at my house to-morrow?”
+
+And the Lord signified by silence his consent, and seeing he had
+consented, Chunda the worker in metals, bowed before him and keeping him
+on his right hand, departed.
+
+And at the end of the night Chunda made ready in his house excellent
+food, hard and soft, sweet rice and cakes and the food, found in the
+earth and loved by boars, truffles, and when all was ready he announced
+it to the Lord saying:
+
+“Exalted One, the meal is ready.”
+
+And the Blessed One robed himself and took his bowl and he and his
+followers went to the dwelling-place of Chunda. And when the meal was
+over, he gladdened the smith with discourse of high matters, and so rose
+and departed.
+
+But after the Blessed One had eaten of his food then fell upon him a
+grievous disease, and sharp pain came upon him even to death, but he
+bore it without complaint mindful and self-possessed. And to the
+venerable Ananda he said:
+
+“Come, let us go to Kusinara.”
+
+“Even so, Lord,” said the venerable Ananda.
+
+And they went, but as they went the Blessed One grew very weary and he
+rested beneath a tree and said:
+
+“Fold the robe and spread it for me, I pray you. I am weary, Ananda, and
+I must rest awhile.”
+
+And the robe was spread, folded fourfold, and when the World-Honoured
+was seated he asked for fresh water to drink and Ananda answered:
+
+“But, Lord, five hundred carts have just gone by across the stream and
+stirred up by the wheels it has become fouled and turbid. Let us wait
+for the river, cool and transparent, easy to get into. There the Blessed
+One may drink and cool his limbs.”
+
+But his thirst would not wait, and taking a bowl Ananda went down to the
+stream, and when he came to it it flowed clear as light. And he thought:
+
+“How wonderful, how marvellous is the power of Him who has thus
+Attained. For this turbid stream is flowing brightly now.”
+
+And when he returned he said:
+
+“Great is the power of the Lord. Let the Happy One drink!”
+
+Now at that time a young man named Pukkusa, a disciple of the Brahman
+Alara, passed along the highway, and seeing the Blessed One very weary
+beneath the tree he came and saluted him taking his seat respectfully
+beside him, and the Holy One discoursed with him on the depths of calm
+in pure contemplation and abstraction of mind from the vain shows about
+us, and with every power of his mind and heart did the young man listen,
+and when the great teaching was ended, he said:
+
+“Most excellent, Lord, are the words of your mouth—most excellent. As
+it were to bring a lamp into the darkness so are your words. And I, even
+I, betake myself to the Blessed One as my refuge, to the Truth and the
+Brotherhood. May I be accepted as a disciple!”
+
+And the young Pukkusa presented two robes of burnished cloth of gold to
+the World-Honoured, saying:
+
+“May favour be shown and these accepted at my hand!”
+
+“In that case, Pukkusa, offer the one to me and the other to Ananda.”
+
+And so it was done and the young man gladdened and strengthened, rose
+and bowed down and went his way.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+NOW not long after the young man was gone the venerable Ananda placed
+that glorious robe upon the Blessed One, and so placed it appeared to
+dim and lose its splendour, and Ananda said:
+
+“Lord, it is marvellous that the colour of the skin of the Blessed One
+should now be so clear, so bright, beyond measure, for this robe of
+burnished gold has lost its splendour in the radiance.”
+
+“It is even so, Ananda. For on the night that He who has thus Attained
+achieves supreme Enlightenment and also on the night in which he passes
+away for ever leaving no residue behind, the colour of his person
+becomes exceedingly bright and clear. And now this day at the third
+watch of the night at Kusinara, between the twin sala trees the utter
+passing away of Him who has thus Attained will take place. Come, let us
+go forward.”
+
+And when he was come to the Mango Grove by the river, he said:
+
+“Fold a robe for me, Kundaka, for I am forespent and would lie down.”
+And it was done and the Blessed One laid himself down on his right side,
+and meditated, calm and self-possessed, and finally, calling to Ananda
+the beloved, he said:
+
+“Now it may happen that someone may grieve Chunda the smith, saying, ‘it
+is evil to you, Chunda, and loss, that the Blessed One died after he had
+eaten his last meal from your provision.’ But check this remorse,
+Ananda, by saying—‘It is good and gain to you, Chunda, that this should
+have been. For the very mouth of the Blessed One has told me this—There
+is laid up for Chunda the smith a good Karma of long life and good
+fortune and good fame and the inheritance of Heaven and sovereign
+power.’ In this manner check any remorse in Chunda the smith.”
+
+Then once more rising, the World-Honoured began again his pilgrimage of
+pain, and he said:
+
+“Come, let us go to the Sala Grove of the Malla people at Kusinara.”
+
+And they went on.
+
+So with the monks the Exalted One reached at last the Sala Grove of the
+Mallas, and he desired that Ananda the beloved would lay a couch for him
+with its head to the north between the twin sala trees that they knew.
+And this was done, and the sala trees shed their dropping blossoms on
+the body of the Blessed One, for so it must be with a departing Buddha.
+
+And here, Ananda seeing that the time drew on, reverently besought the
+commands of the Lord as to the disposal of his mortal body. And he
+replied:
+
+“Hinder not yourselves by honouring what remains of Him who has thus
+Attained. Be zealous, I beseech you, in your own behalf: be intent on
+good. There are wise men among the nobles who will do due honour to the
+body of the Tathagata.”
+
+And when he heard this Ananda could no longer endure his grief, and that
+the Lord might not see his tears, he went into the monastery and stood
+leaning against the door and wept, for he thought:
+
+“Alas! I still remain but a learner, one who has not yet attained
+perfection, and the Master is about to pass away from me—he who is so
+kind.”
+
+But the Blessed One called the brethren and asked:
+
+“Where then, monks, is Ananda?”
+
+And they told him, and he said to a certain brother:
+
+“Go, brother, and say ‘Brother Ananda, the Master calls you.’”
+
+And it was done and the beloved Ananda returned, and the Blessed One
+said to him.
+
+“Enough, Ananda. Do not let yourself be troubled. Do not weep. Have I
+not often told you that it is in the very nature of things most near and
+dear to us that we must divide ourselves from them and leave them? How
+then could it be possible that anything containing within itself the
+necessity of dissolution should not be dissolved? For a long time,
+Ananda, have you been very near to me by acts of love, kind and good,
+that never varies and is beyond all measure. And not only by acts but by
+words and thoughts of love. You have done well, Ananda. Be earnest in
+effort and you too shall soon be delivered and attain the perfect
+percipience.”
+
+Then the Blessed One said to the others:
+
+“He is a wise man, monks, is Ananda. Knowing what is right he has four
+marvellous qualities, for those who see him, who hear him speak or teach
+are filled with joy on beholding and hearing him, and the company of the
+Assembly are ill at ease when Ananda is silent.”
+
+And later he said:
+
+“Go now, Ananda, to the town of Kusinara and inform the people of the
+Mallas that in the last watch of the night He who has thus Attained will
+pass away. And say this—‘Be favourable herein, Mallas, and leave no
+occasion to reproach yourselves that you did not visit the
+World-Honoured in his last hours.’”
+
+And Ananda the beloved went, robed and carrying his bowl and attended by
+a member of the Order.
+
+And, as it chanced, the Mallas were assembled in the Council Hall and
+when they heard his words, they wept, they and their wives and children
+saying:
+
+ “Too soon will the Blessed One die!
+ Too soon will the Happy One pass away.
+ Too soon will the Light of the World be darkened!”
+
+And trooping out with their wives and children, these Mallas came to the
+Grove of the sala trees, and Ananda considering their great number
+thought:
+
+“There is not time that they should speak singly with the Lord. But I
+will present them by families.”
+
+And this he did, causing the Mallas to stand in groups and so presented
+them, saying:
+
+“Lord, a Malla of such and such a name, with his wives, his children his
+retinue and his friends, humbly bows down at the feet of the Blessed
+One.” And that family with its retinue then advanced, weeping.
+
+And after this manner were all presented during the first watch of the
+night, and when it was done they retired in heavy grief.
+
+But there was yet one work of mercy left unto the Lord. For at this time
+a mendicant named Subaddha was dwelling at Kusinara, and he heard the
+news that the Blessed One was about to pass away and his religious
+doubts rushed into his mind and he thought:
+
+“Seldom indeed in this world do the authentic Buddhas appear. I have
+faith in the monk Gotama that he may be able to remove my uncertainty. I
+will go to him.”
+
+And he went and told his case to Ananda and he replied:
+
+“Enough, friend Subaddha. Do not trouble Him who has thus Attained. The
+Lord is weary.”
+
+And three times he refused. But the Lord heard and he said:
+
+“Let him come to me. He will ask from a true desire of knowledge and
+will quickly understand my replies.”
+
+So Ananda said:
+
+“Enter in, friend Subaddha. The Blessed One gives you leave.”
+
+And speaking respectfully that mendicant put his questions, awaiting the
+answer with anxiety. And it was this: “Is the Way of the Law the only
+path possible for a saint? Can that way alone produce sainthood of the
+first order?”
+
+And the Lord replied:
+
+“Perfect saints from the first to the fourth degree are found only in
+the Noble Eightfold Path.”
+
+And when he had given the reason why only under such discipline is
+perception perfected, Subaddha, hailing his words with gladness, every
+doubt lost in light, besought admission as a disciple and it was granted
+and the probation of four months remitted, though Subaddha himself
+willingly undertook that probation. But the Lord said:
+
+“In this case I acknowledge the difference in persons.”
+
+And this was the last man the Lord himself received. And because it
+could not be otherwise Subaddha attained light and percipience, and
+became conscious that for him birth was at an end, and he became a great
+Arhat. And he sat beside the Blessed One until the end.
+
+And now the time drew on swiftly and knowing this, the Blessed One said,
+while they all stood in great grief surrounding him:
+
+“It may be, Ananda, that in some of you the thought may arise—‘Now that
+the word of the Master is ended we have no Teacher.’ But this is not so.
+The truths and the rules of the Order—let them be your Teacher when I
+am gone. And when I am gone, Ananda, let the Order if it will, abolish
+the Lesser Precepts.”
+
+And after awhile the Blessed One spoke again, and he said:
+
+“It may be, brethren, that there is doubt or misgiving in the mind of
+some brother as to the Buddha, the Truth, the Way. Enquire freely,
+monks! Do not reproach yourself afterwards with the thought,—‘We were
+face to face with the Blessed One, and yet could not bring ourselves to
+enquire.’”
+
+But the brethren were silent. And again and a third time the Lord
+repeated this. And in his care for them he said:
+
+“It may be that the brethren will not question out of reverence for the
+Teacher. Let one friend then communicate with another.”
+
+And still they were silent, and the venerable Ananda said:
+
+“It is wonderful, Lord. I have faith to believe that in this whole
+Assembly of the brethren there is not one who has any doubt or misgiving
+as to the Buddha, the Truth, or the Way.”
+
+And the Blessed One, sinking yet lower into weakness, answered:
+
+“From the fulness of faith do you speak, Ananda. But He who has thus
+Attained knows of certain knowledge that in this whole Assembly there is
+not one brother who has any doubt or misgiving. For even the most
+backward of all these brethren knows and has seen and will be born no
+more in a state of suffering and is assured of final peace.”
+
+And by these words did the World-Honoured reassure Ananda the beloved in
+whom as yet the tenderness of love crippled its wings, restraining it
+from the eagle-flight of the perfected Arhat.
+
+And Ananda knelt, hiding his face beside the sala trees where lay the
+Blessed One, for he knew that the parting drew very near. And there was
+a deep silence, and it was as though all the spirits of earth and air,
+and the Divine Beings and the Three Worlds, the earth, the heavens, and
+hells waited with them nor would lose a breath that remained. And He who
+has thus Attained lay with closed eyes, submerged in calm as in a great
+ocean.
+
+And after awhile his eyelids opened and for the last time he looked upon
+them and for the last time his disciples heard his voice, strong in
+death.
+
+“Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying—‘Decay is inherent in all
+component things. Work out your own salvation with diligence.’”
+
+And they trembled, kneeling about him.
+
+Then the Blessed One entered into the first state of ecstasy, and,
+rising from this, into the second, and so passed into the third and into
+the fourth and rising from that realm of ecstasy he entered the realm of
+the infinity of space, and from this he entered the realm of the
+infinity of consciousness and rising from this he entered the realm of
+nothingness, and beyond this the realm of neither perception nor
+non-perception, and from this he arrived at the cessation of sensation
+and idea.
+
+And Ananda cried out to the great Anuruddha in an agony:
+
+“O my Lord—O Anuruddha, the Blessed One is dead!”
+
+And he, leaning above that Peace, said with calm:
+
+“Nay, brother Ananda. He has entered that state where sensation and
+ideas have ceased to be.”
+
+
+
+And all veiled their faces.
+
+
+
+And the mind of Him who has thus Attained retraced its way downward
+again and passing through all the stages entered into the fourth stage
+of deep meditation and passing out of this he immediately entered the
+Great Peace.
+
+And at the moment of his expiring the thunders of Heaven broke forth
+roaring about them and there was a loud and terrible trembling of the
+earth and the voice of Him who is the First uttered this:
+
+“All beings in the world must lose their compound selves and
+individuality, and even such a Master as this, he, unrivalled and endued
+with all the powers, even he has passed into the Nirvana.”
+
+And the voice of Indra, King of Gods, took up the tale.
+
+ “Transient are all component things.
+ They being born must die, and being
+ dead are glad to be at rest.”
+
+And Anuruddha the Great said these words:
+
+“When he, the Desireless, lay in peace, so ending his span of life,
+resolute and with unshaken mind did he endure the pains of death,
+attaining his final deliverance from the Fetters.”
+
+But Ananda cried aloud:
+
+“Then there was terror, then the hair rose on the head, when he who
+possessed all grace—the supreme Buddha died.”
+
+Thus spoke the Four Loves, from the highest to the lowest,—and these of
+the brethren who were not yet enfranchised from the passions wept and
+wailed in anguish, crying aloud:
+
+“Too soon has the Blessed One died. Too soon has the Happy One departed.
+Too soon is the World’s Light darkened.”
+
+But the great Arhats bore their sorrow calm and self-possessed, saying:
+
+“Transient are all earth’s things. How is it possible they should not be
+dissolved?”
+
+And all that night did the great Sariputta and Anuruddha spend in high
+discourse but Ananda wept nor could be comforted.
+
+And in the morning the great Anuruddha addressed the sorrowing Assembly.
+
+“Enough, my brethren. Weep not nor lament. Has not the Blessed One
+declared to us that it is in the very nature of things near and dear to
+us that we and they must part? How then can it be possible that anything
+born and thus containing within itself the necessity of dissolution
+should not dissolve? Weep no more. Even the spirits would reproach us.
+For they who have attained wisdom say ‘Transient indeed are all
+component things. How is it possible they should not be dispersed? This
+cannot be.’”
+
+And calling to Ananda he sent him into the town of Kusinara that he
+might tell the faithful Mallas that their Lord was departed and that in
+their true hands should be the burning.
+
+And they came out lamenting, having made great and costly preparation,
+and they encased the body of the Lord in new cloth and folded sheets of
+wool and lastly in a vessel of iron for the burning, and having clad
+themselves in new garments eight chieftains of the Mallas lifted the
+body, and they bore it through their little town to their own shrine,
+and there in the presence of the Order with devotion and spices and
+flowers and perfumes they did what was needful, and the body of the Lord
+passed into grey ash, fulfilling all even to the uttermost.
+
+“Bow down with clasped hands.
+
+“Hard, hard is it to meet with a Buddha through hundreds of ages.”
+
+But they knew in whose presence they had stood.
+
+This also have I heard.
+
+The great Ananda, casting aside the fetters of love and retaining only
+its radiance, became a mighty Arhat and laid aside all sorrow.
+
+After these things, one day it so chanced that one of the brothers sat
+with Pingiya the aged Brahman, the disciple of the Lord, and Pingiya
+from the fulness of his heart spoke of the Blessed One, saying:
+
+“As he saw the Way, so he taught it, he, the very wise, the passionless,
+the desireless Lord, and how should he do otherwise, for in him was no
+shadow nor turning of untruth. I will praise the voice of him who was
+without folly, who had left arrogance far behind. It is he only, the
+Dispeller of darkness, the high Deliverer, who giveth light.”
+
+And seeing his love, the other said:
+
+“How then can you stay away from him even one instant, O Pingiya?”
+
+And the old man replied:
+
+“Not even for one instant do I stay away from him, my brother. Vigilant
+day and night I see him in my mind. In reverencing him do I spend the
+night, and verily I think I am not far from him.”
+
+And he mused awhile and added this:
+
+“I am worn out and feeble, but my heart, venerable brother, is joined to
+him for ever.”
+
+And lo, as Pingiya sat and said this word, there shone about them a
+great light and Pingiya beheld the Blessed One stand there in majesty
+that cannot be uttered. And he said these words:
+
+“Strong is thy faith, O Pingiya, and it shall be made glad. Fear not.
+You too shall reach that further shore, the haven of the realm of
+death.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+AND when the burning was done, the faithful Mallas gathered the bones
+and they took them to their Council Hall and surrounded them with a
+lattice-work of spears and a rampart of bows, and there for seven days
+they did them reverence and homage with solemn dance and music and
+garlands and perfumes.
+
+And the King of Maghada sent to beg a portion of the relics, for he
+said: “The Blessed One was of the soldier caste and so too am I; I am
+worthy to receive a portion and I will set over it a sacred monument and
+hold a solemn feast.”
+
+And other peoples, and among them the Sakyas of Kapila,—the Lord’s own
+people—sent demanding each a portion. And the Sakyas said:
+
+“He who has thus Attained was the pride of our race. We are worthy to
+receive a portion, and we will put up a sacred monument and celebrate a
+solemn feast.”
+
+And so it was with six more peoples all demanding their portion, and the
+true Mallas grew angry, for they loved the Lord, and they replied:
+
+“The Blessed One died in our land and he is ours. We will not give away
+any of the relics.”
+
+But the wise Brahman Dona rose amongst them and said this:
+
+“Hear, sirs, one word from me. Our Lord taught forbearance, and
+gentleness was the law of his lips. Would it not be unseemly that strife
+should arise over the relics of him who was in all things highest? Sirs,
+let us all with one accord unite in friendly harmony to divide these
+precious relics into eight portions.”
+
+And they asked him, this being so, to undertake the division, and he
+answered “Be it so,” and with scrupulous care he divided the relics,
+asking for himself the vessel that he might set a monument over it.
+
+And to the Moriya people (who too late asked their share of the precious
+relics), seeing their grief they gave the embers of the pyre, and these
+with all reverence they took away.
+
+Thus is the story told of Him who cast aside earthly love and riches and
+power that he might open the way to the myriads of mankind who have
+trodden it after him and who will tread it until all things merge in the
+unity and reconcilement of the Peace. For like a bright shining went
+forth the words of the Lord unto the ends of the earth, and those
+countries that have not heard shall yet hear and rejoice, for in Him
+were all wisdom and all love. And Kings and Emperors have heard and
+adored, and peasants looked up in gladness to see the night of sorrow
+dawn into the sunrise of joy.
+
+And for that man who desires no longer the illusions of earth,
+ended—ended is the passing from death to death, the illusion of that
+false self and ego being slain over whom alone death has dominion! For
+the All in whom we are One is life and not death.
+
+Yet do not think that all the appearances of this world are wholly
+illusion for that was not the Teaching of the Lord. No; but he taught
+that the five senses cannot see nor hear nor touch nor the dissolving
+brain apprehend Absolute Truth, and that this being so there is only
+relative truth for those unenlightened who see but as in a glass darkly,
+while those who have attained enlightenment, as did He who has thus
+Attained, behold the Truth face to face.
+
+Therefore here we see things but as they can appear to us and not in
+their true Being, and are most mistaken and deceived.
+
+Furthermore it is a strange thing and not to be uttered in words how by
+following the narrow way of right thinking and right doing is the
+cleansed perception attained. But the Lord said: “Do thus and thus, and
+you shall know.” And so it is.
+
+And to the weak and poor in spirit as to the great of mind he did not
+say:
+
+“Believe this, for so it is told you” but “Do this, and little by
+little, as when a man climbs a mountain the earth unfolds beneath him,
+for yourselves you shall see and know, needing no testimony from
+another—No, not even from the ancient scriptures, the Vedas, the
+Vedanta or any Brahman nor another. For the Kingdom of Heaven is within
+you. Look inward and see it and be glad.” Thus the Lord taught and so it
+was.
+
+And because this is so I who have seen many teachings of the old
+writings and of the Brahmans pass away in later knowledge have never
+seen one jot or one tittle of the Law pass rebuked into oblivion,
+neither shall I, nor any other. Knowledge is a good thing and a great,
+but all knowledge that comes through the brain and the five senses shall
+be rebuked later or sooner by the majesty of the Truth and shall crumble
+and pass. Only he who perceives beyond knowledge and sees beyond sight
+can apprehend these matters and so sit above error, being one with the
+One, and beyond that is the Nirvana, and even beyond the Nirvana it may
+well be there are states inconceivable in glory.
+
+As for the ignorant, nothing is as they think it and they move through a
+world of distorted forms most alien to the Truth, just as in the lower
+consciousness of insect, reptile, and beast the forms perceived by them
+are still more alien from the Truth, for consciousness evolves from
+lowly beginnings. And this must be so since the thing seen is shaped by
+him who sees it through his own fettered consciousness, the limits of
+which he can in no way escape until he reaches that perception to which
+the perception of the ignorant is as the snail’s or worm’s to the man’s.
+
+Yet let us not think that Reality is far from us. It lies about and in
+us and we walk in it and see it not, and in the higher perception bright
+things move about us and we of the lower perception see them no more
+than the blind man the sunshine in which he sits, and they touch us with
+strange instincts and visitings through the dark and we do not know, and
+our heart calls them to come nearer and there is silence.
+
+So, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the Blessed One
+summed up all teachings of the wise men of old and those who are yet to
+come, and no more can be added to it though it shall be more clearly
+understood as time and knowledge join hands. Therefore walk in the Way.
+
+And whereas there are wise men of the West who teach that there is but
+one life in this world of form and illusion, one hope of development and
+knowledge,—I say this: Very wise and near the Truth must be those men
+of the West if one life of twenty, thirty, ninety years suffices to free
+them from the fetters of ignorance and render them perfect as their
+Father in Heaven (for so they phrase it) is perfect. With us this is not
+so, nor yet do we hold that any of the Buddhas can pay the debt of
+another nor lift his sins from his shoulders, holding that the debt
+incurred must be paid by the debtor, and this for the sake of immortal
+Justice and for his own sake also. For the Law is evolution in the
+innermost as in the mortal body. First the lowly beginning, the seed in
+black earth. Then the tender shoot, the waxing strength of trunk and
+bough till they can bear the glory of expanding blossom, and last, the
+perfect fruit. And in one life this cannot be. And so have all the
+Buddhas taught.
+
+Yet another thing. It was said by our Wisest that the man who truly
+perceives sits above good and evil and may do what he will. Is this a
+hard saying? How can it be?
+
+It is because the Truth is now his will. It is his being; he sits in it
+and it in him, and the Truth and he are one. How should such a man
+think; “This is right. I will do it. This is evil; I will not do it,”
+any more than he will think; “I must breathe or I shall die,”
+considering each breath or heart-beat? How can sin draw him any more
+than the writhing of the snake tempts to imitation the man who walks
+erect? These things are the necessary laws of the beginner in the Way.
+They are stages of the Noble Eightfold Path, but for the Enlightened,
+they who see things as they are, laws have no meaning, for they
+themselves are Law.
+
+And this is the faith that must triumph, for Wisdom is its sceptre and
+Knowledge its footstool, and the science of the schools its slave to
+follow where it has led the way.
+
+Did not the Blessed One say—“We know. He who has thus Attained has
+nothing to do with theories.”
+
+And great is the patience of the Law, for Eternity is its own and of
+time it knows nothing.
+
+And now in ending I write down a few maxims which the wise have made for
+those who did not see the Face nor hear the Voice of Him who has thus
+Attained, that they also may consider and attain. For these are steps on
+the Way. “Let a man learn to comprehend the True Nature of the World of
+Law. Then will he perceive that all things are but the production of
+Mind.”
+
+“In all living creatures there exists and has existed from the beginning
+the nature of the Law. All, by this nature, contain the original essence
+of Enlightenment. Wherefore birth and death and even the Nirvana itself
+are transcended and become for us a dream of the night that is gone,
+being lost in a greater Light.”
+
+“To the eye of flesh, plants and trees appear to be gross matter. But to
+the eye of the Buddha they are composed of minute spiritual particles.”
+
+“Grass, trees, countries, the earth itself, all these shall wholly enter
+into Enlightenment.”
+
+“Hail to the Buddhas of the Three Worlds, who are all but One in the One
+Mind.”
+
+So I end.
+
+With lips of clay have I told that which cannot be uttered and with
+mortal thought have I set forth the Highest. And well I knew this could
+not be, for it is above the flesh and the tongue cannot speak it.
+
+Glory to the Blessed One, the Holy, the Perfect in Enlightenment!
+
+ THE END
+
+
+
+
+ TRANSCRIBER NOTES
+
+Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple
+spellings occur, majority use has been employed.
+
+Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors
+occur.
+
+A cover was created for this eBook and is placed in the public domain.
+
+[The end of _The Splendour of Asia_ by Elizabeth Louisa Moresby (as L.
+Adams Beck)]
+
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+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The splendour of Asia, by L. Adams Beck</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The splendour of Asia</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>The story and teaching of the Buddha</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: L. Adams Beck</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 14, 2023 [eBook #69787]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+ <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Al Haines, Cindy Beyer & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPLENDOUR OF ASIA ***</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0000' style='width:372px;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'>
+<colgroup>
+<col span='1' style='width: 15em;'/>
+</colgroup>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><span class='it'>THE NOVELS OF</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><span class='it'>L. ADAMS BECK</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Key of Dreams</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Perfume of the Rainbow</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Treasure of Ho</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Ninth Vibration</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Way of Stars</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'> <span class='sc'>The Splendour of Asia</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/front.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0001' style='width:350px;height:auto;'/>
+<p class='caption'>A GANDHARA BUDDHA AT HOTI-MARDAN</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line0' style='margin-top:1em;font-size:1.5em;'>THE</p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:1.8em;'>SPLENDOUR OF ASIA</p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0'><span class='sc'>The Story and Teaching of the Buddha</span></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'>BY</p>
+<p class='line0'>L. ADAMS BECK</p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0002' style='width:80px;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0'>NEW YORK</p>
+<p class='line0' style='margin-top:.2em;margin-bottom:.2em;'>DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY</p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'>1926</p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:2em;'> <!-- rend=';fs:.8em;' -->
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'><span class='sc'>Copyright, 1926,</span></p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'><span class='sc'>By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.</span></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'>PRINTED IN U. S. A.</p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'>THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS</p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.8em;'>BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK</p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:2em;'> <!-- rend=';fs:.9em;' -->
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.9em;'><span class='it'>I dedicate this book to</span></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.9em;'>ELLERY SEDGWICK</p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.9em;'>WHO INSPIRED ME WITH THE IDEA</p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0' style='font-size:.9em;'>OF WRITING IT.</p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1>PREFACE</h1></div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I have endeavoured in this book to make not only the story
+but the teaching of the Buddha intelligible and human, so that
+those who wish to understand one of the greatest facts in
+history may not find themselves entangled in the mazes of
+scholastic terms, and may perhaps be enabled to realize its
+strange coincidences with modern psychology and certain
+scientific verities. The teaching of the Indian Prince has
+indeed nothing to dread from science. Sir Edwin Arnold’s
+beautiful “Light of Asia” ends very early in that great ministry,
+and I have continued the story to the death of the Buddha,
+and have enriched it with many scriptures and ancient traditions
+unknown to or unused by Sir Edwin. Words would fail
+me if I attempted to express how necessary I think a knowledge
+of this high faith and philosophy is to leaven the materialism
+of the West, and the reception my books on cognate
+subjects have had encourages me to think there may be those
+who will see in what I here set down a great revelation of
+truth. It is, at all events a truth which influenced not only
+the mightiest thinkers of Greece and Rome, but also the
+beginnings of Christian teaching—which it antedated by five
+or six hundred years. It may well claim kindred with all the
+great faiths, persecuting and opposing none which differ with
+it, and this for reasons which are easily seen in the teachings
+themselves. In relation to its noble and scientific austerity
+no words are needed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Of the Founder himself, I may quote a great Buddhist
+scholar’s opinion, one which none who have studied the subject
+impartially will controvert. “Perhaps never while the world
+has lasted has there been a personality who has wielded such
+a tremendous influence over the thinking of humanity. And
+whoso recognizes this will also recognize that almost two
+and a half millenniums ago the supreme summit of spiritual
+development was reached, and that at that distant time in
+the quiet hermit groves along the Ganges already had been
+thought the highest man can think.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Of the august beauty of the Life those who read will form
+their own judgment. It has been the mainspring of the highest
+art of Asia. It has brought peace to myriads. It will bring it
+to many more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I have consulted all the available Scriptures, and have not
+forgotten the great traditions. I am indebted to all the best
+known scholars, including Max Müller, Faüsboll, Dahlke,
+Rhys Davids, his accomplished wife, Beal, and many more.
+I must mention Professor Radhakrishnan and other Indian
+writers, and among illuminating thinkers I must not forget
+Dr. Carus, and Mr. Edmond Holmes. To the latter’s work
+I owe a debt because he appears to me to appreciate more
+keenly than other writers the true point of junction between
+the early and later interpretations of the Buddha’s teaching.
+I have myself had the advantage of studying later Buddhist
+interpretation with Japanese scholars, with whom I have
+translated the Buddhist Psalms of Shinran Shonin. About
+some of these interpretations there will always be points of
+difference until we have access to the whole body of ancient
+teaching in the Far East as well as in India, and freedom from
+all error is beyond hope.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>If any Buddhist scholars should look into this book they will
+recall the immense difficulty of (so to speak) translating their
+work for the public, especially where the words of one language
+often fail to represent the thought of another. They
+will therefore be lenient to shortcomings. They will note that
+I have employed Pali or Sanscrit words and names alternatively
+as I thought they would be more familiar or easier to remember.
+<span class='it'>Karma</span> for <span class='it'>kamma</span>, and <span class='it'>Nirvana</span> for <span class='it'>Nibbana</span> are instances
+of many others. I have omitted accents as mystifying
+to those unfamiliar with Indian languages.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I can scarcely hope to satisfy scholars and the general public.
+But if I succeed in interesting some of the latter, the former,
+will, I think, recognize that my aim was justified.</p>
+
+<p class='line0' style='text-align:right;margin-right:1em;'><span class='sc'>L. Adams Beck.</span></p>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<p class='line0' style='text-align:center;margin-top:4em;margin-bottom:2em;font-size:1.2em;'>CONTENTS</p>
+
+<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line0'><a href='#pt1'><span class='sc'>Part I</span></a></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0'><a href='#pt2'><span class='sc'>Part II</span></a></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0'><a href='#pt3'><span class='sc'>Part III</span></a></p>
+<p class='line'> </p>
+<p class='line0'><a href='#pt4'><span class='sc'>Part IV</span></a></p>
+</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1 id='pt1'>PART I</h1></div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER I</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Nearly two thousand five hundred years ago, in the
+City of Kapila in Northern India, the spring came with
+glory. And surely nowhere in all the three worlds is spring
+more gracious, for the sunshine, life-giving, inspiring, draws
+divine scents from moist earth and the deep luxuriance of leaves
+and flowers to send on every breathing breeze pure incense
+from the world, rejoicing as a bride in the all-enfolding delight.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Here stood the little City of Kapila, nobly placed, as beseems
+the birthplace of the Perfect One, and above it the Himalayas
+stormed the skies with tossing billows of snow, leading the aspiration
+of man on and up until it melted in the Divine. On
+these, as was known, the Divinities had their dwelling.
+Thence Indra, the heavenly lord, drove his flocks of clouds to
+pasture in pure air, taking form and colour from the splendours
+of the sun and the moon and the silver embroidery of the constellations.
+Vaya, lord of the winds, charged in thunder or
+breathed in music from awful heights of snow. Surya, the Sun,
+urged his golden steeds from the low horizon to the zenith and
+on to the confines of night. Chandra, the moon, rose on the
+crest of the mighty range and sank below it into his mysterious
+kingdom in the darkening west. The deep pine forests clothing
+the lower spurs and veiling the sources of the rivers must surely
+have their indwelling spirits, and the river Rohini, breaking
+light-foot from the heights to scatter her diamonds as she
+leaped from rock to rock or brooded a moment in deep pools
+mirroring her ferns and flowers—what was she but a lovely,
+living nymph, a Dancer, pure as the silver peaks that fathered
+her? Therefore let it be known that this city was set among
+celestial influences, that the gates of the Paradise of India were
+not far from it, and that the Four Celestial Kings were its
+wardens. And it dwelt at this time in a great peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The city and surrounding country, a part of the great kingdom
+of Kosala, were inhabited by the Sakya clan. Very great
+was the kingdom of Kosala. The vast and holy city of Benares,
+a hundred miles south from Kapila, was but one of its
+cities, and its capital, Savatthi, lay in the cloudy mountains
+of Nepal. To the south-east lay the kingdom of Magadha,
+and only the great Gods then knew to which of these kingdoms
+would fall the sceptre of India.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And peaceful was the City of Kapila, the City of Red Earth,
+home of the Sakya clansmen, a race strong and high, for they
+were of the Arya, the Noble People, and it was they who descending
+into India through the passes had conquered the dark
+men of the land and driven them before them like the shadows
+of night fleeing before the arrows of dawn; and having dispossessed
+the dark-skinned, the lawless, the godless, the fair-skinned
+Noble People entered in upon their lands and made
+them theirs. With them the Noble People brought their Gods
+of Heaven and Earth, and these they worshipped with sacrifice
+and ritual and chanting of mantra and offerings of cows and
+grain and ghi and all the savours dear to hovering divinity.
+And in peace and plenty their Maharaja ruled them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Very fair was the city on the banks of bright Rohini. As
+there were few men of arrogant, dominant riches, so was there
+no piercing poverty, and, since life was simple, all had enough.
+The streets were clean-swept and watered, and parks and gardens
+lay about them where men might shelter in the great heats
+and the gay, golden-skinned children played beside the river
+and grew sleek and round on their food of pure rice and plantains
+and milk from the deep-dewlapped cattle that wound
+home in the evenings from high pastures by running water.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Nor was there fare only for the body. Wise men, the Wanderers,
+they whose minds are fixed on things unearthly and
+whose souls climb toward keen stars as the cragsmen follow the
+eagle to her eyry above the clouds, came in from mighty forests
+where the hermits and their families dwell in peace with
+God and man pursuing the purities of the householder’s life in
+the wilds;—bringing with them the dreams, the speculations,
+the conclusions of the hermits and themselves. And for such
+the Raja had made a hall of cedarwood in the city, where
+they might hold disputations with its wise men and the simpler
+folk sit and listen, bestowing applause or condemnation as they
+heard. For there was none in the city, gentle or simple, noble
+or humble, but set the things of the spirit above the chaffer of
+the market-place and lent a ready ear to such talk. Nor did
+they fear to speak, for the Arya are free peoples, coming from
+the north and bold and adventurous.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And of these Wanderers the people learnt much, for if the
+clansmen were free, these were freer. No love of earthly
+homes or riches held them. Strip one of them of his worldly
+all—his tattered robe and bowl for alms—and he would depart
+content, smiling his strange, secret smile, as a man whose
+treasure is beyond thief or destroyer. But for the <span class='it'>Wasa</span>, the
+three months’ rainy season, they would stay, willing to speak
+or to hear, satisfied with a very little, and when the sun shone
+again, depart like migrating birds on their mysterious way.
+And sometimes would come one, God-intoxicated, utterly heedless
+of men, scarce emerging from <span class='it'>samadhi</span>, the mystic ecstasy;
+and him would men surround with mute envy because in that
+trance he beheld things not lawful nor possible to be uttered.
+And such would stay but a little while and then, heedless of
+rain or sun or wind or snow, press on to the cold glories of the
+mountains, alone and in haste, and reappear no more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So does the flame of the Divine draw the moth of the spirit
+of man to hover about it until, dazzled and drunken with radiance,
+it joins itself to the flame and is consumed into pure light.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet was not the talk of the City of Kapila for ever of things
+divine, for bygone Rajas and this one also (knowing that
+where there is a North-man he must still be talking and much
+trouble thereby averted) had made a Folk Mote, a meeting
+hall, and not one only, where in the different quarters of the
+town men might gather and talk of their affairs, the farmers
+and handicraftsmen alike,—the sowing and harvesting of rice,
+the well-doing of cattle, the doings of the Kosalans, of whom
+they themselves were a clan, the subjugation of the swarthy natives
+among whom they lay as pearls in a black ocean, the ambitions
+of the Kings of Magadha, the trading of the merchants,
+and many things more which concerned them nearly. And
+each householder had the right to be heard, for each in his own
+house was king and priest and there none might say him nay,
+were it not that the Brahmans made or unmade his peace with
+the Lords of Heaven through gifts and sacrifices and a ritual
+grown exceedingly heavy and burdensome. But against these
+even the fair-skinned people, the Arya, as they called themselves,
+did not as yet dare to murmur.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The women of Kapila also were wives and mothers of free
+men. Their faces were not veiled save when they themselves
+for modesty chose to draw the folds between themselves and
+too bold a gaze. They shared the joys and sorrows of their
+men, though the great ladies were screened. And if they
+walked in the ways of ritual piety even more eagerly and laid
+daily gifts even more precious at the feet of the Brahmans, this
+is the way of women all the world over.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And these happy people had a good Maharaja, named Suddhodana,
+or Pure Rice, because not only were his granaries and
+those of his fathers’ before him full to overflowing, but his
+heart was pure as the grains of living pearl; a man grave and
+kind, rich also in cattle and elephants, yet not arrogant with
+riches, charitable, alms-giving, reverencing the Brahman and
+the ascetic, walking in peace in the way of ancient pieties, with
+thoughts of his own to think as he raised his eyes to the mountains,
+awful in the heavens as intermediaries between men and
+Gods. And he had taken to wife two fair sisters, the elder,
+Maya, the younger, Prajapati; and by the elder, the more
+dearly loved, had as yet no child and by neither a son to succeed
+him on his peaceful seat of rulership. And this was a
+grief to him, for when he was gone who should sacrifice to his
+soul and the souls of the great dead fathers? Very sweet and
+grateful is the tenderness of daughters, but this they cannot do.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one day, as they sat in the pleasure pavilion beside the
+waters of Rohini, listening to her song of the snows as she
+danced onward, downward from the heights, the Maharaja
+Suddhodana opened his heart once more to his wives. And
+one, Maya the Maharani, sat at his feet on a cushion of silk
+woven with gold, and her beauty was calm as the evening star
+shining in a faint moonlight, luminous, remote, veiled with
+dreams and hopes unknown to others. The second Queen,
+Prajapati, was fair and gentle, and no more—yet that is much,
+as shall be shown. And these two were sisters in heart as in
+blood and wifehood. So, laying his hand on the head of
+Maya, the Maharaja spoke softly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What dreams my Queen?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she, pointing to the bamboo grove where stood in green
+slim hand clasping her sister’s:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of motherhood. Of this I dream night and day, knowing
+many beautiful things, but most of all this—that the heart of
+my lord, my beloved, cannot rest until a son of his is laid in
+his arms. O would, if I am barren, that my heart’s sister, my
+Prajapati, might give to our husband this gift of gifts!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, with heavy brows:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear lady and wife, the Gods give and withhold their great
+gift of life at pleasure. What have we left undone? We have
+besought them. We have offered of our best on many an altar.
+We have fed Brahmans, we have kept the precepts, and yet—they
+do not give. If in some former life we have sinned—Yet
+who can tell? It is their will, and must be borne even if
+it break my heart.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then Prajapati, raising her sweet eyes timidly to him, one
+slim hand clasping her sister’s:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If my lord please to take another wife, then indeed my
+sister and I will serve her, and if a son is born, what can we
+but rejoice?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That son would not be the child of my Queens, and most of
+all of Maya, the Great Lady. Dear he might be, but not so
+dear; and, moreover, you both, my ladies, have heard the word
+of the wandering Rishi, the wise ascetic, who prophesied that
+in this city, in this fortunate palace, should a child be born, a
+ruler of men, a King among Kings.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May it be here and now!” said the lady Maya. And
+again, softly: “May we be found worthy!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There was a long silence and only Rohini, the river, talked
+of sweet secret things as she went her way. And presently
+the Maharaja added:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think it will not be!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a large tear pearled itself on the long lashes of Prajapati
+and spilt down the bloom of her cheek as she watched her
+baby daughter in the arms of a dark-skinned nurse lulling her
+to sleep with strange and wistful songs of the native people,
+by the lotuses on the great marble tank in the shade of the
+pippalas.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And presently the evening came, gliding with silent steps
+through the woods and along the waters, veiled as a maid who
+steals to meet her star-eyed lover. And having beheld the
+pomps of sunset, the mountains withdrew into their mysteries
+and a star stood on each of their summits for guard, and in a
+great peace the moon floated upward, resplendent. Then the
+beauty of heaven and earth became marvellous and remote,
+and the earth was no longer for men but Gods.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now that night Maya, the Great Lady, asleep beside her lord
+in the pleasure pavilion when moonlight blanched the dewy
+lawns like snow, dreamed a dream. Nor was it the first.
+This lady was vision-haunted. Her eyes, her ears, were open
+to all the starry influences to all the weeping of winds and the
+tales the reeds whisper to one another in lonely places. But
+this dream came, not flitting ghostly along the ways of sleep
+nor with the morning dissolving cloud-like, illusive, scarcely to
+be grasped or recorded, more a feeling than a thought, but clear,
+majestic, terrible and beautiful, so that she found herself (and
+knew not how) sitting up, awake, aware, breathless, as it were
+a Queen to whom has been made a great annunciation from
+equal powers. And, with an awakening hand laid upon her
+husband, she spoke, nor did her voice tremble:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Beloved, awake! I have dreamed. For it seemed to me
+that the four Guardian Divine Kings lifted me from my bed
+and bore me away to the great mountains and laid me down.
+And heavenly spirits, shining as stars, came about me and
+bathed me in the pure waters of a mountain lake, freeing me
+of all human stain. And when this was done they laid me
+down again, clothing me in the gold of divine garments and
+shedding perfumes about me. And I saw a lordly elephant,
+white as silver, wandering beneath the trees. For, as you
+know, this is the symbol of royalty. And touching me on the
+right side with his trunk, he appeared to melt into a cloud and
+pass like a vapor into my womb. In the darkness I have seen
+a great light shine, and in the air myriads of radiant spirits
+sang my joy. And O, beloved, all is well!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he stammering, amazed:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Beloved, when you awaked me, the music of these very
+spirits rang in my ears, and they cried to me with voices more
+tunable than all songs of birds or harmony of well-touched
+lutes, ‘The child shall be born when the Flower-Star shines in
+the east.’ And as you touched me, I awoke.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And more they could not say, but clung to each other, trembling
+for joy and wonder. Nor could any sleep come to them
+that night, for in their gladness it seemed they stood on the
+shining shores of heaven, its light about them like an ocean.
+And when on the morrow these dreams were told to Prajapati,
+she rejoiced with them, no thought of envy to cloud the crystal
+of her soul. And when they were laid before the dream-readers,
+they could presage nothing but good, and being called
+in before the Maharaja where he sat in state with his Maharanis,
+they spoke as follows:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A lord of men shall be born, a great and awful ruler. Let
+the soul of the Maharaja be exalted, and the heart of the
+Maharani rejoice and triumph, since to their house is given a
+son whose kingdom is the earth and the fullness of it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the Maharaja shouted for joy, while Maya the Maharani,
+listened with dreaming eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For he shall conquer the earth!” he cried, “and the trampling
+of his elephants be heard like thunder, and Kosala shall
+be his kingdom and Maghada prostrate before his feet, and
+riches and glory shall be the slaves of the Conqueror for ever
+and ever!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharani said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For ever and ever? Yet there is death.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Prajapati hid her face.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the dream-readers, looking up with reverence where
+they knelt before their diagrams and circles, answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great Lady, there are riches that Death cannot thieve.
+There are conquests that Time does not triumph over.
+There is an Empire that passes not away. What the fate of
+this child is to be we cannot yet tell. It bewilders us, for
+great and auspicious as are the signs, they are not plain reading
+as is the custom. It may be that the child shall be a sage,
+dominating the souls of men, ruling by pure wisdom, a conqueror——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But here the Maharaja broke in, in anger:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Be silent, for this I will not have! The men of my race
+are Kshatriyas, warriors. The Brahman, the ascetic, the hermit,
+have their sacred uses, and may the guardian Gods
+forbid that I should disparage their merit—but my son is my
+son and a warrior, and if the signs are great, it is a warrior’s
+greatness I claim for him, for in my family is no other known
+or considered.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But still the dream-readers lingered in doubt.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great sir, there is more to be told, strange and very wonderful.
+Two ways lie before the child to be, and in which he
+will walk we cannot say. If, when he is of age to judge, he
+beholds a sick man, an old man, a dead man, and a holy monk,
+then great and wide is his kingdom but not of this world. And
+if he see not these signs, he shall be a king of the earth, magnificent
+in riches, glory and power. Therefore it is in the
+hand of his father to choose what he shall see or not see. The
+dream is read.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Gladly and gloriously is it read!” shouted the Maharaja.
+“No such sights shall my son see. Leave spiritual things to
+spiritual men, for he shall reign for ever and ever!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And bowing, with minds perplexed, the dream-readers
+gathered up their calculations and departed. And in the city
+they spread their news, and there was scarcely a man but
+thought and rejoiced with the Maharaja, commending him in
+that he chose rather to have a son to fight beside him and ride
+terribly at his bridle rein than an ascetic in the woods, with
+matted hair and clawed hands, to pray for his victories——“So
+would we all choose, like men!” they said. And very joyful
+was the city.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Maya the Great Lady, saying little, went her way in
+peace, strong and calm of purpose as our general mother the
+earth, pure within and without as the white lotus; and surrounding
+herself with a great tranquillity, she floated on its
+surface as a water-lily, rooted in the life-giving bosom of earth,
+turning an adoring face to the purities of the heavens and absorbing
+their radiance, until her heart was pure gold and her
+body white as the ivory of the flower that is a prayer embodied
+and throne of all the Gods. And if she passed through the
+city, the women and children strewed flowers before her as before
+a goddess borne in procession, and when the benediction
+of her eyes fell on them, they prostrated themselves.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And always her sister, Prajapati, went beside her, guarding
+her with her own hands, treasuring her as a thing already enskied
+and sainted, a fear in her heart clasping hands with joy.
+And the Maharaja Suddhodana would stride into the pavilion,
+saying in his great voice:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wife, how goes it? For the time passes onward, and soon
+the spring shall be here again, and with it our boy. This day
+have the farmers given me a little plough, made of red cedarwood,
+banded with ivory, and when he can walk and talk he
+shall plough his furrow like a man!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she, smiling, answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear lord, he shall plough his furrow and sow his seed,
+and very great shall his harvest be. All goes better than well.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again another day he came with a sword, the haft
+sparkling like frost with jewels, and he cried, rejoicing:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This have the goldsmiths and handicraftsmen of the city
+given me, that with it my son may strike off the head of the
+goat for his first sacrifice, and after destroy his enemies as
+when Indra thunders and lightens from the peaks. But is all
+well?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she, smiling:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Beloved, his enemies shall fall before him like chaff driven
+on a gale. And all goes better than well.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she spent her time in deep meditation, free from grief
+or pain, free also from illusions and desires, in a measureless
+content and foreseeing. Thus the time went by, not swiftly
+as a dancer nor slowly as a mourner, but in a great quiet, pacing
+with majesty from day to day.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now, on a certain day when Spring with her birds and blossoms
+was come to earth, the Maharani, following the custom
+of the ladies of her race, with her sister made ready all her
+matters and entered the presence of her husband, speaking
+thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear lord, it is a habit of my people that when our children
+are born it is in the house of our parents. Have I then
+your permission to journey to them for this auspicious birth,
+that, returning, I may bring my sheaves with me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, embracing her with true affection, gave her leave
+to go, commending her to the care of Prajapati and giving strict
+command that men should go before making all the ways clear
+for her litter, and men and women be warned that no sight
+painful or terrifying should meet her eyes. So, tenderly invoking
+the prayers and ritual of the Brahmans on her and
+his son’s behalf, he sent her forth and returned to his duties
+full of thought. But she, borne in her litter and embraced in
+the very arms of peace, went her way, thinking to reach the
+house of her parents and knowing not that the great hour of
+her life was even then upon her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And passing the Lumbini gardens, where trees and flowers,
+placid waters and green shades, the song of birds and cooing
+of doves combine to make a heaven on earth, she commanded
+them to stay her litter that she might set her feet in the sun-warmed
+grass and stand beside the coolness of the lake. So it
+was done, and leaning on the arm of Prajapati, she descended
+and entered the garden and wandered awhile, silent for joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And suddenly, as they stood beneath a great palsa tree,
+sweeping the sward with robes of green and the honeyed snow
+of blossom, awe and trembling seized her and a measureless
+marvelling; and the tree swept its boughs earthward until the
+leaves and flowers lay thick upon the grass, and she knew that
+the life of all growing things and of the divine earth and the
+mountains and skies lived within her and that her hour was
+come. So she laid her hand on a bough of the palsa tree, and
+as Prajapati knelt beside her, stilled with joy and fear, and her
+women crowded outside the close blossomed shelter of the
+palsa tree, her son was born: not like a human birth with
+agony but painlessly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now, it was told afterwards that for wardens the Four
+Heavenly Kings stood about him, and that the air was
+thronged with those birds of heaven, the happy Shining Ones,
+singing and rejoicing. And it is told that throughout the
+world all polluted streams flowed clear as crystal, and that
+even as the lady his mother suffered no pang of childbirth, so
+all sentient creatures knew surcease of pain because of that
+great Birth and rejoiced with her in jungle and meadow, in
+deep waters, and in clouds aerial—for what mother or child
+could sorrow in that hour?</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER II</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>B</span><span class='sc'>ut</span> of the child, what shall be said? Borne back to
+the palace with flute and drum, through streets
+thronged with eager men and women pressing forward
+to behold him, he did not sleep, nor shrink, like other
+children, but gazed about him as though the gem of thought
+were hidden beneath the blue deeps of his eyes. He shone like
+pure gold, after the manner of his people, Aryan, noble, a child
+of high descent. And it is told that the hidden sweetness of
+precious lilies went with him and that the garments of shining
+spirits, sweeping unseen above him, made the air vibrant. So
+the Maharaja, receiving him in his arms, blessed his son, rejoicing
+in his happy fate who was the father of such a one as
+the world could not show the like. And in his ears the voices
+of prophecy made a changing music of pride and triumph.
+And the Maharani, overweighted with gladness, like a lily surcharged
+with dew, was borne to her noble couch of ivory and
+gold; and Prajapati watched each breath she drew, so great
+were her love and fear.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, to the rejoicing palace, came an ascetic of pure life
+and understanding, a dweller on the holy heights of Himavat,
+a great marvel-worker, honoured of all men; and he desired to
+enter the presence of the Maharaja and make obeisance. And
+this was granted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Bowing before the Maharaja, he addressed him thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great sir, as I came on the sun’s way, I heard the rejoicing
+of radiant spirits in the air, and when I asked why they were
+glad, they triumphed in this verse—</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“ ‘The Wisdom-Child, that precious Jewel, unmatched, unrivalled,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Is born in Lumbini, in the land of the happy Sakyas,</p>
+<p class='line0'>For good and joy to all the world of men.’</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='noindent'>“Therefore am I come. Lead me now to the young child that
+I may see him and be glad also. Rejoice, O Maharaja of
+happy fortune, for most surely is it owing to your righteous
+deeds in former lives that this good celestial is fallen to your
+lot!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja, dumb with love and pride, led the way
+to the palace hall where the child slept; and they uncovered
+his little lovely person that the old man might see and be glad
+also. So he considered the precious marks and signs of his
+body, assuring him to be a Buddha, one perfect in enlightenment,
+reading and comprehending them all with a heart that
+scarce for joy could believe what lay before him. And, seeing
+these wonderful birth-portents, the tears rolled down his
+cheeks; and at his weeping fear seized the father, and he bowed
+down at the ascetic’s feet, crying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O what is my lord’s grief: O what are his tears? Is the
+child doomed? Do we lose him? Forbid it, all-seeing Divinities!
+Forbid it that one parched, within reach of the
+eternal draught, should lose all and perish of thirst! Forbid
+it that I should lose my treasure! For when a man dies who
+owns a son, it is as a man with two eyes—one sleeps yet the
+other watches,—but a man without a son is blind in death’s
+darkness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the ascetic, seeing his grief, answered swiftly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, have no fear. Good and better than good are the portents.
+I wept for myself. This child shall rule the world,
+but I, by reason of my age, shall not live to see it. Deep and
+full and wide is the river of his Law. Like a great lake is the
+calm of his Yoga; like the sun at the zenith his wisdom. The
+earth shall be glad for him, and he shall reign and he SHALL
+reign, and mighty the glory of his dominion!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having said this, the ascetic departed mysteriously,
+after the fashion of the Instructed, leaving joy as his gift.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But still Prajapati watched by the Queen Maya and leaned
+her ear close to catch a whisper—for as yet the Great Lady
+had not spoken.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now the child lay in the hollow of her arm, and it was
+the seventh day. And without raising her lashes, she whispered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sister, my true sister! On the seventh day I die, for
+so it is with those mothers whose joy, too great for the lowlands
+of earth, soars like a bird to the mountains of heaven. My
+joy is winged. No more can it walk beside my sweet sister
+nor follow my husband as his shadow nor guard the steps of
+my child. It is become divine. Already its wings quiver for
+flight. But all is well. My place is prepared in a heaven
+where my bliss, rolling outward, may spread into a sea to mirror
+the Wisdom I have borne. And you, my true sister, will not
+forget me, but, taking this child for your own, will nourish him
+with noble milk from your pure bosom. And for our lord you
+will take heed. And this I know, that the Way of Peace shall
+be opened to the feet of my son’s foster-mother as to mine.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Prajapati pressed her cheek against the Great Lady’s
+in silence that laid a finger on the lips of grief, and the child
+slept between them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now Night, with the moon in her hair and the stars for ear
+and breast jewels, came gliding down from the high mountains
+and wandered in the palace gardens, shedding sleep unutterable
+and all sweet influences from her outspread hands. And
+there was not one in the palace, from the Maharaja to the
+sweeper but slept, dreaming auspicious dreams.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in the morning all woke refreshed and at peace. But
+Maya, the Great Lady waked not. And her sister, the Queen
+Prajapati, seeing the child, lovely as an image of pure gold,
+blue-eyed and beautiful, loved him, and took him to her
+fragrant bosom, and became his mother. And he received the
+name of Siddhartha, meaning “He who has attained his aim”—for
+who could doubt that such a child must conquer where he
+would?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With this child all good came to the City of Kapila and
+to the country round about, and all the Sakya clansmen
+prospered very greatly. Their cows were pure-coloured, well-proportioned,
+giving fragrant and rich milk with even flow;
+their horses were as though winged, shaped for speed and
+strength; their elephants royal beasts and understanding.
+When rain was needed the air distilled it seasonably, and the
+five cereals swelled with scented grain, wholesome and soft for
+food. All creatures about to produce their young were content
+and at ease, their bodies well-knit and healthful.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Nor was this grace confined to the lower creation, for in the
+City of Kapila and its dominions, amongst men and women
+auspicious things grew like seed flung from the hands of Gods,
+and even those whom their passions spurred down the broad
+way of a dangerous karma, considered and took heed, and, laying
+aside their selfish desires and covetousness, thought no
+proud, envious thoughts, but lived in quiet with their neighbours;
+and men were grave and recollected and women chaste
+and calm, and by all were the Four Rules of Purity honoured.
+And it is told that the Maharaja, seeing this heavenly guest
+within his palace, for his sake dwelt purely, practising virtue,
+putting away from him all evil company, that his heart might
+not be polluted with lust. And he meditated much by night
+and day, drinking the moon’s brightness with clasped hands and
+sacrificing in the golden silences of the dawn, when all high influences
+are unloosed. And this course of conduct must ensue
+from such a birth, for, as the lotus and champak flowers exhale
+their perfume and the moon drops camphor in her secret
+glories, so do the influences of purity and high thought spread
+outward from the person of a Buddha-to-be. Therefore, as
+the light of sun or moon increases little by little and none can
+measure its growth, so was it with the child, orbing into beauty
+perfect and yet more perfect—if such a thing can be. And
+with precious things they surrounded him. Noble amulets
+guarded his person, great gems adorned him, and the scent of
+sandalwood made sweet the air for his breathing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now, when the time for instruction came, the Maharaja considered
+whom he should employ to teach his son. Should it
+be a man of the Wanderers, who, having cast the world utterly
+aside, scans its wisdom with the diamond ray of perfect comprehension—one
+of the Unfettered? Or should it be one of
+the men of braided hair—a Brahman hermit, held, as yet, in
+family ties, but living the life of pure contemplation? Or a
+bearer of the Triple Staff?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Much he revolved these matters and, gathering opinions,
+digested them, and summoned to the high task the wise and
+saintly Viswamitra. And the boy was brought before him and
+made due obeisance to his teacher (who is, if possible, more to
+be reverenced than even a father, being the father of the soul
+and mind, whereas that other may be but the father of the
+transitory body); but when Viswamitra questioned the noble
+child, it has been told that there was nothing he did not know
+already. For it is related that he was familiar with all that
+has been written in books or told with tongues, even from the
+number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, as also their triangular,
+square and sextile aspects, to the powers of the lowliest
+worm that creeps upon the earth, unable even to raise its
+head to adore the divine luminaries. There was nothing that
+teacher could teach him, for already he knew all. So Viswamitra
+heard and trembled, and at last, seeing that this matter
+touched on things deep, incomprehensible and wonderful, he
+prostrated himself before the child, and, closing up his books,
+went his way marvelling.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet let it not be thought that the Maharaja Suddhodana
+could behold these portents with a heart of ease, for mingled
+with all his pride and joy was fear. His son moved before
+him, beautiful exceedingly, perfect in duty not only to his
+father and his foster-mother, Prajapati the fair and noble, but
+also to all with whom he had to do, quick to smile and reply,
+glad in a boy’s sports and games, and yet—apart. As a man,
+looking down through the clear crystal of a lake, may behold
+beneath it groves of strange leafage where silver fish dart and
+disappear in a life unknown to him, so the Maharaja, looking
+through the translucence of his son’s eyes uplifted to his, knew
+that they revealed yet hid a world in which he had no part.
+And this aloofness grew to be to him a knife driven into his
+very heart. And time passed, and the child became a noble
+youth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>One day the Maharaja sent for his minister, an old man,
+wise and instructed, and to him he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is all well in the city and the country about it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old minister, saluting, replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O Maharaj, all is well. And since the birth of your auspicious
+son how could it be otherwise? For it appears that
+in past times when a child of pure brilliancy was born, there
+prevailed great prosperity, and wickedness came to an end.
+And so it is now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, sighing as if his heart were like to break, the Maharaja
+replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is true. And who should rejoice more than I? Yet
+it is not so, and my heart is consumed with anxiety.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the minister remained respectfully silent, and the Maharaja
+continued:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For my son is not as the other young nobles, free and gay
+and enamoured of sports and battle and women, but the opposite—rather
+enduring than sharing the frolics suited to his age;
+and when I see him meditating beneath the rose-laurels and
+mark his calm, abstracted eyes, it recalls to me the saying of
+the sage Asita, that ‘embarking in the boat of wisdom, he
+shall save the world from peril.’ Now, were this to be the
+wisdom of a great King delivering his people, I might triumph
+as I did in hearing it, but if it is to be the cold wisdom of the
+Wanderers and forest-dwellers, then I desire none of it, for to
+embark in that boat is to be severed from power and from all
+things dear and desirable to the heart of man. What, then, is
+your counsel?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And with grief written in his face, the aged minister replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great sir, who shall challenge Fate and the unwritten laws
+of the Divine? I will own that sometimes in the noble youth’s
+presence I have felt as it were a cold air blowing between him
+and me, as though he stood apart from lesser men. And more
+than once this thought has occurred: Suppose this noble Siddhartha
+is a Bodhisattva, destined in his next re-birth to be a
+Buddha, how then shall we fight against a destiny so great
+and awful? But yet it may not be thus, and so rarely does a
+Buddha appear upon the earth that there is neither experience
+nor knowledge to guide us.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, trembling, the Maharaja replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You voice my very fear. It is certain that many of the
+predictions which my soul applied to earthly glory, may be
+read otherwise if considered. But since I dread this unspeakably
+and we are by no means certain of the end, what is your
+counsel that we may divert him and so fulfil his mind with
+beauty and bliss, that these cold visions may blow away like
+mists at sunrise and leave him glad?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, smiling subtly, the old man answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There is one way, and one only. For it is acknowledged
+throughout the three worlds that there is no charm of forgetfulness
+like the beauty of a woman. On her bosom the Gods
+are forgotten and the wisdom of the wise is vanity.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Maharaja, with impatience:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is true of others, but as for my son, he has seen the
+loveliest face to face and has never turned to look again.
+Think better, old man.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For the noble, a noble bait. And there is a girl, daughter
+of the great Suprabuddha, young and lovely as the Maiden
+of the Dawn when she stands, rose-fingered, smiling upon the
+mountain peaks, and this maiden is pure in health and person,
+constant and faithful, cheerful evening and morning, one to
+establish the palace in purity and quiet, full of dignity and
+grace. Among her companions she moves as the queen-swan
+leading the flotilla, with stately neck, yet bowed in humility.
+For a King of all the earth this is a fitting consort. I have
+made diligent inquiry. Her name is Yashodara.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja replied with joy:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this Yashodara may be our deliverance! Send in
+haste, but with dignity, to Suprabuddha her father, and call a
+gathering at which the bridegroom-to-be shall show his
+strength with bow and sword and horse against all rivals, after
+the manner of the free choice of our women.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old man bowed and went away, smiling, but with a
+sore doubt at his heart—for he also recalled the words and
+portents of the Prince’s birth and dreaded the anger of awful
+Gods if any should let their purpose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus on a certain day the lists were set, and the Sakya
+lords were challenged by the noble Siddhartha to archery, to
+sword-play and to riding, that the maiden, Yashodara, might
+know she chose no craven to be her husband. And all
+the people crowded to see, some wagering on the success of this
+lord and some on that, but all, on whomsoever they wagered,
+hoping that the son of the good Maharaja might win honour
+and the bride. Yet most believed that the victor would be
+Devadatta, cousin of Siddhartha, a young prince proud and obstinate
+and amorous and very skilful in feats of arms.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was in the golden silence of very early morning when the
+people crowded to the <span class='it'>maidan</span> where all should be done, for the
+heat of the later day forbade it then. So still was it that not
+a frond of the palms stirred nor even a bamboo leaf lifted on
+the air, and the dew lay bright as silver upon grass and
+flower. So still that the voice of Rohini, full-throated from the
+melting snows, would have filled the quiet but for the myriad
+shufflings of bare feet through the dust and the tinkle of litter
+bells as the hidden beauty and her companions were borne to
+the place of meeting. For her face should not be seen until
+she made her choice.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And all the way was strewn ankle-deep with flowers, as
+though the Spirits of the Air had rained them with both hands
+upon the glad earth, and from their bruised beauty was shed
+such sweetness on the dew that the fragrance rose like incense
+to greet the lovely ones on their way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when the rival lords rode on to the <span class='it'>maidan</span> in splendour
+of armour jewelled and inlaid with gold and swords that
+flashed like lightning from the rifts of cloudy mountains, and
+horses that seemed to spurn the ground with their hoofs and
+desire to ride the air like the very coursers of the sun, then
+the joy of the people so grew that they clapped their hands and
+shouted lustily, for of all things the noble fair-skinned Northern
+peoples love a good man and a good horse, and only next to
+these a beautiful woman. And of the last the most beautiful
+as yet was hidden. So they shouted until their voices were
+like the noise of a great wind and the echoes returned them
+from far-off heights and woods.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Devadatta rode a horse so black that in the night he
+seemed a part of it, but Siddhartha’s horse was white, proud
+and great and gentle, and his name shall not be forgotten while
+the round world holds, for he was Kantaka—and of him more
+hereafter. And when the maiden, looking between the curtains
+of her palanquin so that none might know she looked,
+saw the young Sakya lord, her heart left her bosom and fled
+into his, settling there like a bird nestling with feet and wings,
+for there was none like him—none. With calm he sat his
+horse, awaiting the moment, and young he was and slender
+and like an image of pure gold, and his eyes were blue and dark
+after the manner of his people, and his lips and cheek shaped
+by a great graver. He carried his head as a stag in the spring
+season, and for all his slenderness was he tense and eager as
+a bow in the hand of the Brahma King with the arrow laid
+on the string. And so he waited, and his eyes never sought
+the palanquin where was hidden the Pearl of Victory. And
+to her sick heart she said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He is not mine! He is above me. What woman can cloud
+the serenity of those eyes? How can the fiery dart of Madhu,
+the God of Love, pierce that breast, guarded with the snow of
+high thoughts? He is a King too high for me—too high.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is true that the noble youth thought little of the
+maiden, but much of the great clash with his rivals, for he
+knew well that Honour was the prize of the day and that his
+father’s heart must needs break if he failed before all the Kin
+of the House and the people.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now it is certain that of this jousting many tales have grown
+up, of arrows flying miraculously, winged by eager Gods, of
+sword-strokes such as the world has never seen nor shall see,
+of horses that the Wind, Vaya himself, might bestride for
+swiftness and cruel, dangerous pride. And how all this may
+be I know not, who was not there; but this I know, that Siddhartha
+was better than the best in all the tests, and that the
+people stormed and shouted and laughed and wept, knowing
+not what they did so only they might hail him conqueror, while
+he stood leaning on his sword, breathing lightly and resting, for
+the first time smiling, a very splendid young knight.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja, scarcely daring to look in his son’s face
+lest he should too openly show his pride and joy, said only:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son, you have done well.” And, turning, “Bring forth the
+bride.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then all the people were of a sudden silent, that not a word,
+not a sound of that Beautiful should be lost. And they drew
+back the pictured curtains of the litter and she stepped forth,
+most resembling the silver moon floating through clouds to her
+unveiling and pure radiance, and so stood before the people,
+clad in supple silver that flowed about her like water and jewels
+that dripped glory braided among the silk-soft hair that fell to
+her ankles and crowned her brows. (Yet none could look
+at her splendour, for her face drew the bees of all glances to
+the honey of its sweetness and there held them, dizzy with
+ecstasy.) Thus, with a maiden, only less fair, on either side,
+she paced towards Siddhartha where he sat motionless on his
+white horse as a man of marble, carrying in her hand the Garland
+of Choosing. And coming before him, she raised her
+eyes to his and stood silent; but her look pleaded.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then for the first time he knew in the solitude of his heart
+the drawing near of another. And soft spring airs came before
+her, with the singing of mating birds, and pearling of young
+buds and delicate tremble and thrill of life in green silences
+and all the good things of this world. And it troubled his
+calm, because he knew not what it meant, and it was more
+pain than pleasure. This sweet melody, as it were of flutes
+and lutes, that came from the tattling of her anklets and the
+rustle of her garments, overpowered the austere, high voices
+that had breathed in his ear from birth, and they were silent.
+Like a man bewildered, he dismounted from white Kantaka,
+with his arm still laid along the noble neck, and gazed down
+upon her, and their looks met and were one.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So she stooped and took the dust from his feet, then rising,
+stately as a young palm-tree, she put the Garland of Choosing
+about his neck and together they faced the shouting people
+and the rivals, some sullen as Devadatta the evil-hearted, some
+glad in the victory as Ananda the Prince, his true cousin.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And of all men who saw that sight be sure that none more
+beautiful could ever meet their eyes than the silver bride hand
+in hand with the golden lover, shining as Surya the Sun rejoicing
+to run his course; for with the touch of her hand, doubt
+dropped from him like a garment and they were submerged,
+he and she alike, in the joy of the bridegroom and the bride.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja, laughing aloud for triumph and gladness,
+said to the old minister:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We have caught our bird! Thanks be to the God of
+Love!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the old man replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great sir, it will need the triple cord of love to bind him—your
+own, the wife’s and the child’s. Let us wait. Still are
+we not secure.”</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER III</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Time went by, but since he had snared his bird, the
+Maharaja Suddhodana resolved that the fetters should
+be gilded, and calling his minister again, he said to him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If a man would cage a bird of heaven (and such, I think, is
+my son), it is necessary that earth should be made heaven, so
+that no home-sickness for the blue heights should take him.
+And because a young man may weary of one woman’s beauty,
+however beautiful, let fresh faces be found to make for him a
+wreath of such roses of the earth as may intoxicate him with
+its love and perfume. Send north to Savatthi and south to
+Benares, and fetch such beauties, such players on the vina and
+sitar as sing before the high Gods, such dancers as those whose
+white limbs, melting to music, enchant their eyes. Give orders
+to build him a house for the winter, when the snow is blue in
+the hollows of Himalaya and the rivers are locked in his cold
+heart. See that it be warm and silent and that no wind may
+creep in, and let white furs of snow-leopards, clouded with
+black, lie about it, soft and smooth to the touch, and let there
+be story-tellers to speed the long nights with jest and amorous
+tale and clash of battle. Shut out the cold and terrible moon
+with close lattice-work and rich curtains, for she, remote and
+small in the blue, profound skies, may freeze his soul to the
+chill calm I fear.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the minister, saluting, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All shall be done. And yet——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And yet there is more before we may sleep in peace.
+Build for him also a house of spring. Let it be pavilioned,
+and with little stiff, frilled roofs flying outward like the skirts
+of a dancer when she revolves swiftly. On every point set a
+wind-bell to resemble her anklets and armlets in their tinkling,
+so that the soft breezes from the hills shall make an aerial
+music as they wander about it. Let it appear as if the whole
+were blown together like a cloud on a wind and might be
+lifted and dispersed like thistle-down—a dream of spring.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old wise man saluted, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It shall be done. And yet——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And yet it is not enough,” mused the Maharaja, stroking
+his great beard. “For we must build also a house for summer—to
+drowse in, dim and cool and with long echoing colonnades
+to catch the faintest breath of breeze. Let this house be
+set in the grass by Rohini, that her liquid voice may sing of
+the snows when the dog-days are sultry. And let it be paved
+with shining stone from the mountains, and the walls be of
+dark cedar, carved wonderfully, and all the windows dimmed
+and latticed that the heats die on the threshold. Choose a
+place for it where the asoka trees are deep with rich leafage
+and golden blossom, and the neems spread their shade and the
+acacias rain white petals and the champak swoons in its heavy
+sweetness. Let there be a lake, pensive with reeds and green
+reaches, the haunt of swans and cranes and all beautiful water
+birds, and silver rills by which my son may sit and muse if he
+will, until the langour of slowly dropping water shall pass into
+his veins and be a narcotic binding him for ever to long dreaming
+days and nights, and he be utterly content.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old man saluted, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So it shall be done. Is it also your pleasure, Maharaja,
+that I set a guard at the gate of the park of the three Pleasure
+Houses?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is my pleasure. And now I will visit my son’s wife and
+hear her mind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he went to the place of the women in the great house.
+And his presence being told to Yashodara, she came before
+him, sweet as the star of evening bathed in rosy vapours, for a
+dress fell about her coloured as though dipped in the blood of
+red roses and bound with gold that, winding spirally upward
+round her lovely limbs and bosom, embraced them, drawing
+the eye to the slender curves, and she wore no jewels but only
+the great rings in her ears sparkling with fiery gems. And he
+drew her to his feet and she sat on a cushion beside him, looking
+upward with duty and affection, waiting for the favour of
+his speech. And at last, having observed the delicate sweetness
+of her face and her grace and majesty, he said, sighing:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble daughter, you have now been wedded to my son,
+Siddhartha, for six months. Is all well with you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, stooping to touch his feet, she replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great father, all is well. And I did not know that in all the
+world there was such joy as I share night and day with my dear
+lord. For beyond all beauty he is beautiful and beyond all
+goodness, good, and his gentleness of speech is not like that of
+a woman, but with strength behind it like Himalaya when he
+smiles in sunshine. And yet——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The words stopped like hovering birds on her sweet lips
+and her fine brows drew together as she meditated. And the
+Maharaja, drawing his hand from her head, leaned forward
+to look into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Daughter, have you a doubt—and what is it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She, lovely and submissive, made haste to answer:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great lord, all is pure joy, and yet——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, in great anger, so that she shrank down, veiling her
+face with her hands:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And yet! When I command my minister to surround my
+son with all joy wherewith to bind and hold him, he obeys, but
+ends always with ‘And yet—’ as though some mystery surrounded
+him! And you, that should triumph in pride and
+joy, say the like. My son is fair and free and noble and
+sharer in my riches and pride. What is this miserable ‘And
+yet—’ that mocks my hope? Speak out, woman, and tell me
+what is in your heart.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, kindling her courage at his sternness, the wife of Siddhartha
+looked at him with clear, unsullied eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Father, all I have said is truth, but there is also this. In
+the midst of rejoicings of song and when the women dance
+before him and the feast is spread and the great fruits, cooled
+with snow, and purple wines in cut crystal cups are set to his
+hand, then often I know that though his fair body is among us,
+his soul is escaped and fled away.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in her eyes two tears gathered and stood but did not
+fall.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, with anger:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Would it not be thought a woman should know her business!
+For what is beauty but to hold a man prisoner to the
+senses? And you are beautiful as the woman the high Gods
+made with flowers—how then do you fail? Does he not love
+you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, he loves me. But not me only. He loves something
+that I know not, and his thought flies away to it as a dove flies
+home.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True, true! It is true. What is this thing? For I, too,
+have felt it. When I have spoken of wealth and power and
+pride, I have known that as you, daughter, say, his soul is escaped
+and gone, I cannot tell where. But have no fear. Tell
+me only this—has never a word, never a sight of sorrow crept
+into the paradises I have made for him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not one. All is joy unceasing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And no sign of age, of sickness, of death? For, as I have
+told you, he must not know that these things are, and until
+he passed into your keeping, the secret was well guarded.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she replied gravely:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The secret is well guarded. He does not know. When he
+speaks, it is of an eternity of delight and of nothing else. And
+yet—if I may speak and live——”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Speak. Even in the words of women there is sometimes
+wisdom, and you are a pearl among women.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great lord, is it possible to strive against the high Gods?
+For they have appointed death and sickness and grief to be
+our lot, and it may be that the very joy of life is the greater
+because we know it is brief. Children suck sugar-cane until
+they sicken, and may not grown man and woman weary of
+sweet things, desiring to match their fortitude against grief?
+And he is great of soul.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then he would not look at her for anger, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Folly and double folly—woman’s madness! Have you
+not heard the saying of the wise, that if ever he hears tell of
+age and sickness and death, his doom is sealed? And mine
+with it—and mine with it! For I love my son.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the great tears overflowed her eyes and ran down like
+a stream at the thaw.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Forgiveness!” she cried. “Forgiveness! for I love my husband,
+and if this unknown sweetness capture and carry him
+from me, what good should my life do me? But now, most
+honoured father of my lord, I have a hope—a hope! Will a
+child’s hand hold him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And even as the words left her lips, he caught her two hands
+and gazed deep into her eyes and triumphed. And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Daughter, you are hope, and your words a cup in the desert!
+For, knowing what my son is to me, I know that those
+hands will hold him when yours and mine drop helpless. Go
+back to him and tell him, and to the great Gods do I give
+thanks because my prayers and sacrifices have not run to waste
+but are rewarded!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as she knelt before him, the tears rolled down his cheeks
+for gladness, nor could he hide them, as a warrior should.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, beautiful as a rainbow flowering against a black cloud,
+the Princess returned to the carved chamber of cedar with its
+lattices set wide to the perfumed air of summer. Beneath and
+around them the ivory chalices of the frangipani blossoms and
+starred clouds of jasmine offered warm incense to the sun and
+all was calm as ecstasy, as though the world, captured by the
+power of Yoga, were in ecstasy, dreaming with open eyes upon
+Perfection. The leaves of deep-foliaged trees floated on air in
+absolute stillness, swimming, silent, in liquid gold, and below
+the shades of the gardens gleamed Rohini, she also dancing no
+longer as in spring, but calm and silent as the meditation of a
+saint, pursuing her shining way in a deep quiet.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There, seated beneath a neem tree, in the green bower of
+its heart, the Princess beheld Siddhartha as he sat with his feet
+folded and his hands lying upon his knees. And as she
+watched, kneeling by the lattice, he stirred no more than a
+noble image of himself made in gold and there was that in his
+calm that struck her soul with fear. Then presently, gathering
+courage from knowledge of the gladness she bore within
+her, she rose, and folding the gold sari about her brows, she
+went with rose-leaf footsteps through the House of Joy, passing
+those palace rooms where the fair women talked and
+sang and made low music with their vinas and sitars, eating
+fruits cooled in blocks of ice from the mountains and laughing
+with each other as though joy could never cease nor death
+wreck youth and life, for it seemed that the secret of the house
+held them also and that they, like the Prince, believed that
+these things were immortal.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Yashodara, going through the garden ways, past groups
+of tall flowers bee-haunted, flickered about by rose-coloured
+and black butterflies, caught wafts of varying perfumes, like
+strains of music through the opening and closing of celestial
+doors, so sweet was the world that day. The jewelled peacock
+and his wife led forth their train of little ones to pace in
+deep grass and silver pheasants went daintily in the plumed
+shades of the bamboo and their young followed rejoicing in
+life and warmth and plenty, and birds hidden in high branches
+sang as if never they would cease, and above all floated the
+blue sky—a blue pure and strong as that of the infinite ocean,
+and life and love wandered hand in hand along the blossomed
+earth in sunlight like clear water. So though her secret winged
+her feet the Princess must needs pause here and there to share
+with all these living creatures the wine of joy poured from the
+sun’s brimming cup, and her soul gladdened within her in the
+youth of the world. And at last with steps light as the fall of
+a petal she approached the great neem tree and stood and
+looked into its shade.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now here was an extraordinary stillness as though an arresting
+finger were laid upon the pulse of life, but not wholly
+silencing it, for from a fern-fringed spring there fell at regular
+intervals a bright drop of water marking time into divisions
+lest it should wholly slip into Eternity and be lost. And the
+shade within was deep and green making a soft dusk at noon,
+and through the shade could be seen the great spires of silver
+mountains ecstatic in blue air and resembling the highest reach
+of the aspiration of man arrested on the verge of comprehension.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Very still in green shade sat the son of the Maharaja, his
+hands, palm upward, laid empty upon his knees, his eyes fixed
+on the everlasting hills, neither joy nor trouble upon calm
+brows, lost in meditation so deep that it walled him as in
+crystal from the fair shows around, and her coming was nothing
+to him for he neither saw nor heard it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then a wave of anguish rose in her bosom and swelled until
+it spilt in salt and bitter water from her eyes, and she could
+not restrain herself from that forbidden show of sorrow and
+putting aside the boughs she ran to him and fell at his knees
+and laid her head upon them, sobbing. And with a long sigh
+he awoke and looked down upon her, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is it, wife, and why do your eyes run like Rohini. Is
+it a new gladness beyond gladness? And why are you so
+glad?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Weeping and sobbing she hid her fair face upon his knees,
+clasping them passionately, her words stumbling from her lips
+in agony.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is not gladness, O heart of my heart. It is grief.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, from the inward Kingdom of Calm.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And what is grief, my lotus flower?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For in all his life he had neither heard the word nor seen the
+thing and she spoke an unknown language. And as she sobbed
+on, he lifted her face gently in his two hands and looked at
+her closed eyelids, the lashes wet and matted on her cheek
+with running tears, she pale as death, the rich colour dead in
+her lips, and on his beautiful face was amazement and no more,
+for how could he pity who had lived only in the presence of
+joy? And at last he said very slowly as if bewildered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My rose, my delight, what is this new thing, and what have
+you to tell me? Speak that I may rejoice also.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And his words stung some terror in her because he could not
+understand and it seemed that she must bear the burden of
+grief and the hidden secret of the world’s woe not only for him
+and herself, but for all the earth. For from any creature born
+human, though young and beautiful and a Prince, it may well
+seem a daring too great for mortals to deny grief and affront
+sorrow and to shut the door in their grey faces—knowing them
+waiting and watching outside. So the words broke from her
+sobbing lips:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This morning I woke, and in the august quiet of the dawn
+I knew that my hope of hopes was given to me and my joy
+brimmed and sparkled in the cup of jewelled gold from the
+Gods, and I would have turned then into my lord’s breast to
+tell of it, but that night you had not passed with me but in
+the chamber of deodar, so I lay and dreamed awake, lost in
+bliss until they brought me word that our father would speak
+with me, and I went.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But all this was good, my lily swaying on blue waters.
+And what was your hope?” he said with a hand coming and
+going softly in her hair, and the monotony and gentleness of
+his touch soothed her like the immeasurable falling of far-distant
+water—no louder than the humming of a bee. And
+drawing more quiet breath, she continued:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Our father asked me, lord of my soul, whether still you
+escaped away in soul from all the love and laughter about you.
+For when this is so, is it not that we fail to make you glad,
+and am not I, your wife, the worst sinner? O heart of my
+heart, what more is there that we have not done? Tell me,
+I beseech you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he answered, “Nothing,” looking above her head to the
+heights.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Passionately she caught his hands in hers.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then, O beloved, if we have done all and fail, <span class='it'>what</span> is it
+that draws you from me? What is your soul’s desire? When
+our father, believing a man might weary of my poor beauty,
+sought out new faces for the Painted Chambers, did I weep?
+I smiled, though—But no, I will not say it. If it was your
+pleasure, what should I be but glad? But still you were drawn
+from us, and it has been a terror that bit into my soul, when
+waking in a white moonlight, I have seen you sitting with alien
+eyes fixed upon the great march of the stars. And yet I have
+kept silence. But now, lord of my life I ask this—where is
+it your soul goes, and to whom?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Her hands, hot with the fever of the soul, pleaded for her,
+clasping his. Her dark eyes heavy with tears entreated mercy.
+He answered gravely:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I go to my own people.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And we are not your own people? Beloved, beloved—Your
+words are swords, who then are your own?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I cannot tell.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Her hope forgotten, the Princess knelt beside him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O noble one, is it life or death that draws you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I cannot tell. What is death? But life such as this is
+weariness inexpressible, and how men endure it I cannot know.
+Without change, break, or ripple the sunshiny days glide past,
+each bringing in its hands the same offering of love and peace
+monotonous as a dove’s cooing. My life is without hope, for,
+having all, what is there to hope for? And what I have is over-sweet.
+It cloys in the tasting like honey. And the Brahmans
+make their sacrifices and mutter their mantras of invocation
+and propitiation, and for what? For if we have all, what more
+is there to have, and why pray for what is unneeded? If this
+Paradise over-sweet can never crack asunder; if ages and ages
+hence we still shall sit here young and beautiful as to-day,—the
+Gods have emptied their hands and what have they left to
+give? And if we do amiss, how shall they punish us? And
+will not the day come when I may lift up my hand to the
+mountains and curse them, saying—‘Be at ease in your careless
+heavens, O unapproachable Gods,—but I am a man with
+a soul not to be captured and tamed in earth’s paddock. I
+demand my rights, though what they are I know not, for I
+move in a perfumed cloud that blinds me. But I shall know
+one day.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She looked up at him in fear that forbade speech.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hear the noise of hammers outside the gardens, the cry
+of the plougher, the song of the maids who come home with
+cattle from the outer meadows. And I say that these people
+have lives better than mine, and if I could change I would, for
+sweet must be their sleep and glad their leisure, but for me life
+is all idleness and sleep, and their eternity is better than my
+own. I will ask my father to let me too go out and labour in
+the glad world outside this prison, that buys its food with
+happy toil, that I too may know what it is to eat the bread I
+have earned in contentment.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Pale with fear Yashodara answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, lord of my life, how is it known to you that their life
+is all good? Is it possible to envy what you know not?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I know that with them life is eternal as with me and doubtless
+joy perpetual. But to this they add useful toil that gives
+us our luxuries. All these fair things about us are made by
+the hands of free men rejoicing in beauty. And I make nothing.
+I pass from one enjoyment to another, fettered—a
+winged bird in a jewelled cage. Are they not happier than I?
+And you, sweet wife,—what joy have you in comforting the
+long hours of a slave?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She kissed his hands with passion, her black hair falling
+silken about his feet.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is I that am the slave, my King—the happy slave of your
+beauty and nobleness, and what could I ask but to wait eternally
+upon your pleasure and that of your son.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He turned his eyes gravely upon her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My son?” he said. And she:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is true—it is true. And it is because I bear this hope
+in my bosom that it pierces me like a sword to see your calm
+averted eyes and know you far away in that strange heaven
+where I cannot follow. O, my lord, if it be true that you have
+alien kindred I cannot reach, let your son be of them. Give
+him all good!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then stooping, he drew her head to his breast and put his
+arm about her and drew her gently until she sat upon his left
+knee—that throne of the Indian wife, and thus they remained
+awhile in silence, and his touch was better than speech and his
+quiet healing as moonlight. Nor did she miss words of love or
+rejoicing for his calm folded her in the very wings of peace.
+At long last he spoke:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My Pearl of Perfectness, we two are one, and of our true
+oneness springs this new delight. To me the hope is sweeter
+than all harps touched in the hollow of Heaven, and if you
+were dear to me before, judge how dear now. But since we
+are so one, come nearer, share my thought as well as my heart.
+Does it content you that we should bring into our prison another
+prisoner and one so dear? Here the days slip by uncounted—a
+chain of fadeless flowers. Here the river links its
+long silver thought for ever and ever down the channel from
+the peaks. Here the bright birds flash by eternally. Will they
+people the garden to overflowing with their beauty or do they
+fly away to freer lands as I would if I could? When this garden
+is full of our children and theirs, what then? Am I the
+only prisoner or they also? <span class='it'>What</span> is the secret my father
+holds from me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But she, trembling, could answer nothing. And again there
+was silence and only the bright slow dropping of the little
+spring, and her heart forboded sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O day of joy made bitter with fear!” it said within her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again he fell into deep cold meditation, and forgot her
+utterly and his arm relaxed and slipping fell beside him, and
+she crept from his knee, and he did not know, staring with lost
+eyes toward the stainless heavens. And for awhile she stood
+and watched unnoticed, and then crept shuddering away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And beneath the shade of the neem Siddhartha sat motionless
+until the rays from the low sun struck high up the tree
+trunks, and sunset followed, a breath of rose on a rainbow sky,
+and presently the moon rose unclouded in luminous loveliness
+and floated to the zenith, and all boughs dropped dew, and
+the mountains were lost in stars.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Nor did any dare to break his dream.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER IV</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Time went by, each day sweet as new honey dripping
+golden from a golden comb, sweet, inexpressibly
+sweet, and the Princess, moving languidly, trembling with hope
+mingled with doubt and fear, would tell only her joys to the
+Maharaja Suddhodana and not her fears. For what help
+was there in him? He could not strengthen the guarding gates
+for they were strong and armed men watched by them, nor the
+walls, for they were high, and observed from watch-towers.
+And yet, day by day and night by night the spirit of Siddhartha
+had passed invisible between the swords and unsleeping eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But since the hope of the Princess was made known to him,
+he shut himself within the great gardens in spirit also. There
+should no cloud dim the eyes of the mother of his son—flowers
+must bud and blossom in her heart as about her slender feet,
+and no thought but peace and security creep into her Paradise.
+And little by little, as a wild deer glimpsing through the green
+flies in terror, yet may be slowly won with patience and tenderness
+till it will browse the rose-leaves in a girl’s hand, so
+was the fear of the Princess put to sleep, and a low song of
+joy and immeasurable thankfulness made music in her heart
+like the summer voice of Rohini after the melting of the snows—when
+the river is little and peaceful.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one day the Maharaja came to visit her in the cool
+chamber of roses looking toward the north and the eternal
+mountains and found her stringing jade and crystal and amber
+on a fine golden cord, while ladies sat about her plucking rose
+petals for paste of roses, and there was a sound of far music
+in the gardens and looking through the lattice he saw Siddhartha
+with his best and dearest cousin, the Prince Ananda, shooting
+with bow and arrow in a wide meadow by the river, and
+Devadatta and another of the Sakya lords stood by, and the
+young men laughed and shouted, and their voices came small
+and clear with distance, so that the heart of the King exulted
+and he triumphed as he seated himself on the golden and peacock
+cushions, dismissing the women.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We have conquered, lovely one!” he said, laughing kindly
+in his black beard. “What neither I nor all my sages could
+do your small wise hands have done, for in them the mother of
+his child holds my son’s heart. I knew—I foretold, it must be
+so, for he is loving and good and all the pieties of life hold
+him like bands of iron. You are content?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she smiling.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble father, I am content. I have no more ‘And yets’
+with which to wound your ear. My lord leaves me neither by
+night or day, except when I entreat him to try his strength with
+Ananda and Devadatta and the Sakya lords. And this is
+wisdom. We strained too tight upon the fetters and they ate
+into his soul. This freedom among the young lords is well.
+My noble father, I entreat you to give him what liberty
+you can, for it is good. Never now do I see him submerged
+in the cold dreams that stole him from us. Those strange
+voices call him no more, the hands have ceased to beckon.
+He is ours—yours and mine and the child’s, and of the child is
+all his talk and thought. He shall ride with sword and lance
+and be a King of Kings. So we say—one to the other.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She looked up with tears of pure joy trembling like shed
+diamonds on her long black lashes, and the Maharaja, grave
+with delight, replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So it shall be! What!—the kingdom of Maghada is ruled
+by a foolish man—the King Bimbisara,—why shall not my son
+oust him as we gather strength? Ha! are not we too of the
+Arya—the great fighting people, and may not one elephant
+subdue another! Daughter, I would have you breathe these
+things in my son’s ear, and thrill him with hope of great splendours
+for the child.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She answered eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Father, I have done—I do it. I say each day—‘Give him
+his inheritance, my lord. Let all good that you gain be his,
+for he is yours and ours,’ and always he replies: ‘Could I
+find the whole world’s Pearl it would be for my great father,
+for you and for the child. Be content, wife, for my heart is
+with my own people.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as she spoke his words the tears of gladness brimmed
+and fell on the crystals and jade and amber in her golden lap
+and the Raja clapped his hands together and shouted for joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ha, ha! we have won him! O auspicious daughter, dip your
+hands in my treasury and take at your will. What reward is
+enough for your beauty and wisdom? But now be cautious”—[There
+he became grave and weighty]—“guard your health
+and your person as the deposit of a King, and all shall be well.
+And the day is not far distant when we shall laugh at the sickly
+foretelling that said if he saw death, pain or old age he would
+flee into the jungle. What! Shall not my son have strength
+to face the common lot of man like a great King! But not
+yet—not yet! We will go warily.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the wise Princess saw that beneath his triumph he was
+not even yet wholly reassured. But she herself was content.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So when Siddhartha returned flushed and gay from riding
+and shooting by the parks of Rohini with the great bow in
+his hand and quiver at his shoulder, a glittering glorious young
+warrior, she clung about him shining with bliss so that it appeared
+that visible rays surrounded her as they do the Dawn
+Maiden when she, standing, flings her golden arrows about the
+world from the peaks of Himalaya. And with his arms about
+her in their chamber of marble he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And is my dove content? And is life good?” and she replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Most utterly content. If life is good to my lord it is delight
+to me. But you, O, heart’s dearest—and are you not
+content? See how the world is white with blossom dropping
+perfumed dew, and the blue birds flash through them, and there
+is piping and singing and the flutter of wings through all the
+happy gardens and the humming of black bees mad for honey.
+And this morning as I walked with Gautami the slender-waisted,
+close, close hidden in the jasmin flowers I found a
+small nest—small and heart-holding and in it four blue jewels
+of eggs warm from the mother’s breast—warm as love and
+home, and blue as the skies, and I looked and said—‘One, two,
+three, four. This is a prophecy. These are the three sons
+and the one daughter I shall bear to my lord. First—three
+sons, one by one, and then a daughter so lovely that all Kings
+of the earth shall desire her, and the three strong brothers shall
+guard her beauty—that is fit only for the enjoyment of the
+King of the Three Worlds! And we will hide this lovely one
+in the heart of the gardens until he comes. Now, since I have
+seen this portent, four there must be. Less there cannot.
+But possibly more!’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she leaned back, flashing the sunshine of her eyes in
+his, and he laughed back holding her by the two hands, half
+dazzled with her beauty and gladness.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is life,” he said—“and the cold dreams are gone.
+They rose like mists from Rohini in autumn mornings—and in
+the rising of the sun they disperse. And the coming of my son
+has driven them into the night where they belong.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore great gladness reigned in the House of Gardens
+and doubt was forgotten, and in his pride, willing to make his
+son more free and yet security more secure, the Maharaja
+made another and most beautiful garden across the city where
+Siddhartha might take his pleasure if he wearied of the Gardens
+of Rohini, and the Princess approved this with her wisdom,
+saying: “We must stretch the tether, lest the bird guess
+he is not free to fly into the distances.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this was a most exquisite garden, with great pools and
+lakes where white cranes stood meditating all day among blue
+lotus blossoms—the very essence of the blue of the waters, and
+it was made a Paradise where none might take life or harm the
+creatures of earth or air or water, and the wild swans floated
+as pure and fearless upon those lakes as upon the bosom of
+holy Manasa in the sky-uplifted bosom of the mountains, and
+the deer were not shy but walked beside men, and with great
+eyes, silent though full of speech, told them the hidden histories
+of their wild hearts.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And on a certain day Siddhartha sent a message to his
+father.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great father, if my Paradise is ready, give me permission
+to drive through the city to-morrow that I may enjoy it with
+my cousins Ananda and Devadatta and the Sakya lords.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the answer returned was “To-morrow,” and that night
+Siddhartha passed with his wife Yashodara in a pavilion of
+Chinese silks with blue and gold dragons by the banks where
+Rohini wandered among her reeds singing a little song of sleep,
+and as the orange sunset faded into grey a few large stars came
+out, and swam in immeasurable deeps above them. And she
+said, holding his hand:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How beautiful—how beautiful is the coming of the night
+with all the stars caught like bees in her net of blue,—and is
+it not strange, O lord of my life, to think that long ages after
+we and our love are forgotten other lovers shall sit by this little
+river and see the night glide down the mountains scattering
+stars about the world like seeds of light. Shall we see, shall
+we know, in those cold other lives they promise?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he in great astonishment:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Forgotten? In what age to come shall you not still be
+loveliest and gentlest, Queen of the whole earth for beauty?
+Then, as now, shall men come to happy Kapila because the city
+holds the most beautiful as the shell its pearl. How should we
+be forgotten?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And for a moment cold fear crept by her like the silent passing
+of a snake, compelling her to remember that the truth was
+shut from those dear eyes, light of her life,—and she brushed it
+from her and said laughing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True—who should forget us? I dream sometimes that of
+all names in the world my lord’s shall be greatest, uplifted,
+splendid, like that great star throbbing upon the topmost peak
+of all, and men shall bow down and do homage to it not only
+in the land of the Sakyas and in Maghada and Kosala, but in
+the wide great world among strange people who send us their
+treasures but whose very names we cannot utter.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And you have dreamed this, beloved? And how?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have dreams that beat in my ears and their sound goes
+over the mountains, north and south and east and west. And
+the sun is dimmed with fumes of incense offered to a great
+King. And I see golden palaces like the sands of all the rivers
+for number, with my lord sitting throned beneath them in gold—palaces
+innumerable, and flowers cast in heaps to exhale
+their perfume. And all this in my lord’s honour. This have
+I dreamed four times.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he said, slowly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is my dream also. Certainly the Gods come in dream.
+But who can say? See, beloved, how the night, mother of
+men, brings us her dark reposes lulling all things to sleep.
+There is no moon, but strange spirits as white as moonbeams
+moving among the trees. Sing low to me, beloved, sing low.
+I would not see their eyes—they look upon me with thoughts
+I cannot read. Sing to me—fill my eyes with the love in yours.
+Sing!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she took her sitar of ebony and ivory and sang softly
+as Rohini that made a silver music at their feet.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But there was a seal upon her lips that she might not sing
+of love though love was beside her, for the awe of the mountains
+was heavy on them and the listening of night. Therefore
+she sang these words, but no louder than a bee hovering
+about a flower.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“The wild swans rise from earth,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Strong in the path of the sun.</p>
+<p class='line0'>How should it give them mirth</p>
+<p class='line0'>With his great day begun?</p>
+<p class='line0'>Upward the white wings fly,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Clouds in the bluest blue,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Far they soar—and high!—</p>
+<p class='line0'>Would I might follow too.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again after awhile she sang a great hymn of the ancient
+Scripture but lower still:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Though difference be none, I am of Thee,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Not Thou, O Lord, of me.</p>
+<p class='line0'>For of the sea is verily the wave,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Not of the wave the sea.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was silence, and he turned and laid his cheek to
+hers and they sat together long, gazing speechless at the marvel
+of the starry deeps. Nor did they know that their last
+night of peace was with them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Meanwhile the commands of the Maharaja went out into
+every street and house of Kapila.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To-morrow the chariot of my son goes through the streets
+to the Paradise of Pleasure. See and beware that no aged man
+or woman be abroad in the city, for my son’s eyes must behold
+no aged, sick or dead person. It is forbidden by the Powers
+that rule his destiny. Therefore let none but healthy, glad
+and beautiful persons fall in his way, for if otherwise the transgressor
+must die.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was not a soul in the place but heard this command
+and touching their foreheads murmured, “It is an order.”
+And men, women and children ran busily here and
+there garlanding the happy streets, and they set up poles
+gilded and painted and with gay fluttering banners. And
+dwarfed trees after the Chinese manner were placed along the
+roads, and there were hanging canopies of blue and rose silk,
+and magnificent tapestries were hung from the windows, until
+the city shone beautiful as the Paradise of the Gods on the holy
+mountain Sumeru, and bands of children running like the lesser
+angels strewed flowers through all the ways where Siddhartha
+should pass.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then steadily as the running of a river the people poured in
+from the country-side to see their young Prince, and the ways
+were gay with happy folk dressed in their best and garlanded
+with garlands of marigolds and little rosebuds scented with fragrant
+oils to increase their own fragrance. The towers were
+filled with men and women clustering like bees. The mounds
+by the trees, the windows and terraces—were thronged with
+eager persons,—the men looking sharply about them to see that
+nothing was left which might offend the eyes of the heir. And
+there was nothing, for in bright sunshine, tempered by a cool
+breath from the mountains none but happy and beautiful people
+with their children rejoiced and were glad.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now see the glorious chariot of ivory inlaid with gold made
+ready by the gate of the Garden House, fronted with jewels
+glittering in the bright challenging sunbeams, spread with noble
+silks flowered with gold, and drawn by four equal-pacing
+stately horses, white as the ivory they drew, and harnessed
+with splendour,—their pride subdued to the pride of their master.
+And beside them stood Channa, the charioteer, a young
+man well born and noble in mind and person.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So having saluted his wife, the Princess Yashodara, the
+Prince Siddhartha advancing ascended the chariot, robed in
+gold and jewels and appearing like Surya the sun when he
+blazes at his zenith, and all veiled their eyes from his brilliance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he came through the streets, his horses pacing gently,
+the people swayed toward him and a whisper of awe and delight
+ran through them like the breathing of a breeze that
+blows the blossoms in passing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Looking upon them his heart exulted with joy and kindness,
+for he thought—“This is my city of delight. These are my
+people, and it shall eternally be my bliss to do them good.
+Look at the strong fathers holding up their little sweet children
+to see their Prince. Their hearts are full of love even as
+my own. Look at the lovely mothers with their babes in
+warm bosoms—only less fair than Yashodara, and full of love
+and gentleness. And the glorious young men straight and tall,
+and the antelope-eyed girls with silken hair braided with blossoms.
+The Gods know it is a happy world with all these noble
+creatures in it, and my sick dreams of I know not what are
+dispersed in this bliss and the great joy of my people.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he saluted with his hands, smiling right and left that
+none might be forgotten, and sometimes from the chariot he
+took an armful of flowers and tossed them lightly among the
+crowd and they were gathered up with delight and pressed
+to eager lips and brows because they had touched the Prince’s
+hand. So he went through the city, marvelling why his father
+had forbidden it hitherto. And as he flung his last handful
+of flowers the appointed moment struck—predestined by the
+Rulers,—and across the way of the chariot staggered an old,
+old man, and the stately stallions arched white necks and tossed
+their heads in disdain at this revolting sight, for they too had
+beheld nothing but loveliness until that moment.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And because the commands of the Maharaja were stern it
+is said that this figure was no mortal man but a divinity hidden
+in flesh whom none could let or hinder and that the myriad
+people of Kapila saw nothing of this—but two saw clearly—the
+Prince and the charioteer, Channa. And how this may
+be I cannot tell. Thus have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the aged man with tattered white hair depending from
+his bleached and bony head like lichen from a stricken tree,
+supporting his painful steps on a stick, weak, imbecile, skinny
+jaw fallen disclosing toothless gums, eyes red and bleared, without
+lashes, and moisture oozing from them, drawing oppressed
+and painful breath and terror-stricken amidst the crowds,
+tottered across the flowery way and sank, heaped and huddled
+beside the chariot, casting a look of terror upon the radiant
+Prince, and mumbling and muttering what none could hear,
+his head shaking like a leaf in wind. And it was as if darkness
+and terror obliterated the sun and all the crowded people
+bowed forward to see the stopping of the chariot, breathlessly
+remembering the Maharaja’s commands, but none stirred in
+his place and even the children were dumb. And yet they
+had seen nothing but the face of the Prince with a shadow
+fallen upon it. And the Prince laid his hand on the reins and
+the horses stopped with drooped crests, and shaken with horror
+he cried aloud to the charioteer:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Channa, what is it? What is this man? If indeed man
+it be.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old man crouched there, muttering, and great fear
+held Channa silent, and again the Prince cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is it? What is it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again the crowd sighed like the first stirring of winter
+answer from Channa’s lips where he stood, bowed over the
+golden reins grasped in his hand.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, this is an old man. This is old age.” And a long
+sighing sob commoved the crowded people as though their
+doom were pronounced, when they heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Prince, the words almost dying on his lips, said
+trembling.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is old age? Was this unhappy one born so, or has
+it fallen as a judgment from Heaven?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again the crowd sighed like the first stirring of winter
+winds and Channa, face hidden, replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, he was not so born, nor is it the Gods’ anger, but
+this is the common lot and to every man born on earth it comes
+nor can it be escaped. This ruin of a man was once a child at
+his mother’s breast, and then a boy filled with laughter and
+sportive gaiety, a joy to see and hear. Later, a youth, beautiful,
+amorous and brave, such as attended on bliss, and in
+enjoyment of the Five Pleasures. But old age, dogging the
+steps of men as a hound with fell teeth, has dragged him down
+at last and had its will of him, and he lives a life of pain
+and men avoid him and women pass him by.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And some women in the crowd wept aloud, and the air was
+heavy with sighing and the old man moaned and muttered
+with toothless jaws.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Prince, still unbelieving and trembling said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And will this doom come upon my great father?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble sir, yes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And upon the beauty of—my ladies?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And upon me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was a fearful silence like death among the crowd
+and no word from Channa so that had a breath stirred in the
+palms it would have affrighted the soul.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then suddenly the Prince cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Turn back the chariot. What heart have I for pleasures!
+Tear down the garlands. Where is there room for joy! I
+have seen what I have seen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, wordless, Channa turned the white horses, and guided
+the chariot along the way it came and the people fell back to
+make way, and men and women hid their faces like mourners
+for it seemed as though in the knowledge of the Prince knowledge
+had come to them also of the terror of life and the doom
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER V</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>N</span><span class='sc'>ow</span> when Siddhartha returned to the Garden House,
+one ran before him and told the women what had
+occurred and the ladies bore the news to the Princess
+where she waited, and when she heard it she said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O ill-foreboding heart of mine! Did I not know that the
+anger of the Gods must burn against those who would conceal
+their righteous doom from any man born upon this cruel
+earth? For who can fight with fate? If this drives my lord
+to despair, what shall be done?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So she sent messages to the Maharaja telling him the danger
+and went forth into the Painted Hall to seek the Prince, and
+he sat there alone, surrounded by lovely images painted upon
+the walls, where joy and triumph and love clasped hands,
+and dancing limbs shone amongst flowers and all the world
+was white with spring.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now something in his eyes held his wife from him and she
+had no courage to draw near, and went and sat herself humbly
+on the ground before him but at a distance, and at last he
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This was the secret. You knew it and did not tell me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in the hall was no sound.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You saw me fed with lies such as these—” (and he flung
+out his arm against the pictures) “and you did not tell me
+they were the mask of horror.” She bowed her head upon her
+hands speechless.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And I, most pitiable, most ignorant, rejoiced that a son
+should be given to me, not knowing that such a one is born to
+a heritage of wretchedness and the inevitable approach of
+shame and ruin. And from this is no escape, for the Gods
+have appointed no end to our misery, no door from the prison,
+but we must live eternally and horribly, old and disgraced in
+body and mind. Could a man but end it and fall into the
+dark and be forgotten! O had I known, no child of mine
+should ever have felt the whip and dragged the chain. I will
+not blame you who are but a woman,—but my father—my
+father.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in the hall was no sound at all. And the Princess, hiding
+her face, thought, “Shall I tell him of the end—of Death?”
+But she dared not.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he called aloud for the women and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Deface these pictures for they are lies, and the sight of
+them turns the knife in the wound. Blot them out with
+blackness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So it was done, but the Maharaja in terror bade them redouble
+the pleasures of the Paradise and of the Garden House.
+And at great cost he bought a fair slave from the outlands,
+golden-haired as dawn, sapphire-eyed as blue ice of the
+Himalaya, white as the elephants’ tusk, skilled in all arts of
+love, and among the darker beauties of the pleasure chambers
+she moved radiant as though day had broken forth in starry
+midnight, and all the neighbouring Kings hearing were envious.
+And in this beauty all hoped, even the sad Yashodara, and her
+heart failed her when she saw the Prince’s eyes coldly averted
+from loveliness that might have stirred the eternal Gods.
+And again she sent a message to the Maharaja.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your son, my lord, will not look upon the beautiful white
+stranger nor on any. O send him forth in freedom, for penned
+in these sweet gardens he muses and meditates and what is in
+his heart I cannot know, but fear very terribly. Yet guard
+the way that no sad sight approach him, for if he sees more
+all is lost.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again orders were given, and as before the Prince set
+forth, but this time grave and sad, and the crowds shared
+his mood and the city could not rejoice.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as they neared the street all a-flutter with banners and
+flowers and perfumes and thronged with silent gazing thousands
+again a divinity masked his divinity in tortured flesh
+(thus it is told), and by the way was seen a sick man struggling
+for life in a losing battle.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>His body was swollen and disfigured, his hollow cheeks
+blazed with fever and in his dying eyes fear and agony contended.
+Scarce could he drag himself along, moaning and crying
+for pity, the hot tears pouring and searing his cheeks as
+they ran. And seeing it, the Prince set his hands on the
+reins and checked the horses and cried aloud.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is this horror?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the charioteer, Channa, with fear tearing at his vitals,
+yet compelled by a force beyond all resistance to no other than
+the truth, answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, it is a sick man. The four elements are all confused
+and disordered, he is worn, feeble, and strengthless, tortured
+in body and mind, dependent upon the mercy of men
+whose own evil day is but postponed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a shudder ran through the crowd as the Prince questioned
+him, shrinking back as one in mortal fear.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And this too is the common doom?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, none escape it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And the few poor years that old age leaves us are broken
+into misery like this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, so it is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Turn my chariot again, I will go no further. I have seen
+what I have seen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the news was carried to the Maharaja and he was almost
+beside himself, raging with anger that was half fear, and he
+sent for his wise minister, and cried to him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What shall we do? For my son is learning the guarded
+secrets, and if I keep him shut in the gardens he will rebel
+and break away, and if I send him through the city such
+devils are my servants that horrible sights afflict him and disperse
+my hopes in him. Here have I built a Paradise so
+heavenly that could he but see it I need fear no more, for the
+man is not born who could leave its deep and delicious shades
+for the dusty world. And there have I placed a golden maiden
+whose smile is sunshine and her lips singing roses, and were
+he to see her—But what do I say? Is it not possible to
+a great person like myself that for a few short hours the
+city ways should be guarded from horror while he passes
+through? I am fallen indeed, otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the old wise minister shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great Sir, one should say it is possible, yet when I remember
+how the city was searched and guarded this twice, what
+dare I say? O Maharaj—may it not be that the high Gods
+being resolved may not be thwarted, and that we fight against
+iron destiny? Great fear possesses me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But his Master replied angrily.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Foolish old man! And was I not given the choice? If
+I could withhold the truth he would be a great world-King. If
+he guessed it he would be an ascetic of the jungles. What
+father would choose other than I have done? Once more I
+will send him to my Paradise, and if this time I am tricked
+let your head answer it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again the Prince was sent out but this time also though
+the city was decorated and garlanded, there was no semblance
+of joy, and the very horses went with drooped heads as
+though fear were the charioteer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as they reached the street, where most the people
+crowded, the Divinity was again ready with his work, having
+prepared a sight terrible and woeful. For slowly preceding
+the chariot there went a funeral train, with four men bearing
+a bier and lying on it a body cold and stiff, with dropped jaw
+and dreadful dead eyes staring blindly at the sun. Withered
+flowers lay on the bier and the mourners beat their breasts
+and wept aloud, filling the air with wailing and lamentation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince closing his eyes to shut out the horror, and
+clenching his palms said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Channa not daring to look in his face, answered very
+low: bowed under the weight of words he was compelled to
+utter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is a dead man, all his powers of body destroyed, life
+departed, his heart without thought, his intellect dispersed.
+His spirit is fled, his body withered, stretched out like a dead
+log, taken from all who loved him. And mourning they carry
+him forth to burn and obliterate him, for they—even they—will
+have no more of his presence now become loathsome, but
+cast him from them utterly. And this is Death.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And into his clenched hands he murmured:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is this also the common lot?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the charioteer replied, with hidden face:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, so it is. He who begins his life must end it. And
+thus. For death may at any moment seize us and carry us
+away into darkness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then Siddhartha sank down in the chariot, his soul warring
+with his body, catching at the leaning-board for support, hiding
+his face from the light of day as the dead man was borne
+on before him and wailing and lamentation filled the air.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And into his clenched hands he murmured:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O terrible delusion of mortal men, who born in pain and
+utterly deluded are brought through grief and sickness and old
+age to this frightful end! Disperse the people. Turn back
+my chariot. The whole world is a lie. I have seen what
+I have seen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the people melted silently away in tears, as clouds disperse
+in rain. For seeing the Prince’s horror and amazement
+in learning the truth, for the first time they also sounded the
+deeps of their own misery, and life appeared to them a traitor,
+and in all the universe was no comfort.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Channa the charioteer, not daring to return because of
+the Maharaja’s strict command, drove onward to the Paradise,
+and the Prince crouching in the silks and gold with face hidden
+neither knew nor cared.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So at last they came in among the green lawns and pleasant
+waters and deep-leaved trees, the last hope of the Maharaja,
+and slowly and painfully he dismounted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Suddenly about the chariot, running and fluttering like
+doves came the lovely ones provided for pleasure, beautiful
+as flowers in a Paradise of Gods, adorned with chains of pearls
+and other jewels.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Beautiful were they, each one chosen as merchants choose
+a pearl to complete a queen’s necklace, for their eyes were
+long and languishing, half hidden in black lashes as stars in
+midnight, and their mouths pomegranate buds disclosing seeds
+of ivory, and down to the ankle rolled their lengths of perfumed
+hair.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Most beautiful is the bosom of a woman, for in its gentle
+curves are all love, all tenderness expressed, and these displayed
+its loveliness—dear as rare jasmin flowers, precious as sweet
+food to the hungry, unveiled or veiled a little in transparency
+like the running of shallow water.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus they surrounded him as he passed through the
+blossomed trees rapt in sorrowful meditation, pale with the
+terror of gazing for the first time on the face of Death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they fluttered about him, the lovely ones, skilled in all
+subtleties of love, shedding enticements as the moon distils
+dews of camphor. One, seeing him sad, saddened her sweet
+face and looked at him with tears hanging on long lashes, as
+though she would say—“Dear Prince, I too have tasted grief.
+Do I not know?” And one, smiles chasing one another to
+cover in her merry eyes, promised forgetfulness, gladness in
+her arms, and some clinging together like sister roses on
+twined stems, seemed to defy severance even if love should call
+them, tempting him who watched them to essay that sweet
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But amidst them the Prince paced lost in grief, not seeing
+them, or, seeing, heeding not at all. And presently when they
+had tried all their arts and could draw his regards no more
+than remote stars can draw the gaze of a cold moon, they fell
+silent and gathered fearfully into groups,—drawing back.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now there stood in the shade of the bamboos a man much
+about the person of the Maharaja, sent to see if all were well,
+and when the Prince passed on, careless, this nobleman, Udayi,
+came out and addressed the silent beauties.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You women, all so graceful and fair, are you thus worsted?
+Surely in all ages men have been subject to women when they
+put forth their power. Too soon are you discouraged—too
+soon. For this Prince, though he restrains his heart with the
+bit and bridle of purity, is but a man, and the wisest and
+greatest in time past have slipped where they thought themselves
+secure. And there is no fetter strong as white arms
+about a man’s neck. Strive after new devices. Redouble
+your efforts. Great is the prize.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the maidens, ashamed and angry at his chiding, fluttered
+again about the Prince where he sat in the shade of a jambu
+tree, putting forth amorous enticements, forgetful of all
+modesty and womanly reserve, pressing on, striving to move
+him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he in his great heart, sorrowful, apart, looked upon them,
+sighing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O creatures most miserable, unheeding the dooms of age
+and death, forgetful of the briefness of beauty, unconscious
+that above your throats is suspended the sharp two-edged
+sword, how wretched is your empty playing in the very jaws
+of destruction!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And though he spoke nothing, they saw the homeless horror
+in his eyes, and again they shrank away afraid.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So seeing the Prince alone, Udayi, smooth of speech, came
+softly along the pleasure-paths of the Paradise, brushing aside
+the flowers, observant and quiet as a serpent, and saluting the
+Prince he drew up beside him and spoke this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince in whom all beauty and nobility meet, you sit
+here sad and alone, and it is therefore that your great father,
+consumed by care for your welfare appointed me to act as
+beseems a friend. Permit me then to speak, for a wise friend
+removes what is unprofitable, promotes real gain, and in
+adversity is true.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Siddhartha lifting his eyes said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Speak, if indeed in this great strait there be anything to
+say.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So supporting his arm on a bough of the fire-flame tree
+Udayi spoke, inclining his delicate dark face and subtle eyes
+toward the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True it is that sickness may assail us and that old age
+and death will by no means be baulked of their prey, yet youth
+is youth and beauty divine, and the man who turns his back
+on pleasure because it passes is a coward. Indeed the rose
+is the sweeter because even in blooming it treads the way of
+death and soon we see it no more. Truly, my Prince, you
+are afflicted with a distempered mind. Acquiescence is the
+secret of life. We who are wise know that these things must
+be, and even old age and death, the conquerors, we take to
+enhance our pleasures, saying to ourselves, ‘The moment is
+mine, and love is sweet and lust the spur of life. This moment
+neither death nor old age can take from me. I will spend it
+as a man would spend his all if he knew that next day he would
+be plundered, and a beggar.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Siddhartha was silent, with brooding eyes fixed on the
+ground, and presently Udayi resumed, in a delicately modulated
+voice:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“While you believed that joy and beauty were eternal, and
+that ages hence these women would still surround you, beautiful
+and yielding, then you might well shrink from a delight
+too prolonged, for dropped honey cloys. An eternity of love
+may well become hell. Was it not so, my Prince.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And slowly the Prince answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was so. I have looked on the racing river, swollen with
+melting snows, thinking that, were any end possible, to be
+hurled beaten and broken down the rocks in its mad hurry
+were better than the changeless Paradise of love and soft words
+and swooning music. There you are right, Udayi the smooth-tongued.
+This is true.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And highly satisfied, Udayi resumed:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And now, having learnt that there <span class='it'>is</span> an end, what should
+be your course? The pleasures of a prisoner released, who
+enjoys knowing that he has a respite though the doors will
+shut upon him one day. Surely it is not the part of a brave
+man to fling away what he has because he cannot have all,
+nor to own himself conquered because one day he must face
+the enemy whom as yet he has not seen. No—not so. Take
+what the Gods send—the Gods who have themselves been
+amenable to beauty and docile in the arms of loveliness.
+Indeed what choice is there but to slink through life starting
+at every shadow, or to dice and drink and love, like a man
+tasting the best while it lasts. For what comes after we cannot
+tell. Who knows?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This has the sound of wisdom, yet wisdom it is not. There
+is an answer—there is a way, but I have not found it. It may
+be that it cannot be found—that there is no such thing. Yet,
+better the search than dully to agree with necessity. And as
+for these women—To me they are no enticement, and if I
+would I cannot. Under their fair faces I see the skull and
+they mop and mow like apes in the face of Horror. If the
+Gods have thus made the world it is a folly and a brutality
+and they are more foolish than men who must abide their
+cruelties, and if they have not made it and all is chance we
+sink in the slough lit only by the flicker of dying dreams.
+Leave me, Udayi the smooth-tongued. I would be alone.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the courtier crept silently away under green shades,
+treading lightly on turf and blossoms, thanking destiny that he
+was not as Siddhartha but could lift the brimming cup and
+drain it to the dregs, savouring every sparkle. And in his
+heart he mocked him, laughing at his weakness—he whose
+name is now remembered only because one day he spread out
+his folly before the Perfect One!</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Prince, bending his great brows upon life and
+death, sat beneath the jambu tree, feet folded, hands laid
+upon his knees in perfect immobility. And he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hollow compliance and a protesting heart! Is this life?
+Is there a better? Great are the concerns of life and death.
+So great, so awful that the poor race of mankind struggles
+only to forget for a brief moment what it can never comprehend.
+For all about us are seen injustices that were a King
+to commit his miserable people would rise and hurl him from
+his bloody throne. And we are told of the priests that the
+Gods have committed these crimes and yet are worthy of
+worship and honour. No—rather is it the propitiation of
+fiends who will torture us if they have not the servility of our
+praises while we die for their pleasure. And the good suffer
+and the evil flourish, and to the rich man is given more riches
+and to the poor more toil even exceeding their strength. Now
+indeed all that was hidden from me bursts upon my mind as
+when a flash of lightning tears the dark, and things I put aside
+for want of comprehension shriek aloud in my ears. Why
+am I clothed in jewels, why is my father generous and good,
+and my wife the fairest and most loving of women, when at this
+moment were my eyes opened they would behold men dying
+for bread that the least of my jewels would buy, with none to
+tend or pity them. And what are my deserts more than
+theirs? And why are some evil and some good as it were by
+nature? O cruel Gods who, lapt in far-off pleasures, care
+nothing for our agonies, and let fall your good things on the
+wicked and evil things on the good—yourselves perhaps the
+sport of chance, if indeed you are at all!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And these thoughts and many like them, black and miserable,
+stormed about him in the wreckage of the world.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at long last he aroused himself and the Paradise was
+empty of all but a broad moonlight that lay in glories of light
+and shadow on trees and waters and there was deep silence.
+For the women, ashamed and terrified, had slipt noiselessly
+away and so back to the city, and far off down a long glade his
+chariot and wearied horses stood waiting in marble patience,
+and Channa sat beside them his head bowed upon his raised
+knees like an embodied grief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Very slowly the horses paced through the city, and that
+also was empty of all but moonlight, for not a living soul
+went or came in the quiet, and the pacing of the horses echoed
+loudly down the empty ways.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And not a word was spoken as they went, but when they
+reached the House of the Garden, a woman ran out to meet
+them veiled like a ghost in the moonlight, and cried aloud.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O happy Prince, and happiest,—the Gods are good to this
+glad House and to you, for on the bosom of the Princess lies
+your first-born son.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at these words a strange trembling seized him, so that
+for a moment he hid his face in his hands. Then pale in the
+moonlight he said these words:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A fetter, a fetter is set upon me, therefore call the child
+Rahula, a Fetter.”</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER VI</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>N</span><span class='sc'>ow</span> at the birth of her son, so great was the joy
+of the Princess that life and death were little things
+in her eyes, black rocks submerged in bright water
+glittering with sunshine, and every day she blossomed more
+beautiful and the child in her arms was like the star shining
+within the moon’s crescent. And seeing this what could the
+nobility of Siddhartha do otherwise than hide his grief and
+deep searchings of a heart tossed like waves in a mighty wind.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Beautiful in his eyes was the tenderness of the lovely mother
+and her eyes dwelling upon him and the child, but terrible
+also remembering that at any moment the bright picture of
+life might break asunder and disclose beneath the lurking
+horror of death and the dark and unknown hereafter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For if the Gods with their utmost forethought had made the
+world so full of shameful things, what wise man could trust
+such unskilful workmen for the world to come, and no hope
+was left anywhere.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He sat much alone by Rohini, his gaze dwelling on the silver
+peaks far off and serene in blue air, and at his feet little fish
+darted in the transparency of the pure waters, and the pheasant
+would lead her brood to his unmoving feet, and the shimmering
+peacocks feed beside him. And when the wild white swans
+spread snowy vans above his head, taking wing for the mountains
+and for far lands beyond that he knew not, it seemed
+in his deep musings that all these happy creatures were subject
+to a law they knew and obeyed with content and that their
+life was better than his own.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But compassion grew daily in his heart now that his eyes
+were opened—Compassion for all the sorrows that surrounded
+him bleeding in his heart like a wound such as drains life
+itself away. He saw the little lovely dancer Amra drag wearied
+feet through the dance one night and called her to him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Child, what ails you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great my lord, I must not tell you. But I dance no more.
+To-morrow I go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Child, I command you to speak. What is it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She looked about her with eyes large and fearful as the deer’s
+when she sees the hunter’s knife glitter above her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great my lord, it is an order. I dare not speak.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My order stands higher. Speak.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She trembled as she stood, with fear and weakness.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My lord, it is the sickness. Two years ago my sister
+Vijaya was a dancer. Yourself has commended her. But
+the cruel cough came and tore her breast, and at last she could
+scarcely lift her little feet, and then they sent her secretly
+away, and she spat blood and the cough devoured her, and
+she died. And now it has taken me also and the blood came
+from my mouth last night, and to-morrow I go. But O I beseech
+your greatness to hide my words, for it is forbidden that
+any grief should soil the air about your noble presence.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But when you rest the cough will decline and you will be
+glad again, my sister.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great Prince, I shall die. For this there is no cure.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There was a long silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And do you fear this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My lord, I fear very terribly—but there is no help. What
+must be, must. And I am now too weary to dance, and it is
+better I die for I am a burden and a distress to my mother now
+I am worth no more money, and she is poor. There is scarce
+bread to eat.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the blood poured into the pale face of Siddhartha for
+shame and horror, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“On such foundations was my happiness built, and others
+have bled and wept that I might laugh! O, evil Gods, shameful
+and disastrous to man, if this is all! How shall the heart
+of man forgive your crimes against us, and where is justice
+in all the wide Three Worlds?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he spoke he lifted the chain of pearls from his shoulders
+and threw them upon the dancer’s and she, beholding his
+nobleness and grief with tears, went sobbing away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The next day he sent a message to the Maharaja.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great father, since now I know all the secrets and there
+is nothing hidden from me of the world’s woe, what hinders
+that I should go free to see it? It may be that some joy shall
+meet my eyes and relieve the burning of the flame of pity
+that consumes me. Also, since I have a son it is now surely
+well that I should see and know the lives of the people whom
+he and I one day shall rule. And I say this for truth, I am
+weary, weary even to death of the music and dancing and the
+miserable diversions of my prison, and if there be any hope
+for me it is in the things of men, for I have done with those
+of women and children. Set your prisoner free. It is your
+son who beseeches.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the Maharaja agreed, the Prince sent another
+message.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And let the city be neither decorated nor feasting. I desire
+to see the life of the people as they live it, not as they would
+pretend it is lived to please us great ones.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this too was conceded, but the Maharaja commanded
+that the chief minister and a guard of the Sakya lords should
+accompany the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore once more the chariot and well-paced horses were
+prepared, adorned with precious stones and gold glittering like
+splendid sunshine, and he passed through the city and out by
+the further gate into a new world hitherto unknown.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he went on the road was smooth and white, and
+gardens gay on either side and trees loaded, some with flowers
+and some with fruit, and seeing this and knowing it unprepared
+for his eyes, his heart stirred under the snow of grief
+and thawed a little from its ice, for it seemed that the people
+who lived therein must know some happiness and freedom
+from misery. But as he went further the heat of the day
+strengthened and became like a weight of lead, oppressive
+even beneath the silken canopy of the chariot and the sweat
+stood on his brow and his garments clung to the moisture
+of his skin and weariness weighed upon him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But for all this the toil about him could not cease, for men
+must eat, and work be completed and the fields of the
+Maharaja ploughed, and he saw how the labourers struggled
+with painful exertion, their bodies bent, their wet hair falling
+about haggard faces, their bodies fouled with mud and dust.
+And some were old and some were weak, and yet all must
+greatly toil and very pitiful was it to see their strained muscles
+and starting eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The ploughing oxen also—they, toiling so pitifully and with
+no reward,—their lolling tongues and gaping jaws, the whip
+and goad indenting smooth flanks until bright blood drops
+started and they trembled and shrank—all these things tortured
+the mind of Siddhartha as he sat silently observant.
+And he said within himself:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The world is built on pain and its foundations laid in agony.
+O Gods, most cruel and unjust, if there be a way, where is it?
+If there be a Law of Peace, where shall I find it? For I am
+bound in the dungeons of despair.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, nobly moved to sympathy, he dismounted from the
+chariot, forcing himself to look steadfastly upon the sufferings
+of man and beast, and he sat down beneath a jambu tree,
+reflecting on the ways of death and birth. And he desired
+his companions, the Sakya lords, to leave him and wander
+where they would, and they went away laughing with each
+other and talking, costly umbrellas borne over them in the
+heat until they should reach the shade of the forest and there
+rest beside their wines and fruits. And then, as was now his
+wont, he gave himself to deep meditation on life and death, on
+transiency, and the progress of all to decay, desiring with all
+his soul that somewhere, anywhere, he might behold the
+changeless, the Abiding and in that find rest. And he asked of
+his soul:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is there safety in riches? Are the rich exempt and high
+in the Gods’ favour. No—no, indeed,—for their very luxuries
+consume them body and soul, making their bodies the
+home of disease and death, and their souls the harbourage of
+cowardice and terror. For it is harder to leave a Palace of
+gold than a mud hovel, and these are the spoilt children of the
+universe. There is no refuge in riches. In all the Three
+Worlds I see no refuge at all from the three Enemies—death,
+old age, and disease.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he meditated, his heart thus fixed, the five senses,
+as it were, extinguished, lost in the clear light of insight he
+entered on the first stage of pure rapture. All low desires
+submerged and in an ecstasy that was not joy but perfect
+clarity he saw the misery and sorrow of the world, sounding
+its deeps of agony and loss, the ruin wrought by age, disease,
+and death,—the hopeless dark beyond.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Hitherto he had known only in part, but now the whole, even
+as an eagle suspended on unmoving pinions, floating in supernal
+sunshine looks down beholding the earth spread like a
+picture below him, and nothing hidden.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And suddenly a great light shone within him—not to be
+described in words nor in thought comprehended. And he
+said these words, radiant with the first dawning beams of
+illumination:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have heard the wisdom of men and it is the crackling
+of dry wood in a destroying fire. Now will I seek a Noble
+Law they have not known, a Law hidden and divine, and I will
+wrestle with disease and age and death and bind their terrors.
+For behind these things is Peace, if the way is opened. And
+I will seek until I die.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And slowly at length, passing downward from ecstasy his
+thoughts collecting centred again about things earthly, and
+he became aware that a man approached him, carrying a bowl
+in his hand, wearing a coarse robe of yellow, pacing slowly
+in the roadway. And their eyes met.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it appeared to the Prince that he had never before seen
+a man who resembled this strange mendicant, and he rose to
+greet him with courtesy, saying in his heart:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Who is this person? For his face is calm and joyful, and
+his eyes bespeak a soul at rest. Nor has he the mien of one
+tricked by sensual happiness, but austerity and contentment
+guide him, and though he treads on earth it does not hold
+him. And what is this bowl in his hand? I will accost him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this done, the stranger, with due salutation grave and
+sweet, replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great lord, I am a religious mendicant, who, shuddering
+at the victorious onslaught of age, disease and death, seeing
+that all things are transient and permanence nowhere to be
+found, have left the fetters of my home behind me that I may
+search for some happiness that is trustworthy, that decays
+not, that is imperishable, that looks with equal mind on friend
+and enemy, and is regardless of wealth and beauty. Such
+is the only happiness that will content me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Siddhartha in deep amazement on hearing thoughts
+thus resembling his own, enquired eagerly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And where, O wise man, do you seek it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great lord, I seek it in solitude, in the tranquillity of deep
+woods, free from molestation. There in the Quiet dwells enlightenment.
+And I carry this bowl that the charitable may
+deposit an alms of food within it, and this is all I ask of the
+world. And now, pardon haste, for my way lies onward to the
+mountains where the true light awaits me, and joy for its
+attendant.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he passed onward and was no more seen, and it is
+related that this ascetic was that divinity veiled in flesh who
+had made known to the Prince the Three Terrors,—but this
+I cannot tell.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Be he what he might, this man left behind him the first hope
+that had enlightened the midnight of grief. And the Prince
+said within his soul:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This too is a seeker, and this is the life I covet, for the
+pleasures of earth are but sea-waters enraging the thirst they
+seem to quench, and what now has life to offer but the search
+for truth? Were there no others in the world but my son, my
+father, my wife, then surely is it incumbent upon me to find
+some means for their deliverance, but since the whole wide
+earth weeps uncomforted, what a craven should I be, if I
+spared to help it even with my blood and tears for unguents to
+its wounds. The way most surely opens before me, and the
+cry of the conquering ages is in my ears.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And after a time the Sakya lords, weary of their enjoyments,
+gathered about him and the horses were harnessed, and all
+returned to the city. And the people, rejoicing to see their
+Prince, gathered to meet and greet him, and one fair lady,
+leaning from a window, rejoicing in his beauty cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Happy be the father, happy the mother, happy the wife of
+such a son and husband.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But this word “happy” means also “freed,” for are not
+freedom and happiness one? And taking her auspicious words
+for the cry of freedom he looked up smiling into her eyes, and
+said “Good is the teacher. Let this be her fee,” unclasped
+his necklace of pearls and sent it to the happy lady and passed
+on, forgetting, while she dreamed in vain of love.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And all dispersed to their abodes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the next day the Prince entered into his father’s presence,
+his face bright with resolution like the full moon, his
+step strong and steady as the gait of the King of Lions, noble
+and beautiful in strength.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And making due obeisance he asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is the Maharaj well and happy?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, my son, and rejoicing to see your face so bright and
+calm after long sorrow. Is the cloud past?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My father, it is past in part. A clear way lies before me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That too is well. Praise to the Wielder of the thunder and
+to all great Gods who hear our prayers.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then tenderly, but with a calm immovable, the Prince declared
+his heart’s desire.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O kind father, worthy of all obedience, hear my case. The
+grief that has moved me is not my grief alone. Were I to
+die, I can die silent, after the manner of our race. But a man,
+when he beholds other men old, diseased, dying, is hurt,
+ashamed, revolted that such things should be, and no way of
+conquering such evils. There is a way if it could but be
+found.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja replied with anger.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What way? This is child’s folly. These things have
+been from Eternity, and men have faced the common lot as
+best they could, taking their pleasure where they might.
+What would you have more than others? Life is good, if
+you will but see it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Siddhartha answered steadfastly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O my father, I desire your august permission to seek the
+solitude, and there, deeply meditating, to find true deliverance
+not only for myself but for you and all the world.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the Maharaja heard these words—“to seek the
+solitude” a great trembling of the heart seized him, and his
+strong voice choked in his throat. And at last, even as the
+mighty wild elephant shakes with his weight the boughs of
+a fair green sapling in the jungle, he caught the hands of the
+Prince and clung to them most pitifully, crying aloud.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Stop. Let not such ill-omened words be spoken. The
+time is not yet come—even if come it must. You are young
+and full of life and your heart beats to a glad measure. If
+you were to do this miserable thing you would bitterly repent
+it. You have not the strength, nor the knowledge. This
+is a resolution for old men, world-wearied. But you—beautiful
+as the day, full of youth, husband of a fair and dutiful
+wife, father of a young son, what talk is this? My son, I
+am ashamed for you. It is for me to undertake the ascetic’s
+life, for you to rule in Kapila. Let it be so, and I will
+go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Siddhartha holding his father’s hands tenderly replied
+thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My father, honoured and loved, you are the ruler and
+what have I to do with putting you from your seat? No—far
+be it from me! Rule in gladness and honour until the appointed
+day. But for myself—there is but one condition on
+which I can stay! If you will assure me against old age,
+disease, and death, I will remain—but not otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja, blind with grief, the white hairs showing
+on head and beard, said only:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Such words are impious. Am I a God that I can say to
+these three, ‘Thus far and no farther’? No—Betake yourself
+to pleasure and business like other men and forget.
+There is no other remedy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Siddhartha flung himself on his knees before his father
+and grasped his robe in the agony of his pleading.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Father, hinder me no more if you love me. If I were shut
+in a burning home would you bar the door? Let me solve my
+doubt for it consumes my very life. O let me go, let me go!
+For if not—what way is left? Men have slain themselves for
+a lesser hope than mine, that perhaps down the dark ways of
+death they might seek and find what they could not in this
+world of lies and counterfeits.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he appealed in vain for the ears of his father were
+sealed, and when after pleading even to anguish the Prince
+had left him grave and silent, he issued orders that the Garden
+House should be guarded more strictly than before—that fresh
+dancers, fresh music, should be ordered and new pleasures invented
+and that every road and way should be watched with
+ten-fold diligence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Siddhartha seeing the tears of his father with a compassion
+that pierced his own heart returned to the Garden
+House, and set himself in silence to consider, not knowing
+whence help would find him, but firm in his resolve.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And beneath the trees Yashodara awaited him, carrying his
+young son in her arms, and she knelt beside him, uncovering
+the face of the child, bright and beautiful as a budding rose in
+earliest summer. For she thought—“Let this speak for me,”
+and Siddhartha read the little face so like his own, in silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, stretching out his hand, he clasped the hand of his
+wife, and spoke thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well-beloved, if our child were in a house ruining about him,
+and I stood by to see him crushed and broken, what would be
+your thoughts of me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She smiled with pride and contentment.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why ask? That could not be. You would give your life
+for him and count it nothing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well-beloved, mother of my son, that word is true; you
+know it. And would you who love me hold me back if I
+rushed on death for his sake, counting my own life as nothing?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For my love’s sake I would bid you go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True again. So speak, so do the women of our race. But
+hear further. Suppose my son fallen into bitter poverty, and
+that I knew of a great treasure hidden in far-off forests and
+mountains, so far that great was the danger, great the severance,
+would you bid me stay or go?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Doubt clouded the beauty of her eyes, raised toward him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There, my heart’s lord, I know not. You are more to my
+son and me than any treasure. What are jewels, pearls or
+gold compared with the heaven of your presence? Better
+poverty together and the blue heaven above us and bright
+earth beneath, than loneliness and splendour.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Clasping her hand he answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But starving, his face gaunt with want, haunted by ghosts
+of grief and fear, would you send me or bid me stay? Think
+well, mother of my son. Would you weigh your grief against
+his good, and he too young to know?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I would say, Go—how otherwise? But, O beloved, these
+words are dreadful. Forget them. Look at the sunset strewing
+roses on the cold snows and the splendour of Surya driving
+his chariot down the western sky after the long day of glory.
+He is weary of pomp and colour. He longs for the cool refreshing
+dews and the dusk and quiet and the dark repose of
+midnight. Would that we could see him face to face, golden-eyed
+and inconceivably divine. The Gods are far and grief
+is near.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He loosed her hand gently.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Those words are true also, wise and beautiful.” And slowly
+he added:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Night comes and the Gods are far. Go in and sleep, beloved,—Yet
+do not forget the words we have spoken together,
+for grief comes to all and when it comes there is but one way—to
+agree nobly with necessity.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she took the dust from his feet, rapt on the beauty of
+his eyes and went, carrying the child with her.</p>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1 id='pt2'>PART II</h1></div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER VII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On that night of terror and wonder were strange
+influences astir in the darkness, influences moving
+steadily to war. For the battle was not between the armies of
+Kings nor was the prize a throne, but a combat strange, unearthly
+between the armies of the Appetites and Desires, and
+the warriors of the World of pure spirit and wisdom eternal,
+and there and thus was it fought.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was the night of No Moon and the stars hung larger and
+brighter, suspended but a little above the earth, and the dark
+was still and breathless, so that Siddhartha would have willingly
+sat all night by Rohini listening to the cool ripple of
+water as she made her way through the gardens to an end
+he knew not. But this could not be, for by the Maharaja’s
+new orders the women must dog his footsteps, never permitting
+him to wander, or remain unseen. And thus, though they were
+invisible, he knew that bright eyes watched in every brake,
+and feet light as a spirit’s trod noiselessly where he went.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore at last, sighing, he rose and passed into the Hall
+where the dancers stood ready to sway in their beautiful measure,
+and the singers and musicians were ranged in order, fair
+face outshining fair face until the most beautiful were nearest
+to the gold cushions of his seat. But the Princess Yashodara
+slept far off in the little marble chamber with her child clasped
+to her bosom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at last as the night went on a deep weariness oppressed
+him and lay like lead on his eyelids, and the subtly stealing
+dark and wearisome iteration of music and of rhythmic feet
+became like an opiate, and his head dropped on the raised
+pillows and he slept. So the dance slackened quietly and the
+dancers whispered one to another:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How pale is the Prince! How careworn! Was it wise in
+the Maharaj to hide from him what cannot be hidden? But
+we are dancers—this is not our business. Do not wake him
+lest there be anger. Mute the instruments very slowly and
+softly and let none jangle as we lay it aside. We must not
+leave him alone, lest suddenly he awake and demand more
+pleasure, therefore remain here but be very quiet and, if it
+be possible, sleep. O, it is good to rest. We too are weary
+of singing and dancing. It is a hard service. Sleep, sisters,
+sleep.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told that when midnight drew veils of darkness over
+earth and sky there came Influences noiseless—winged as the
+white moth that haunts the evenings of summer, and that as
+these came, thought died from the soul of Siddhartha and it
+became Perception,—and he saw and heard inwardly while
+the women about him lay drunk with heavy sleep.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now along the night crept a strange music, thin at first and
+faint as the far-off falling of rain, but drawing nearer, nearer,
+sweeter than all harps and lutes struck with earthly hands,
+and at first no words could be distinguished but only an unearthly
+sweetness, soul-dividing, purer than the crystal purity
+of ice on the highest summits of the mountains that speak
+face to face with heaven.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at last, the clear sounds glided into clear words, and the
+Prince heard the mystic music, whether within or without his
+soul who shall say? But it fell from on high like white flakes
+of snow falling cold and passionless and drowning desire.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Mighty One, O Mighty One.</p>
+<p class='line0'>There is a Way—a Way.</p>
+<p class='line0'>The wise of old have trodden it.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Rise now and go.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Finding the Light,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Share it with men.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Grant unto all</p>
+<p class='line0'>To drink in peace</p>
+<p class='line0'>The water of Righteousness.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Thou who in past lives</p>
+<p class='line0'>Didst agonize for men,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Nothing withholding,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Again go forth,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Conqueror of sorrow.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he listened in tranced silence once more the clear
+words shaped themselves from the heart of silence.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Light of the world,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Remember past lives.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Griefs without end,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Revilings and prisons,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Deaths many and cruel.</p>
+<p class='line0'>These hast Thou borne,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Loving and patiently,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Shedding forgiveness</p>
+<p class='line0'>On those who slew thee.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Go forth again,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Riding to Victory.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he heard and had understood this music, the
+Prince rose from sleep and looked about him in the faint light
+of the lamps, with thoughts new and awful stirring in his breast—thoughts
+beyond words, unutterable.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the women slept in disorder about him, heavily lolling
+as though drunk with wine, their faces wried and twisted,
+mouths awry, running over with saliva, limbs flung into coarse
+attitudes, sprawling, couchant like animals, with pendant lips
+and breasts, laughing foolishly at worthless dreams, hidden
+blemishes visible, abandoned to the disclosures of careless sleep,
+ungainly, revolting, as though the truth had suddenly touched
+them with clear ray disclosing them as they were.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince said slowly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is a graveyard, and these are the corpses.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And shrinking in his very soul, he rose, looking down upon
+them with horror, and drawing his feet and garments from the
+contact went forth treading quietly and ascended to the roof
+of the House of the Garden to look out into the night.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Dead silent was it as he turned to the eastern horizon, the
+air breathless as though the Universe waited in suspense to
+know what he would do.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he, standing alone in the night, joined the ten fingers
+of his hands, and rendered homage to all the Enlightened who
+had preceded him, exalting and uniting his purpose to theirs
+who had opened the way which the eternities shall not close.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And even as he joined his hands he perceived that the bright
+star Pushya which had shone upon his birth was rising in the
+sky, and he knew that his hour was upon him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then turning he descended, led by human anguish and longing
+to see once more his young child and its mother, for in
+the very deeps of his heart those lives were rooted, but, lest
+resolution should waver, he went first to the doorway where
+slept Channa the charioteer, wrapped in his white garment,
+and even as the Prince stooped above him, this man sprang to
+his feet, alert and faithful, saluting his Prince,—and in dim
+lamplight each looked into the eyes of the other.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Siddhartha said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O faithful! The blessing that is upon me has this night
+touched perfection. Bring out my noble white horse, for my
+life here is done and I depart.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Channa stood perfectly silent staring in his face as
+one bereft of purpose, and once more Siddhartha spoke.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What must be, must. I thirst and long for a draught
+of the Fountain of Sweet Dew. Delay no more. Saddle white
+Kantaka. It is an order.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Channa obeyed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the Prince entered the little marble chamber where on
+her golden bed lay the Princess, drowned in sweet sleep, clasping
+the child in her arms, unconscious of the grief approaching.
+And it appeared to Siddhartha that the cold air of his sorrow
+must rouse her, but it did not. She slept and smiled, rapt
+in a dream of content. And garlands of flowers hung about
+the chamber mingling their perfumes with the pure air of
+night breathed through marble lattices, and all this was home
+and his, and for the last time he looked upon it. And so
+great a desolation fell upon him that twice he stretched his
+empty arms to clasp the child in all its rosy warmth and dearness,
+and twice they fell because he feared to wake Yashodara
+from her last dream of joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he stood, enduring, looking upon them as a man who
+faces death and for a while he stayed, with thoughts that cannot
+be told, nor should that veil be lifted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when the end was come and he could endure no more,
+he stooped above them until his breath mingled with theirs,
+and turned away leaving them sleeping.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, passing through the quiet house, he came to the doorway
+where stood white Kantaka, and Channa held him pale
+as death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now this horse was of all most noble, high-maned, with flowing
+tail, broad-backed, wide-browed, with round and claw-shaped
+nostrils, and he stood regarding his lord, and there was
+prescience in his great eyes. And the Prince soothed and caressed
+the strong neck, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O brave in fight and fearless, now put forth strength in
+a sterner battle. To-night I ride far—even to the River of
+Eternal Life. I ride far to seek deliverance—not for men
+only, but for all your kind also. Therefore for your own sake,
+great horse,—for the sake of all that draw the breath of life,
+carry me far—far this night.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so, springing upon the noble horse, he settled himself in
+the saddle, and pacing quietly the horse went on his way. So
+they passed out dreamlike, the man like the sun shining forth
+from his cloudy palaces, the horse like the white cloud beneath
+him, drawing quiet breath because no sound must awake the
+house of sleepers.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told—but I know not—that four attendant divine
+spirits laid their hands beneath the strong ringing hoofs to
+deaden the sound, and that others, casting the watchmen into
+sleep, caused the heavy barred gates to roll open slowly and
+noiselessly. But be that as it will it is certain that the Prince
+passed out, and gaining the road before the gates, stopped and
+turned, saying these words:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never again shall I come here—never again see this beloved
+place, unless I conquer old age, disease, and death, for
+this is my quest.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told that divine voices in the air cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well done. Well said.” And whether the Prince heard
+this or no I cannot tell, but he rode on his way. And man and
+horse, strong of heart, went far that night, so far that when
+the east flashed into light and the world-wide radiance of the
+rising sun they stood beside great woods and the habitations
+of those ascetics who had relinquished the world.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There, wearied, the royal horse himself stopped, to draw
+restful breath and to drink the pure lymph of those crystalline
+streams. So the Prince dismounted and looking into the horse’s
+eyes he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You have borne me well.” And from that he turned to
+Channa, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And you, O faithfullest, swift-footed as a bird is swift-winged,
+long have you followed me, and even before this night
+my heart was full of gratitude, and I knew you as a true man,—strong
+of heart and strong of body. But now I know more,
+for you have come with me utterly disdainful of profit, courting
+danger and rebuke, and what shall I say to you? Many
+words I cannot say—but only this. My heart will remember.
+But, here we part—here is our relationship ended. Take my
+horse and return. For me are births and deaths about to be
+ended.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And taking off the chain of beaten gold and glimmering
+jewels which he wore about his neck, he gave it to Channa,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Take this in remembrance. Let it console your grief.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then loosing the precious jewel that shone in his head-tire,
+he looked at it lying in his palm where it flashed resplendent
+like the sun of Indra’s Paradise, and he said slowly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Take this, Channa, to my father and lay it reverently before
+him. It is my heart. Tell him that I have entered upon
+the life of the ascetic, not indeed seeking a heavenly birth, for
+what is that to me if again I fall into rebirth and it leaves me
+in this world of lies and illusions?—but that I may find the Way
+of Deliverance. For if that way is found then no more need
+I leave those whom I love; no more put away my kindred.
+But since I must go, let not my father endure grief for me.
+Let him forget me and be glad.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then Channa, listening with reverence, tried to make his
+voice heard, choking with grief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This will I do—but O the heaping up of sorrow! How
+shall it be endured? Your father increases in years, your
+son is but a little infant, the sister of your mother, who tended
+your childhood, loves you as a son,—your wife, the mother of
+your child—My Prince, my Prince!—think better before all
+are lost. And drive me not from you. If I have been faithful
+is not trust the reward of fidelity? O turn for pity’s sake: set
+your face homeward. This I beseech you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Prince, pale and resolved, made answer:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is relationship? Were I to die I must leave them.
+My own mother loved me, but she is vanished from among us.
+The kinships of this world are like a flock of birds that for a
+night settle on the same tree and when dawn comes disperse.
+Such are its ties, no more. Does any tie of relationship ensure
+the joy of permanent union? No. All is said. Say no more,
+faithful one. Return to the city and make known to all men
+these my words—‘When I have found the Way—that Way
+which puts an end to the sad endless chain of birth and death,
+then and not otherwise I will return.’ And if I do not obtain
+this victory my body shall perish in the jungle.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he turned to go, the horse, hearing, bent his head
+and licked the foot of the Prince, and grief was seen in his large
+eyes. So the Prince, fondly stroking his head, bade him also
+farewell.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My horse, gentle and noble, your good deeds have gained
+their reward. No painful rebirth awaits you—this I know.
+Be content, for it is well.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then taking his jewelled sword, shining like a meteor, he
+cut off the knot of hair which as a Prince he wore twisted with
+jewels and even as he did this, there passed a hunter going toward
+the jungle with bow and arrows and wearing a garment
+of coarse yellow, and Siddhartha hailed the man.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Friend, will you change your garment for mine, for with
+mine I have done for ever.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the man drew near, consenting, and stripped off his
+garment and took the other, and for a moment the two looked
+each other in the eyes, Channa standing by.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now it is told—but this I cannot know—that this hunter
+was the same divine spirit, who disguised in flesh had brought
+enlightenment to the Prince, but be that as it may, he took the
+garment and went his way in silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having made this exchange Siddhartha took off his jewels
+one by one and placed them in the hands of Channa, and
+stood a moment in the dull garment as it were a bright star in
+eclipse, and so looked into the faithful eyes of Channa—as
+though he would have spoken. But this he could not, then
+slowly turning he made his way to the forest, and its boughs
+and leaves opened to receive him, he parting them with his
+hands, and he passed in and was seen no more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Channa left alone, cried aloud</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is done.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Raising his hands to the unpitying skies and letting fall his
+arm on the neck of Kantaka, he stumbled homeward, his tears
+falling, and great fear and grief possessing his soul.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And here and thus ends the scripture of the great Renunciation
+leading us onward to the Discipline, the Enlightenment
+and the Victory.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER VIII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Going deeper into the forest, calm and resolved in
+mind, startling the deer as he passed, the birds rising
+about him with cries, the Prince went on his way, plucking the
+wild berries and fruits for food, he who had been served from
+gold and silver, and the sun now fully risen poured floods of
+light between the quivering leaves and ancient branches of
+those venerable trees. And as he passed, seeing the world so
+beautiful, dew trembling like crystals upon leaf and flower and
+the perfume of the morning exhaling like the breath of a
+maiden in pure mist, the beginning of peace rose in his troubled
+mind, and he said within himself.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“After a great storm comes calm. Let me now control my
+grief, remembering that the past returns no more than Rohini
+after she has flowed into the ocean. And as in the ocean
+drifting logs for awhile meet and touch and are then driven
+apart by the waves so is it with parents, wives, children and
+wealth. This is most true.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when at noon he was weary and his feet torn with the
+strong thorns and hooks of jungle creepers he sat down to rest
+and the thought came.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Were I now in the sweet garden by Rohini how would my
+wife, soft-handed, gentle-voiced, weep to see these feet, with
+what cool dropping unguents would she staunch the blood,
+which now I have not so much as a rag to wipe away.”——</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, seeing this and waiting his opportunity Mara the Tempter—that
+One evil from of old, drew near through the shining
+trees, and whether he spoke within or without the heart of
+Siddhartha I cannot tell, but most certainly he spoke and his
+voice at first distant as the humming of ardent black bees about
+a flower became nearer, sweeter, subtle, until it sealed every
+sense to all but its meaning. And thus he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O Prince, merciful and compassionate but utterly misled,
+what is it you would do in the wild forest? Is this a place
+for a ruler of men? Far be it from you! By what evil
+counsel do you abandon your duties, flinging all madly aside
+to become an ascetic? What reason is there in believing that
+pain and destruction of the body give wings to the soul? No—but
+far otherwise, for the soul dwindles with the tortured
+body as flame dies when it has consumed the fuel. And if your
+aim be to benefit mankind, are not just and powerful Kings
+needed, and was it not foretold at your auspicious birth that you
+would become an empire-ruling King? Here—living and dying
+in the jungle, how is your might wasted, and the people
+forsaken!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the voice grew sweeter and more poignant and verily
+before him did Siddhartha see the face of the Tempter, beautiful
+and melancholy with pleading mouth and eyes that entreated
+and hands spread out in prayer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Think better, O Prince. Consider how the kingdom of
+Kosala lies near to Kapila and easily to be captured. Great
+are the cities of Kosala. Consider the city of Ayodhya—in
+length it is eighty-four miles, in breadth seventy, and the
+streets so broad that a team of elephants—nay two; might be
+easily driven abreast, and flowering trees stand along them,
+and there are rows of stalls to which the wealthy merchants
+flock from all the countries of the world, from China and Lanka
+and down the Passes from Balkh and Samarkhand; their caravans
+of camels and horses carrying such rarities as kingly
+hearts desire. There are gardens and mango groves for the
+delight of the citizens and clear waters where they may sport
+like swans and other aquatic birds, and mountain-like palaces
+adorned with pinnacles and banners and glittering with precious
+inlay,—and great houses where skilled actors delight
+their hearers with song and dance and story, so that eye and
+ear are transported in seeing and hearing. And there is a
+quarter of the city where dwell women of beauty exceeding the
+Apsaras, for they are brought from the ends of the earth to
+delight the happy people of Kosala. And the town is thronged
+with splendid elephants and horses; and neighbouring kings,
+decked with earrings and armlets, come to pay tribute and
+marvel at the glittering beauty of the city. There is no want
+of food and the very water is sweet as the juice of the sugar-cane,
+and night and day the air resounds with music and
+stringed instruments. And all this is yours for the taking.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And heart-enthralling was the picture that rose before the
+Prince’s eyes in hearing, for he beheld Yashodara a Queen
+beside him, fair and royal, example to women, and between his
+knees his son Rahula proud and gentle—a great King to be, and
+a happy people sheltered in his shadow—a noble people enlightening
+the dark tribes about them. And the soft voice proceeded
+like the breathing melody of a flute.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nor are the Gods forgotten in the city of Ayodhya; great
+reverence is done them, and were a royal saint upon the throne,
+crime would be banished and forgotten and the Golden Age
+return to earth. O bountiful and merciful, all this is in your
+hands. There also are troops of noble Brahmans, celebrated
+for learning and piety, for it were shame indeed if greatness of
+mind and soul were forgotten in the pleasure of the senses.
+No—far otherwise. And with such wisdom, there is no poverty,
+for every householder is rich in horses and cattle and
+food. All possess earrings and garlands, each is content with
+his own gains, free from covetousness, speaking the truth.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the sweet subtle voice ceased the Prince replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then it is only I who shall be covetous—I, who must plunge
+this happy city in blood and tears that I may take it to be
+my slave? And the King who has made them happy I must
+slay. Is this what you would have me do?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Tempter replied gravely.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prince, there is no good but what it might be better, and
+if that King is wise you are wiser. Turn again to Kapila and
+to glory, and to the good of mankind and this that I promise
+shall befall in seven days.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then summoning his fortitude, Siddhartha said slowly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This city filled with pleasure, beauty and wealth, with wisdom
+and content,—is it safely protected, O wise one? Is it
+well fortified against attack?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And eager was the voice of the Tempter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well asked, O Prince, and wisely. It is fortified as never
+city in the world’s history. About it goes a mighty wall where
+the King’s chariots may drive abreast, and about that a moat
+wide and deep, and there is a host of warriors, each able to
+combat with a thousand. Never city so safe. Nor could even
+yourself conquer it did I not give you friends within the gates.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then is it certain that age, disease and death, those fell
+enemies, must needs stay outside? They cannot enter in this
+guarded city?” So said the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There was silence. And presently Siddhartha answering the
+subtle voice said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Go from me, thou Ancient Evil! The snare is set too
+plain. For all their wealth this miserable people must suffer
+and decay and die like all the world and their riches are but
+a pang the more. Truly one day I may come to Ayodhya and
+as a conqueror bringing great riches in my hand for their good,
+but not thus—not thus!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in his heart the subtle voice was stilled and he rose
+and went on his way with bleeding feet. And as he went he
+said this to himself:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Before the days when I considered the terrors of re-birth,
+old age, disease and death, I sought after such merchandise
+as the merchandise of Kosala, subject to all these lures. But
+now, seeing the danger, awake and alert, let me seek only after
+the things which have no part in these, even the supreme joy
+and security of the Peace.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But though he did not know it, that Tempter followed, for
+who is immune from his arts, and he thought, watching the
+serenity of the Prince:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This time he has conquered, but sooner or later even if
+riches fail some hurtful or malicious thought will burn within
+him and then—then he is mine.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And from that hour he crept behind the Prince on the watch
+for sin, cleaving to him like a shadow which follows the object
+from which it falls.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So after long journeying he came to Rajagriha—name never
+to be forgotten because once the Light of the world sojourned
+there. And this was the capital of King Bimbisara, King of
+Magadha, and it lay very pleasantly in an eastern valley of
+holy Ganges, surrounded by the five mountains of the Vindhya
+range, and these are beautiful though but as foothills comparing
+them with those great ramparts of the Gods—the mountains
+beyond Kapila.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now in these Vindhya mountains are caves in the lower
+hills, all grown about by trees, in the solitude yet not so far
+but what an ascetic may go to the city if needful, and in these
+caves certain learned and holy Brahmans had established themselves
+and to each came disciples, counting this world as husks
+if they might rise to the heavens on strong wings of knowledge
+and belief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Coming wearily through the forest, pale and worn with unused
+hardships, the Prince climbed upward to the caves shaded
+by great trees and in an excellent quiet, and at last before
+him he saw the mouth of a cave hung with vines and grown
+about by bushes in blossom, and before it sat a man clothed
+in a garment of red bark, and he was in the lotus posture to
+ward off evil, and the Prince seeing him thus meditating passed
+around him respectfully three times and took his seat in silence
+at a proper distance, waiting his pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So time went by, and the ascetic never stirred though his
+shadow shifted as the sun went on his golden journey westward,
+and Siddhartha meditated on the Way of Peace, wondering
+if the man before him had its key, and to him too the
+time was not long, and the cool shade bathed his wounded
+feet and refreshed them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at last the ascetic returned to earth and looked at him
+with visionary incurious eyes while the Prince waited respectfully,
+and finally he accosted Siddhartha, asking what had
+brought him hither, to whom the Prince dutifully replied, for
+a teacher is more even than a parent, being a spiritual and
+not a fleshly father, and he besought his instruction.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having heard, the Brahman Alara considered awhile,
+and agreed that he should study the Vedas and Upanishads,
+those ancient holy scriptures, under his guidance and amid
+the families of holy persons, both men and women, who dwelt
+in the caves and woods each engaged in religious duties and
+pursuing the way to Heaven.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince, with folded hands, said humbly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am but a beginner, great sir; I do not know the rules of
+the religious life. Be pleased to grant me information.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And that twice-born Brahman of high lineage informed Siddhartha
+of the rules of the various teachers and of the fruits
+expected from their practices. He declared how some lived
+only on food proceeding from pure water, some subsisting on
+edible roots and tender twigs, others on fruits and flowers
+some, like deer, eating grass and herbs, others again begging
+their food and giving it in charity, keeping only the crumbs
+and remnants for themselves.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Also he named those ascetics who torture the body in order
+to subdue it, those who let water drop continually on their
+heads—and many more, cunning in devising sufferings and
+cruel austerities, so that at the end of every life they may
+purchase birth in Heaven and taste divine tranquillities and
+pleasures before they are again launched into the dreary sea
+of mortal existence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And thus,” he said, “are great joys attained, impossible
+to be described in words, delectable to the soul.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince heard with reverence, and the ascetics, men
+and women who dwelt in the woods and caves, seeing the beauty
+of his face and his serenity and courtesy were moved with
+wonder and admiration, saying—“Who is this most beautiful
+young man, so calm and noble? Surely he has the appearance
+of a great Prince and can be no other. Well is it when
+such forsake the world’s things for the things of the Gods.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And his master appointed a cave for his dwelling tapestried
+with nests of the wild black bees, and dripped about in one
+part with golden honey, but because the holy men were friendly
+to all creatures and disturbed none of their combs but only ate
+a little of the dripped honey, the bees were friendly also and
+pleasant companions, their myriad voices soothing to meditation
+as the sounds of a great ocean far off.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Here dwelt Siddhartha joining in the strong chanting of
+Vedic hymns and hearing the recital of the Vedas and Upanishads,
+for books were none—the memories of men carrying all
+knowledge, and he learnt these things with a swiftness almost
+incredible, because his heart was in it. And when food was
+needed, clad in his yellow garment he took his begging bowl,
+and went down to the city begging from house to house, for
+he considered thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Full of hindrances is the household life; the haunt of passion.
+Free as air is the homeless state,” and all the luxuries
+of his former life seemed empty as a dream that flies at dawn.
+“Better is the alms of food I beg than the wines and fruits
+cooled in snow, the rich meats and costly of Kapila.” So he
+said night and day, though at first his soul loathed the food.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now one day when he went to the town of Giribaja to beg
+his food it so happened that the King of Magadha, Bimbisara,
+stood on the high terrace of his palace, looking down the
+street, and he saw the young ascetic coming slowly, holding his
+bowl in his hands and courteously accepting what was given.
+And there was that in the nobility of his person and evident
+signs of Aryan birth which arrested the eyes of the King and
+he said to those about him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Look upon this man, lords, beautiful is he, great and pure.
+He is guarded in conduct: his eyes do not wander, he looks
+not more than a fathom’s length before him. Such a man is
+of no low caste. See how, like a great noble, he is self-possessed
+and serene, moving in solitary majesty as the moon
+among faint stars. Send my royal messengers and inquire
+where that mendicant goes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the messengers ran at the King’s word and hurried
+down into the street saying to one another.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is that Bhikkhu<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a> going? It is toward the mountain
+Pandava. That must be his abode.”</p>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<div class='footnote'>
+<p class='footnote'>
+<span class='footnote-id' id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></span>
+
+Monk.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having followed where Siddhartha went they returned
+to the King and told him—</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“On the eastern slope of Mount Pandava that Bhikku has
+taken his seat, a King among men as the tiger among beasts.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the King said, “Bring out my chariot,” and he directed
+it to the mountain.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now when the road ended he did not return discouraged but
+dismounting went onward climbing up on foot until he came
+near to where the Prince sat, and there with eagerness and
+courtesy the King greeted him, for as lions know their kind,
+not mistaking them for jackals, so is it with the great. And
+the King took his seat on a rock, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I beseech you, sir, to tell me your family and lineage.
+Young are you, a man in his first youth, fine and delicate in
+colour, the glory of the vanguard of an army. I would lay
+wealth at your feet, if wealth delighted you. Speak, and tell
+me your mind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he spoke the nobles stood grouped about to hear,
+correcting every careless or unseemly gesture because the
+man was great and the very air about him pure, and they
+beheld with joy his noble body bright as gold, his eyes of
+darkest blue, and the kingliness of his manners.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince replied with gratitude and noble courtesy:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great King, kind and liberal is your heart, and precious
+your generosity to my own, but all these things lie behind me
+far as dawn from sunset. I had wealth and power, and more,
+but regarding these things as hindrances to perception I am
+come out into the solitude to seek the Way of Peace.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having thus begun he related to the King his family
+and history and all about them held breath to listen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the King, sighing, at last said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble one, I cannot but reverence your choice yet I lament
+it, for the world has need of you. I would share my kingdom
+with you could that shake your resolution. There is nothing
+I could refuse would it draw you to us again for I see you
+surpassing other men and have not known your like.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the steadfast Prince replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Illustrious and world-renowned, descendant of Arya, your
+words are heard with deep veneration. Righteous and sincere,
+you speak the truth, and virtue is not confined to any
+one school of thought—the sun lights the whole world and
+the Way of a great and just king is blessed. But for me, I
+have heard a call. My way is onward and behind me lie
+the Five Desires. Would a hare rescued from a serpent’s
+jaws go back to be devoured? As little would I return to the
+dreams and illusions that have fallen from me. King, there
+are many quests and mine is to find deliverance for the world
+from the Wheel of Agony that turns and turns and will not
+cease through pitiless ages of rebirth and sorrow. There is
+a way,—and I have given all that I may find it. But you—return,
+O wise King, to your happy city. May you direct
+and defend your subjects in peace. May the Gods be good
+to you. May all good go with you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the King replied with gratitude and noble courtesy
+said these words:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That which you seek, great Prince, may you attain, receiving
+the perfect fruit of your birth. And when this is
+gained I pray you return to me that I also may share in your
+wisdom, and graciously receive me as one who would learn.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the Prince rising, with courteous salutations, pursued his
+way to the solitude, and the King and his nobles with folded
+hands followed a little way in reverence and then with
+thoughtful and mindful hearts returned to the city.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER IX</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So while the Prince went on into the woods, turning
+his steadfast face to the dawn of Enlightenment,
+Channa the charioteer went slowly back to Kapila, grieving
+and weeping, leading the noble horse, for he had most surely
+hoped that where his lord went he might follow, having proved
+himself faithful; and as the darkness of night closed in upon
+him he wavered, halting and looking behind him and then
+again proceeding, irresolute in mind.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the horse also grieved for his master, going heavily, his
+head bowed that was held so nobly, neither would he eat
+grass nor drink water, and no joy nor spirit were left in him,
+for he thought “I shall never see him again.” And even as
+he thought this, his great heart broke for grief, and he died.
+But in a happy place was he reborn because of his fidelity,
+even as the Prince had foreseen, for in no world can love
+lose the blessedness of its love.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Channa went yet more slowly, weeping a second sorrow,
+and to him the land appeared withered as when a man returns
+to a ruined city which once he knew glad and living, and it
+seemed as though the sun hidden behind a mountain no longer
+enlightened the world.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the men about the way, seeing him in grief, turned
+again to look, and consternation seized them and one cried
+aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is the Prince—beloved of the world? Have you
+taken him away by stealth? Where is he hidden?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Channa halting, said with sighs;</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I who followed him always with a loving heart, would
+I have left him? Little do you know me! He has dismissed
+me,—O men of Kapila! He has buried himself in the forests
+to live the life of an ascetic.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And those who listened heard this with dark foreboding,
+for it appeared to them that things deep, strange, and mysterious
+had suddenly appeared in their way, and that the very
+world had changed in its course if such things could be.
+What had there been lacking to the Prince that he should go
+out thus to seek it? What had he beheld, invisible to them?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the news spread from them to the city and men and
+women rushed out to the gates, and when they saw that
+Channa wept as he returned in loneliness, they, not understanding
+whether the Prince was dead or alive, cried out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What has befallen? Surely sorrow is added to sorrow.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And like the flash of lightning news spread to the House
+of the Garden and the women of the palace, their hair dishevelled
+about them, their robes flung hastily on as for a
+night-alarm, came pouring down to the doors that they might
+hear the worst, and when they saw the charioteer alone, they
+raised a loud and bitter cry. So women mourn the beloved
+dead when hope itself is dead with him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the cry reached Prajapati, aunt and foster-mother of
+the Prince, sister of Maya his mother, and she wept, saying
+to herself.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Alas—his beauty, his beauty! O my son, who was there
+to compare with him? I see his dark locks bound with gold,
+his eyes blue and deep as the Ox-King’s, his broad shoulders
+and strong arms, a Tiger-King among men. How can it be
+endured that you should suffer the chills and heats of the
+forest and we, bereft and miserable, see you no more!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the great lady threw herself upon the earth and so lay,
+with the women sitting about her, held motionless by strong
+grief, as marble images.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when at last one gathered up courage to tell the
+Princess she sent for Channa, towering in indignation above
+him like an angry Queen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O faithless man, and trusted in vain! evil contriver, false
+servant!—beneath these pretended tears there is a hidden
+smile. You went out with him and alone you return. What
+have you done? Better an open enemy than a false friend.
+Alas, the sorrows of our line! Surely his noble mother died
+foreseeing the grief of to-day, for our house is left unto us
+desolate!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Channa, pierced to the soul and thunderstruck, was
+silent, and she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You weep aloud now. Why did you not awake the Palace
+when he went? Then all might have been saved. Now
+it is too late.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, folding his hands, with no anger in his heart, for the
+agony of the Princess was visible, the true Channa replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great Lady, have pity on my grief, for I am innocent in
+this. In my soul I believe it was the Gods’ doing. From
+the day of his birth there have been portents, and who was
+I to stand against it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the Princess, just and noble of soul, recollected herself,
+regretting her words, knowing well that the burden of
+the Gods’ purpose is their own and cannot be charged upon a
+man, and she spoke gently to him, and when he was gone
+she sat alone mourning, recalling the face and voice of her
+Prince, and slowly as the strong grief overburdened her she
+slipped down strengthless from the golden cushions and lay
+upon the ground, her empty arms stretched out before her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So her women found her, and as they raised her tenderly,
+she said this only:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Take away my golden bed where my lord and I lay, for
+henceforth I will lie upon bare earth. Take away my robes of
+silk and my jewels and bring me the yellow robe of the mendicant,
+for I am beggared indeed. Henceforth I will wear no
+other. Cut off my long hair, for I have done with beauty.
+And once a day and once only, bring me the food of the
+mendicant, such as will keep the flame of life alight and no
+more, for as to pleasure, the name of it is forgotten.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as she said so was it done, and the long and perfumed
+tresses that touched her lovely feet fell about her like a
+dropped veil, and thus she lived henceforward, and for her
+child’s sake only.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But as to the Maharaja his case was different, for love and
+anger contended in him, and his thoughts charged each other
+as in battle, rushing madly hither and thither like a herd of
+wild elephants. And when his nobles gathered about him he
+raged aloud before them:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Once I had a son. Now I have none. What is my kingdom
+to me, and my horribly echoing empty palace? And
+what are rule and dominance? Why was he given to be
+taken?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And for all the royal priest and the wise minister could do,
+they could not assuage his wrath and grief until the thought
+occurred to them that they might follow the wanderer and
+yet compel or persuade him to return. Then, and then only,
+the King listened:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Go,” he said, “and swiftly. Let not a breath intervene
+between now and your going, for life is unendurable until
+you return with him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So in great haste the priest and minister set out on the
+way indicated by Channa, counting every instant of time
+they lost precious as dropped grains of pearl.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when they were come to the forests and hills of
+Rajagriha, they asked their way of the wandering religious
+persons whom they met, and of the cave-dwelling ascetics,
+and to these grave persons they said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We are come, beseeching your aid. We serve a King like
+to the greatest of the Gods and his son, beautiful as the God
+who pierces hearts, has forsaken us and gone out into the
+solitudes seeking a remedy against old age, disease, and death,
+a thing no man can find. Knowing this, tell us, we entreat,
+where we may find him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the ascetics replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We know him and his beauty and nobleness. He is gone
+to the cave of Alara the Brahman that he may seek for
+illumination.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Scarcely giving themselves time to hear and to utter thanks
+those two old men, the priest and minister, hurried on.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now as they did so the awe of the place and its quiet and
+the spirit of deep contemplation arising from the residence of
+so many holy persons fell on them, and insensibly their speed
+slackened, and neither said this to the other, but the same
+influence was upon them both, and as they had abandoned
+the royal chariot when the track ceased, so also they now
+divested themselves of the insignia of their high offices, and
+advanced humbly towards their destination. And as they
+went they saw a young ascetic seated beneath a tree, his
+hands folded and eyes fixed upon the running water of a
+stream before his feet, and he heard their steps and rising
+saluted them, and it was their Prince.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Surely words cannot tell how this sight moved them—they
+who had seen him far otherwise, who perceived about him
+now a difference immeasurable even in thought!</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But they saluted him with more than the old obedience,
+and being hidden took their seats beside him as the twin
+stars attend the moon. And about them was the vast quiet
+and silence and shadow of the forest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then choosing their words with care as a warrior chooses
+the arrows that shall lose his life or save it, in turn they set
+before him the condition of his father the King, asking him
+with deep earnestness how it could be right in his eyes to
+abandon all his duties, inflicting sorrow worse than death
+upon those he loved and left.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when they had spoken, only the little running water
+took up the tale for the Prince meditated upon their words,
+and they dared not interpose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After a long interval he raised his head and answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is well spoken, but I have entered the road wherein
+is no turning. For it is not for myself only that I seek the
+remedy, but for all creation. And to me the earth is filled
+with this thought and with this only, and however you may
+use the sorcery of words to bewilder me it fails. I have heard
+and I will again hear your plea, but this is and will be my
+answer—The sun, the moon, forsaking the sky, may fall to
+earth, the snowy mountains topple from their base, but I will
+never change my purpose.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having said this he rose, and the two with him, and
+they, seeing that they broke themselves against rock, answered
+gently:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My Prince, it is enough. No more remains to be said.
+We will intrude our presence on you no more, but will return
+to the King and lay your fixed resolution before him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they saluted him, and returned slowly through the
+forest, pausing here and there as they went to speak with the
+calm and untroubled inhabitants who therein sought the
+treasure of wisdom, eager to understand from them if possible
+the teaching which as the nectar of flowers draws the
+bee, had drawn the Prince to the homeless life. Hard was
+it to comprehend, and at last, sad and bewildered, they
+emerged from the green ocean of leaves to the light of common
+day and mounting the chariot, plied lash and shout
+hastening homeward, and thus was the last tie with Kapila
+broken.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Prince remained behind them, upborne by the
+love of those he had forsaken, a love too great for them and
+such as they to comprehend.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER X</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then for patient years. Siddhartha, the Buddha
+to be,—struggled to the light in the forest, finding
+none. Surely was this the dark night of the soul wherein
+not so much as a star gleams in the thick and stifling midnight.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With Alara he studied long and patiently, so mastering his
+system of thought that the ascetics who followed Alara besought
+the Prince to become their master. But this he would
+not, for he discerned no finality in this teaching, nor any real
+deliverance, because desire is not extinguished even though
+it be for high things, and though it be held but by a finger
+the ego of man is drawn again and yet again into the revolving
+wheel that mangles him,—the wheel of birth and
+death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore abandoning the teacher Alara he went sorrowfully
+on to the teacher Uddaka, that wise dweller in solitude,
+and with him he studied in patience, hoping yet against hope
+that here at last might be the beginning of light.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he mastered this system also, confronting his instructor
+with difficulties which could be neither explained nor overcome,—finding
+that Uddaka promised a glittering heaven not
+founded upon the Unchangeable, but transitory, vanishing,
+illusory. And here too the Way was not, nor the unchanging
+Law.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then at last on his long patience dawned a certainty—that
+no help was in any son of man, that the riddle was too
+high for them and their wings fluttered lamed in the blue
+and awful heights where his own thoughts soared—and that
+even this height was not high enough. And within himself
+he said:—</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What I have learned here I have learned and there is no
+more. The pasture is eaten bare. I will go on alone into
+the forests of Uruvela and there I will practise a terrible
+asceticism beyond all I have seen in Rajagriha, for it may be
+these men are right who teach that in the destruction of the
+body lies enfranchisement of the soul. I cannot tell, but I
+will pass by no opening which may set my feet in the Way.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So travelling alone (for he said in his heart:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better
+or his equal let him steadfastly keep to his solitary journey:
+there is no companionship with a fool.”) He came at last
+to the town of Uruvela, and when he saw the place he
+loved it, and long afterwards, when Enlightenment was come
+he spoke of it thus.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then, O disciples, I thought within myself, Surely this is
+a place dear and delightful. The forest is wide and deep.
+There flows a pure river, with little creeks where a man may
+bathe, and fair lie the villages of the simple people. This is
+a good place for one in search of deliverance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he was very weary, and often he said to his heart:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Long is the night to him who is awake, long is a mile to
+him who is tired, long is life to him who knows not the true
+Law. O that it would shine upon me in this gross darkness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there in the great woods he set himself to a cruel discipline
+so that other wood-dwellers marvelled at his austerities
+though themselves treading a painful way. And of these
+were in especial five, of whom more hereafter. And they
+established themselves within reasonable distance, hoping to
+learn from him when he should attain, and talking with him
+of great things.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So by the river in the forest composing his body and mind
+he set himself to contemplation lessening his food little by
+little daily until he subsisted on a morsel incredible to the
+mind of man, and even this he would have spared had it been
+possible that the attenuated body could still have caged the
+soul. And after awhile he spoke to no man, sitting lost in
+far-off regions they could not enter, even controlling his
+breath so that scarcely could he be said to breathe at all.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So still, so motionless, he sat day-long that he became a
+part of nature as much as the tree that sheltered him, and
+the creatures of the forest moved about him unafraid. The
+furry mothers brought their cubs to nestle by his feet, and
+winged mothers lit upon his shoulders to call their broods,
+and at his feet the wild peacock outspread his jewelled fans,
+and fear was unknown in the still presence of the Bodhisattva—the
+Buddha-to-be.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Far and wide spread the fame of this great and noble
+ascetic in the woods of Uruvela, and persons would journey
+from the city that they might stand far off and see him lost
+in meditation, and when, looking timidly through the boughs,
+they beheld his starved body like a withered tree and his calm
+unseeing eyes they were moved with wonder and compassion,
+and went away very softly, in their hearts entreating his
+prayers and blessings.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But lost in deep meditation Siddhartha was beyond prayer
+or blessing and whether they came or went, he neither saw
+nor knew.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Making his way perfect through the disentangling powers of
+wisdom, fasting cruelly, yet not trusting in this austerity for enfranchisement,
+he strengthened in heart and wisdom even as his
+body weakened.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And first he meditated on transience, and all about him confirmed
+the truth, for nothing stayed but all became and passed
+instantly, never resting, into further becoming. About him
+the seasons trod their quiet round. Scarcely had the young
+spring burst into blossom, when, before she had leisure to
+mirror her beauty in the river at his feet, she was lost in the
+burning splendour of summer, and this passed without pause
+or division into the gold and orange fruitage of autumn and
+the passionate weeping of the rains, and so ended in the
+temperate sweetness of winter, there to recommence the
+eternal Wheel of Change.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he thought: “There is no being, for all is becoming.
+On what shall we build?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And before him the spider spun her frail thread, glittering
+with morning dew, lovely as a queen’s garments in the pale
+morning gold that filtered through green leaves. And so in
+a moment it was gone. And he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Surely the existence of man is frailer. A blow, a breath
+of pestilence and he lies broken, an offence to the earth. To
+appear, to disappear. Such is the history of man as of the
+meanest of insects.” And before his strained perception unrolled
+itself the whole vast phantasmagoria of thought like a
+veil hung to conceal the Permanent, the Eternal, and he could
+not penetrate behind it. Before him were the steps by which
+the creature ascends to the Source, but in the height they
+dissolved into vapour and dispersed into cloud and there was
+no way there.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And sometimes so present were the evil and pain of life to
+his vision, so unescapable their presence, that for a space
+it seemed the perfection of divine attainment was but an infinite
+of the first power, but evil and pain an infinite of
+immeasurable power, terrible in perfection. And to a lesser
+than the Bodhisattva this must have brought madness or despair,
+but strong as an eagle to the sun he outsoared the dark
+clouds. And unknown to himself nature spread her guards
+about him. In the rising of the moon was peace and her
+light shed tenderer dreams like the soft falling of snow, and
+the strong leap of the sun at dawn in the first of his three
+strides, was the outrush of hope—hope unfulfilled but ever
+on before. And the breeze was good to him, laying a cool
+hand on weary temples, and the singing of the river overflowed
+from the very heart of quiet.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as the tapestry of life unrolled its pictures before his
+eyes he read its lesson. Happiness is a dream and sorrow a
+truth and individual life a misfortune from which impersonal
+contemplation is the only enfranchisement. Could this be
+true? Could it be possible that a barren soul, a proud and
+complete selfishness and heedlessness of all other sufferers
+than himself, disdain of the crowd and indifference to all that
+the vulgar covet, represent the only escape for the wise man
+from the entanglements of Maya—Illusion? No—a thousand
+times no! Better to drop into the jaws of darkness and be extinguished
+than remain petrified and apart in a world where
+men must bleed and die.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then is goodness itself a lie? Is man the eternal dupe of
+words and phrases contrived to make us docile to suffering as
+slaves to the whip? Is hope but a watery rainbow painted on
+a dissolving cloud? Is the Way itself a dream begotten of
+Misery, the Mother, and Pride, the father—Pride that will have
+man think himself a something when in reality he is nothing
+and his fate concerns the universe as much as blown grains
+of sand in a whirlwind, rising and settling as aimlessly?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at such times the Bodhisattva felt the endless turning
+of the Wheel within his own soul, and a vertigo of perception
+seized him as the Infinities gazed over his head in untroubled
+calm, and only the Wheel turned and turned in merciless revolution.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then were it not better to submit to passive ignorance and
+fight no more? To sink into wearied submission, accepting
+the lash and fetter for doom? For each life is built up of
+millions, and where is the redemption for its infinite littleness?
+Let all pass for all is nothing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But at such times he steadied himself upon the thought of
+Law. Could a man nobly agree with necessity which is the
+other name of Law, were that no peace and enlightenment?
+Is not Law beheld in nature? What is this incessant changing
+yet unchanging series of phenomena unperplexed by self-contemplation
+and analysis which man sees about him. What?
+Is it a play—a spectacle that Brahm the Universal Spirit
+has set in motion for Its own delight, or is it Itself expanded
+throughout the Universe, and if this be so is man the one
+thing outside Its circumference, and if he be within it, shall
+he only be ignorant of the Law and agonized because he does
+not obey it? If man is capable of conceiving the Law surely
+it exists and is his and him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he looked down the abyss and beheld nothing but persistence
+in change and the infinity of infinities. Was there
+anywhere a fixed point? Surely only in the relation of all
+to Law. Therefore he hungered and thirsted for Law, forgetting
+the emaciation of his body and its pitiable weakness,
+thirsting for the Way with a deathly thirst that consumed
+him, rendering him incapable of all other suffering.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But though he knew full well and each day perceived more
+clearly that the climax of wisdom is perception of this universal
+Law from which nothing—no, not the very soul of man
+is exempt—still it evaded him. Freedom from deception he
+attained, diamond-clear lucidity, certainty that there is a first
+principle and final aim of the Universe, but the Way to touch
+hands with it he could not find.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus, having caught but a glimpse of the Absolute like a
+star in driven clouds, he had gained the certainty of what is
+not, but not as yet the knowledge of what is, and there even
+the majesty of the Bodhisattva’s<a id='r2'/><a href='#f2' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[2]</span></sup></a> intellect fell back baffled,
+and at last his mind became like a dimness in which thought
+itself lost its way and analysis stumbled, and the clear call
+became like the falling of a great water in which many sounds
+fuse into a confused roar in which nothing but mere noise is
+to be discerned, deafening the ears and confusing the senses.</p>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<div class='footnote'>
+<p class='footnote'>
+<span class='footnote-id' id='f2'><a href='#r2'>[2]</a></span>
+
+The Buddha-to-be.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus he sat for six long years, and at the end though
+he had discerned the perishable, the transient, the Eternal Way
+was far from his perception, and life rushed by him from an
+unknown beginning to a hopeless end, defending itself frantically
+for a few brief years, but in the end conquered, and the
+man broken in the frail edifice which is called his being.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now he was so wasted that life hung in him by a thread
+worn slender as a spider’s, and the fame of his terrible austerities
+had spread like the sound of a great bell hung in the
+canopy of the skies, and if he had gained what he sought all
+this would have counted as nothing in his eyes, but in the long
+six years he had not gained, and his mind tortured him because
+now it seemed that it broke itself and its power dispersed like
+a mighty wave broken on rocks and fleeing in foam and spray.
+And one day when he rose to his feet, still drowned in hopeless
+meditation, his limbs failed beneath him, and he fell and
+so lay exhausted, spent, believing “This is death, and I am
+conquered.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it could not be otherwise for very terrible had been his
+austerities and later he told his disciple this.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I remember when a crab-apple was my only daily food. I
+remember when a single grain of rice was my only grain of
+food. And my body became extremely thin and lean. Like
+dried withered reeds my arms and legs, my hips like a camel’s
+hoof, like a plait of hair my spine. As project the rafters of
+a house’s roof, so raggedly stuck out my ribs. As in a deep-lying
+brook the watery mirror beneath appears so small as almost
+to disappear, so in the deep hollows of my eye-pits my
+eye-balls well nigh wholly disappeared. As a gourd becomes
+shrivelled and hollow in the hot sun so did the skin of my head
+become parched. And pressing my stomach my hands touched
+my spine, and feeling my spine my hand felt through to the
+stomach. And yet with all this mortification I came no nearer
+to the supernatural faculty of clearness of knowledge.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So for a long time he lay in the borderland of death, and had
+this been the end—O Light of the World extinguished, O Sun
+set at dawn!—but it was not to be, and slowly, very slowly,
+consciousness returned, and his heavy eyelids lifted and once
+more he beheld the light. And he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If I could creep down to the river the waters, warm and
+kindly, would refresh me, and thought would perhaps return
+to me, and a little rest.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And painful inch by inch Siddhartha crept down to the river,
+supporting himself as he went by the extended hands of
+branches, and in a warm shallow of water, sparkling in green
+shade he lay, foredone, and it flowed about him gently, bringing
+healing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the five ascetics watching him from far off said to each
+other:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He will die now; the ascetic Gotama will die now. It is
+not possible that a man so worn and exhausted should
+live.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And indeed, when he tried to struggle up and leave the kindly
+water, there was no strength in him and he could not rise. And
+it is told that a heavenly spirit pressed down a branch that he
+might reach it and support himself. This it is certain he did,
+laying hold on a bough which dipped over its own image in
+still water, and he crept up the bank, dizzily, and seated himself
+beneath a tree, supporting his weakness against it, with
+closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now, being refreshed, he had power to reflect, and he
+said within himself.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This way of mortification has failed me also. Like other
+ways I have sought this beats against a shut door and there
+is no help in it. My body is so broken that it can no longer
+support the intellect. I will eat and drink and strengthen this
+tortured body that it may still be the servant of the higher in
+me, no longer complaining of its own griefs and diverting attention
+from the goal. For it is possible that what I have already
+learned has prepared the way to Right Ecstasy and that
+in ecstasy I may behold the beginning of the Wisdom which
+in all the methods I have tried has been hidden from me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And even as he thought this the strong weakness overwhelmed
+him again and he could think no more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now, on the other side of the wood dwelt a chief herdsman,
+very wealthy in cattle and rice, owning land far-spreading and
+fertile in the rich water-meadows by the river, and he had a
+daughter fair and wise, named Sujata. And reaching womanhood
+this fair maiden had made a vow to the Tree-Spirit of the
+forest, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If I should wed a husband of equal rank with myself and
+my first-born should be a son, then would I make a noble offering
+every year, never forgetting the benefit.” And this
+prayer was heard, and her first-born son lay upon her bosom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So wishing to make her offering on the day of the full moon,
+she pastured a thousand cows in the woods, and with their
+milk she nourished five hundred cows, and with theirs two
+hundred and fifty, drawing life through life until at last she
+possessed eight cows thus fed on the strength and life of a
+thousand, and no purer nor stronger milk could be. And this
+being ready Sujata rose earlier than dawn and, went to the byre
+with her pails, and as she came near the milk flowed in streams
+without milking, even as when the calves crowd for their food
+about their mothers.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So she took it and placed it in a new vessel and added rice,
+and herself made a fire and cooked it. And the bubbles rose
+and froth, but not a drop ran over the brim, and the fire burned
+clear and steady without smoke or blackness. And as a man
+crushes golden honey from the comb that has formed about
+a stick—the very essence of honey—so into that pure food
+was infused a marvellous sustenance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Sujata said to her waiting-maid, Punna:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Punna, dear girl, surely the deity is auspiciously disposed
+to us. The omens are good. Run therefore and get all ready
+beneath the tree.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Punna answered obediently:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, lady,” and ran.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when she came to the tree, the Bodhisattva—the
+Buddha-to-be—sat beneath it, and it appeared to her that his
+body shone like light and she flushed and trembled with terror,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good indeed are the omens, for this is the Tree-Spirit himself
+come to receive our offering!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And with all her might she ran to tell this to her lady, and
+when Sujata heard it she cried out:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From this day be to me as a daughter, for this great good
+news!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And running to where she kept her jewels she put upon the
+happy Punna all those ornaments suitable to a daughter of the
+house. And she thought; “What more can I do? For this
+is a great day,” and so took up a precious golden dish and into
+this she poured the milk-rice, and it rolled in like drops of
+water slipping off a lily-leaf and filled the vessel, neither more
+nor less. Then, covering it with a golden cover, she adorned
+herself with her best jewels and went stately to worship and
+make her offering.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So she came along the banks of the river, glad in the dawn,
+robed in grey like a cloud before sunrise, and about her slender
+wrists were bracelets of white chalcedony and the grey and
+white of them resembled the colours of the rounded river-bubble
+before it breaks, and she came as softly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And parting the boughs she saw the Prince, his head fallen
+back against the tree, eyes closed and helpless hands beside
+him, and deep pity and veneration stirred in her heart, and
+seeing it was no Tree-Spirit but a holy man she thought “May
+he accept it!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And bowing repeatedly she raised the dish in both hands,
+entreating his greatness and thus offered it humbly, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, accept my gift and go where it seems good to you.”
+And he, seeing in this the accomplishment of his purpose, received
+it, and partook of that pure food while the happy giver
+watched with such delight as when a mother feeds her only
+child and beholds new life flow through his veins, and the
+very air about the Prince appeared to distil in dews of visible
+blessing upon her head and joy hitherto unknown possessed
+her noble soul. And she said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, may your wishes prosper as mine have done!”, and so
+departed, caring no more for her golden dish than as if it had
+been an autumn leaf upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the five ascetics, watching far off with greedy eyes, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The ascetic Gotama has failed. He is now mere man.
+Like the common herd he eats and drinks. He has nothing
+to teach us—nothing! Mistaken indeed were we in thinking
+to learn from a mere backslider! It is done and over, and the
+Gods are angry with him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they turned their backs in scorn and departed to Benares,
+there to resume their austerities.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when Sujata was gone, timidly receiving thanks, the
+Future Buddha arose and stood beneath the tree, refreshed in
+heart and body, his face shining with renewed strength, his
+energy swelling like a river in spate rushing rejoicing to the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he knew that that place where for six years he had pursued
+a vanishing truth could hold him no more, its use being
+ended, and he set steadfast steps toward the tree.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>O Tree of Wisdom, Tree of Knowledge unsearchable, Tree
+whereunder the world’s deliverance was attained,—through all
+the rain of years between our sight and thee, shall we not look
+back and behold and veil our faces? For beneath this Tree
+was Wisdom perfected.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then taking his way, Bodhisattva begged from a man cutting
+grass for his cattle, an armful of pure and pliant grass,
+and, going onward, he saw before him that Tree of Knowledge,
+broad-leaved, noble, a tower of leafage, and knowing that
+this was where time and place meeting clasped hands, he spread
+the grass and seated himself with folded hands and feet beneath
+the pillared stems and the night came quietly down the
+woodland ways and veiled him from the sight of man.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XI</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet of what follows I veil my face in writing, for
+it is high, holy, and beyond the mind of man to conceive,
+nor can it be told but in great parables, for by pictures
+we teach little children. It is the Arhats only,—the perfected
+saints,—who comprehend and can distinguish the symbol from
+the truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Bodhisattva was tempted in the wilderness. Against him
+that Wicked One led his hosts, strong and cunning to daunt
+and allure. And as our Lord sat there in peace, suddenly the
+calm sea, heaven-reflecting, of his mind, was tossed and torn
+into wild billows as in a furious storm, and foes which he had
+thought conquered, rose mighty against him, some most infinitely
+sweet, piercing the heart with a pain more to be desired
+than joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For, shaping on the dark like a picture—but real, so real
+that he had but to rise and enter, came the lost heaven of
+Kapila, where Rohini flowed in liquid light, and there in cool
+green shades he beheld those loveliest in whose arms once he
+lay. Soft bosoms, intolerably sweet after long pain and loneliness,
+entreated him to rest. Deep eyes, love-filled, invited.
+And at the last one alone drew near him and it seemed that
+in that one fair face was centred all beauty that was his in those
+far days. In one all wooed him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come to me—Come to me. Dear lord, you have borne
+torture for long years and grief exceeding. You have hungered
+and thirsted and wept tears of blood and still the Way eludes
+you, and all was vain. There is no Way. It is delusion.
+Vain it must be: not thus is Paradise found. Love is heaven—there
+is no other.”—So said the Beautiful kneeling before
+him, most dear and desirable, with passionate dark eyes more
+eloquent than music plucked on harp or sitar, words spoken
+between kisses and the slackening and straining of arms that
+are the bonds of love. On his knees he felt the warmth of her
+golden bosom, sun-kissed fruit for the tasting, on his hands
+the clasp of those little fingers that once clenched his heart.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Put away your pale dreams of Heaven. O Prince beloved!”
+she pleaded. “Heaven is here and now by bright
+Rohini. Come, taking and giving joy. O sad and wearied,
+and utterly foredone, come back to us and be made whole and
+glad. Am I not yours? Rest in my arms. Forget the cold
+ascetic, and be again our Prince, our warrior. Come! Time
+goes swiftly and the sands of life are blown about the desert
+and man knows them no more.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She moved as if to draw him with her, and all her naked
+loveliness swam rose and gold before his eyes, long hair,
+brightening at the tendril-ends, caressing the slender curves of
+perfect feet, the smile of victory touching soft lips,—breathless
+beauty waiting its fruition, queen and slave of men, thinking
+its victory won, looking downward half amazed at its own
+perfection.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then lifting her head that Beautiful regarded him in triumph
+as the moon rides serene over tossing waves, and lo! he sat
+motionless and unmoved, with eyes looking past her to a distant
+hope, and his face was set and calm as doom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And suddenly, shuddering together with the sighing shudder
+of leaves in cold rain, the sweet shape wavered, trembled like
+an image in water when the rings widen outward and all is
+dispersed, and it was gone, for the waste night closed about it
+and took it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the garden remained—that home beloved, and a new
+and dearer shape wandered lonely by the river bank gazing
+steadfastly upward to the bright billows of the silver peaks,
+remote and pure as they, and she led by the hand a child.
+And surely he whom lust cannot conquer may unashamed
+kneel at the feet of love pure as the very sources of light!
+And his heart said “My Princess!” and almost ceased to beat,
+so strange, so sweet, that living bleeding memory;—and
+whether it was the voice of his own soul or hers he could not
+know,—but she seemed to shape the one word, “Beloved”, and
+so withdrawing her gaze from the mountains, looked at him, all
+love, all entreaty in those sunken eyes—beauty faded by grief,
+but stronger a thousandfold to plead with him, and mutely she
+showed the child, and so stood, waiting to know his sentence
+whether she must live or die.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And round her like mourning shadows swept the image of
+his father, aged by grief and visibly stooping under the heavy
+burden; the gentle queen, sister of his mother, who had fed
+him from her own bosom, wrung her hands beside him and
+all the faithful friends and servants who had guarded his
+youth; and together they were the very voice of home, and his
+own heart asked itself, “Have I the right to hurt these faithful
+ones! But what are they and myriads like them to her—my
+wife, my son!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And whether he would have moved to reach her, I cannot
+tell, but suddenly, past all knowledge, he certainly knew that
+never could that great lady his wife present herself as an obstacle
+and a temptation, and that this was but a shift and a
+shape-changer not to be trusted, dangerous and cunning like
+the first, and steadfastly he gazed past her, his face set and
+calm as doom, and shrieking horribly she fled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And then, thick as rain in <span class='it'>Wasa</span>, fell delirious dreams and
+delusions, and there came about him frightful things, misshapen,
+goblin, the very spume and smoke of the pit, and there
+was a noise in the air, that stupified the brain, of shrieks and
+shouts and groans and terrible cries and far off wailings and
+it appeared as though great spirits fought in the air about
+him with the black armies of the Wicked One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And upon the night the Tempter flung a vast phantasmagoria
+of the power and splendour awaiting the Prince if he would
+but stoop to grasp them. King of the earth, throned and
+crowned, he saw himself. And flames shot about the pictures
+and huge confusions, and an ocean of terrors broke against
+him, and the billows threatened to overwhelm him, and he knew
+that did he relax but for the instant that a man blinks his eye,
+all were lost.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he sat motionless his face fixed and calm as doom, and
+it is told that in all the tumult not one leaf of the Tree flickered
+but hung still as if carved in stone. Within its shadow
+was calm: without tumult as when heaven and earth break
+together in storm.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the strife raged about him and Lust and Love, and
+Power and Wealth thundered or pleaded at his ear and could
+not move him. And huge elemental Powers led on their armies,
+deep instincts from the abyss of the primeval life of man, conqueering,
+cunning, rock-rooted, hard to be fought, beckoning,
+alluring, threatening. And some, robed like heavenly spirits,
+showed, as it were, the Way, but it was no way, and very terrible
+were the confusions, sights and sounds of that night of
+dread. Nor is it possible or lawful that all should be uttered.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when the worst and utmost were done and endured and
+no more remained, the Wicked One and his hosts, outwearied,
+ceased their torment, and very slowly the angry roar of the
+billows subsided and the foam of their fury stilled, and the
+mind of the Blessed One relaxed into peace, and the great
+darkness thinned as at the cold breath of dawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The moon and the stars reappearing shed dying light, the
+barriers of the dark being removed. And now—the marvel,—the
+marvel!</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Let the Three Worlds wait in silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For the east became grey, and all being now hushed, our
+Lord passed into deep and subtle contemplation and entered
+thus upon the First Stage of Ecstasy, and this was the First
+Watch.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, consciousness withdrawn into the Infinite, passing
+through the bounds of human comprehension, seeing the world
+as it truly is, not as it appears, his mind moved swiftly onward
+and upward as the eagle soars effortless to the sun, or
+rather, as the swimmer daring the current, is caught up and
+carried strongly and without volition to his desired end. For,
+be it known, this world about us is far other than it appears,
+and with enlightenment we pass free from the fetters of illusion.
+And this is Perception in which time as it is known in this our
+world ceases to exist.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in this Perception he beheld his past lives and all his
+former births, with their gains and losses, their sins and purities,
+as they passed steadily onward and led him inevitably
+to the Tree; seeing all at once as a picture.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And soaring higher, carried ever more swiftly onward, ever
+more profoundly withdrawn, in the second watch he beheld with
+diamond-clear perception all that lives, and the round of birth
+and death of all mankind, hollow all and false and transient,
+built upon nothingness—the piers and fabric of a dream; and
+saw before him erring creatures born and born again to die,
+the righteous and the evil heirs alike of pain self-inflicted,
+and stabbed with daggers their own hands have forged.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he saw the transient heavens gained through desire, won
+through righteousness that craves reward, and beheld these
+longer-lived than the joys of earth yet transient also, for he
+who desires the joys of an individual heaven and pays down
+righteousness as the coin of its price, he too is still held within
+the pitiless fetters of craving, though it be for heaven, and
+nothing rooted in desire is eternal, but must pass and be done.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he saw the hells that, gorged with suffering, yet again
+yield up their prey to the weary round of rebirth and lo—heaven
+and hell and earth empty and vain, the Wheel of Birth
+and Death revolving evermore, hopeless and without delay
+or stay, now heaven-high, now low as earth, but ever and ever a
+whirling Wheel without rest. And in the third watch there
+came Perception higher still and our Lord entered upon the
+deep apprehension of Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in this the secrets of birth and death were apparent and
+he became assured that age and death have their source in birth
+and are rooted in it as trees in the ground, for the body and
+earthly self implicate man in all evils, divided thus from the
+Source, and, in a word, life in this world of ignorance, is suffering.
+For here men walk blinded with ignorance, not knowing
+whence nor whither, and the high things move veiled about
+them and are not seen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as to rebirth, he saw that its cause is in deeds done and
+thoughts thought in former lives.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Swept on and up in ecstasy, perception becoming ever clearer,
+he beheld the so-called soul-self of man unravelled into its
+component parts and laid before him like the unwoven threads
+of a garment, and behold in these was no durability nor immortality,
+for there is but one Immortal, one Infinite, and the
+man who claims his own, his separate immortality, is dying and
+reborn through the ages and but the fierce desire of life gives
+him its simulacrum and the long-linked chain of births and
+deaths and griefs immeasurable.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So then, swept on and up in ecstasy, he beheld the causes of
+the long-linked chain of existence stretching from Infinite to
+Infinite.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And these are they, and this is the lineage of suffering:</p>
+
+<div class='dramastart'><!----></div>
+
+<p class='dramaline-cont'>Contact brings forth sensation.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Sensation brings desire.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Desire produces the clinging to shows and illusions.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Clinging to shows and illusions produces deeds.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Deeds engender birth.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Birth produces age and death.</p>
+
+<p class='line'> </p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this is the weary round, the offspring of Ignorance repeated
+in the endless turning of the Wheel, the dragging of
+a lengthening chain of births. For the ignorant man, desiring
+the things that are worthless, transient, illusory, seeing about
+him false shows instead of the high things which are real,
+creates in himself a passion which in turn creates more and
+more dangerous illusions, and thus is his own victim. But
+when false desire dies, illusions end, and Ignorance, dispersing
+like the night, gives place to the Sun of Enlightenment and
+the world lies about such a man as it truly is. And he <span class='it'>knows</span>,
+being no more the prisoner of time and space and their brood
+of follies, for Ignorance, the true cause of all ill, in him is
+dead.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having thus perceived the world as it is, our Lord was
+perfected in wisdom, and shows and illusions being ended for
+him, there died in him that false self which will have all for
+its own; never again to be born, utterly at an end,—even that
+false ego shut in the prison of itself. And in him was completed
+the destruction of craving and evil desire, as a fire
+goes out for lack of fuel. For the man in whom is no separation
+from the Source, in whom is no ignorance, how shall he
+desire that which has no eternity but is transient as a morning
+dream? And over him Desire and Death—which indeed are
+one—had no more dominion.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus first he found the way of perfect knowledge, and in the
+broad east the onrushing of the sun’s golden wheels was heard
+afar.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he reached at last the unfathomable source of Truth, beholding
+past, present, and future as one, having passed beyond
+the glimmer of the six senses into true perception, no longer
+gazing through a narrow window, but about and around him
+the wide horizon—and more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Illumined with all wisdom sat the Buddha, the Perfected One,
+having at last attained, and the light strengthened and grew
+in rapture. And about him the world lay calm and bright and
+a soft breeze lifted the leaves.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And for seven days and nights sat our Lord beneath the Tree,
+lost in contemplation of the World as it Is, submerged in the
+ocean of love, having entered the Nirvana, most utterly at
+peace, and day and night—or what men call such—made their
+solemn procession about him unheeded, for he was lost in bliss,
+and his heart said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now, resting here, have I attained my birth-weary heart’s
+desire, having traversed many lives to this goal. Now have
+I slain the self, and the fetters are broken, and not for myself
+alone.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And lifting up his voice he cried aloud this song of triumph
+in the hearing of all worlds.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>  “Many a house of life</p>
+<p class='line0'>Has held me, seeking ever that which wrought</p>
+<p class='line0'>These prisons of the senses, sorrow-fraught,</p>
+<p class='line0'>  Sore was my ceaseless strife.</p>
+<p class='line0'>    But now,</p>
+<p class='line0'>  Thou Builder of the body-prison,—Thou!</p>
+<p class='line0'>I know thee! Never shalt thou build again</p>
+<p class='line0'>  These walls of pain,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay</p>
+<p class='line0'>  Fresh rafters on the clay.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Broken the House is, and the ridge-pole split,</p>
+<p class='line0'>  Delusion fashioned it.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Safe pass I hence, deliverance to attain.”<a id='r3'/><a href='#f3' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[3]</span></sup></a></p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<div class='footnote'>
+<p class='footnote'>
+<span class='footnote-id' id='f3'><a href='#r3'>[3]</a></span>
+
+For this verse I have used Edwin Arnold’s translation slightly modified.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For now he knew that the builder of the prison, the cause
+of rebirth, the hinderer from the Peace was his own false self,
+the dreamer of dreams, the creator of false desires and illusions,
+and in him this false self was dead, and only the true, the Self
+that is mysterious and high and One with the One survived.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And next, sending his sight through the invisible (for when
+enlightenment is attained all bars of time and space fall and
+man is no longer blinded by his eyes and deafened by his ears),
+he considered all that live, and like a swelling tide there rose
+in him compassion for their darkness and misery, and in deep
+contemplation he considered how to gain deliverance for them
+also, and with this came the thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Shall I teach? And how?” for he doubted that any would
+believe and relinquish that false and illusory self which holds
+men from the light. And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How can they believe the world is other than it seems
+and the very sea and sky and mountains far differing from what
+they have supposed? And they the prisoners of Ignorance.”
+And a deep voice from the Divine within and without him
+answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O let your heart most loving be moved into pity toward
+the people, most ignorant, toiling amid deathly illusions to a
+goal unknown.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as this purpose rooted and flowered within him—a
+mighty blossom opening its chalice of perfume to all worlds
+and heavens, the dawn of the seventh day broke resplendent,
+as it were a new heaven and a new earth and it was light.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Light also within him and a great flooding of light, for not
+only was the Way opened but the steps now lay clear before
+him—the Noble Eightfold Path whereby men setting one foot
+before the other achieve the first heights, the true Self developing
+as does the body from lowly beginnings to great ends and
+royalties, but all in order and gradually, each step rising by
+the stepping stones of dead selves in dead lives to higher.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>O peace: O bliss inexplicable, not to be confounded with
+others, but singular, lovely, and alone! Not in the heavens,
+unattainable save by the strength of Gods, but within reach
+of all who set their faces to the heights in true and steadfast
+endeavour, proceeding step by step in love and patience. For
+the lowly, the little children of the Law, as for the wise and
+noble. For he who is ruler over a few things in this life shall
+in lives to come be ruler over many, so he be found faithful.
+And at the last—not the dewdrop lost in the ocean, but the
+ocean drawn into the dewdrop and eternal Unity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in his heart this thought arose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I will proclaim accordingly the way unto the further shore!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As he saw it, so he told it: He the stainless, the Very
+Wise, the Passionless, the Desireless Lord; for what reason
+should he speak falsely?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus, flooded with sunshine and bathed in peace sat the
+Perfect One.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>N</span><span class='sc'>ow</span> as the Blessed One sat beneath the Tree in the
+Dawn, two merchants bound on their way passed
+through the wood, and within them spoke the Voice
+of Wisdom, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this wood, outspread upon the spurs of the mountain,
+dwells a Rishi—a wise ascetic—deeply to be reverenced; go
+then and make him an offering.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And with joy they went, glad in the opportunity of righteousness,
+and found him enthroned beneath the Tree, laving his
+feet in the ripples of the Sea of Bliss; and with reverence they
+placed food in his bowl, a simple gift and good; and they were
+respectfully silent while he ate, but when they saw that the
+Exalted One, his need over, had washed his bowl and hands
+in the mountain stream, they bowed their heads to his feet,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We who are here take refuge in the Perfect One and his
+Law. May the Blessed One accept us as his adherents from
+this day forth throughout our life, who have taken refuge in
+him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they were accepted as lay followers and went on their
+business rejoicing in peace; and these were the first persons
+who accepted the Law, with faith in the One Enlighted and his
+teaching, for as yet the communion of the Order was not. And
+their names were Bhallika and Tapussa.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet, having risen, he paused, and again seated himself in
+meditation, for he doubted again whether it were either wise or
+possible to make known the great Law to the world.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And into the mind of the Exalted One yet retired in solitude,
+came this thought.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have penetrated this deep truth of the abandonment of
+the imprisoning self, hard to be perceived, difficult to grasp.
+Man moves in an earthly sphere, and there has he his place
+and delights, tapestried about with illusions real indeed to the
+dim feelers of his poor senses. For such it will be hard to
+grasp this matter, the chain of causes and effects, for man
+sees the effect but not the cause. And hard indeed to grasp
+are withdrawal from earthly illusions, extinction of desire, cessation
+of longing, and the deep mysterious Peace. Should I
+now preach the Law, it would gain nothing—grief and weariness
+would be the only fruit of labour. The truth remains
+hidden from men absorbed by hate and greed. It is deep and
+difficult, veiled from the coarse mind. How shall he apprehend
+it whose thought moves in the darkness of earthly preoccupations?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this was without doubt the last, the uttermost temptation
+of that Wicked One, and the subtlety of it stirred a vibration
+in the highest of the Divine Beings, and this thought arose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Truly the world is lost, truly the world is undone if the
+heart of the Perfect One be set on abiding in peace without
+revealing the Law.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And instantly this Divine thought was light in the heart of
+the Exalted One and its symbol was that he beheld a Divine
+Being who raised his folded hands before him, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May it please the Perfect One to preach the Law! There
+are a few whose eyes are not dimmed with the dust of earth.
+They will see. They will hear. Open, O Wise One, the door
+of Eternity. He who stands on the mountain peaks looks out
+over all peoples. Go forth to Victory.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, hearing this voice in his ears, the Exalted One turned
+the gaze of perfect enlightenment upon the world, and he beheld
+this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As on a lotus stem bearing the lotus blossom of ivory,
+some flowers do not rise out of the water but are below the surface,
+and others float on the calm surface, and others rise
+high, reflecting themselves in its mirror, so are men—some
+pure, and some impure, some noble and some ignoble, some
+strong in mind and intellect, others weak and dull,—but all
+needing what they are qualified to take of the light of wisdom.
+And perceiving this, he replied as it were to the Divine Voice:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was because I believed the toil fruitless, Holy One, that
+I have not yet uttered the Word.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Divine Voice perceived what would be, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is done. The Perfect One will preach the Law,” and the
+matter being thus ended the Divine Voice returned to its source
+and the Buddha passed onward in majesty, musing on the
+first means whereby the Law should be made known. And
+since a man owes deep duty to his teachers who, if they have
+not opened the gate have yet directed him in the Path, his
+though hovered first over Alara and Uddaka the Brahmans,—but
+the diamond-clear inward sight revealed to him that in
+the six years of his asceticism they were dead.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And next he remembered the five ascetics who had scorned
+him when in starving he had tasted of the food offered by the
+lady Sujata, thinking “These shall be the first fish I catch in
+my net!”—and because they had betaken themselves to
+Benares, he resolved that leaving the Forest of Enlightenment
+he would go to that great and ancient city bathing her feet in
+holy Ganges and there for the first time make known the
+Pearl he had found.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, alone in the wood, he arose from beneath the Tree and
+turning regarded it steadfastly, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O Tree, because of this, many generations of men as yet
+unmanifested on earth, shall hold your name in honour and
+a leaf of you shall be precious. Rejoice therefore and accept
+the sunshine and rain gladly, knowing that life is in the least
+of your leaves for ever and ever.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then with eyes deep and kind, shedding light, as it were
+about him, steadfast in noble composure did he advance
+through the Wood of Wisdom, taking the way to Benares,
+strengthened as one fed on food divine. And beside the way
+to Benares, journeying on in peace, he met a young and haughty
+Brahman, proud in the possession of his greatness, whose name
+was Upaka, and as this man went he repeated the mystic word
+“Aum,” of which the three letters are the Threefold and the
+word the One, and in this he put his faith. And seeing the
+Exalted One passing by, rapt in meditation, he cried aloud
+with scorn:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ha, Master,—what constitutes the true Brahman?” hoping
+to trip him in his answer. And from the heart of his calm
+the Exalted One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To put away all evil, to be pure in thought, word and deed,
+to transcend pride and desire,—this it is to be a true Brahman.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the answer astonished the proud young man, and turning
+suddenly he looked into the face of the Perfect One and
+said slowly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How comes it that your face is so beautiful, shining like
+the full moon reflected in water, your form so stately? And
+whence the peace that surrounds you? What is your noble
+tribe, and who your master? Here, in this country, where each
+man struggles to find the Way, what is your way?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, glad at heart, the Perfect One answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Happy the solitude of him who is full of joy, who has seen
+the truth. Happy he who in all the wide world has no ill-will,
+self-restrained and guided, Happy—happiest is freedom
+from lusts and desires. And highest is the bliss of freedom
+from the pride of the thought <span class='it'>I am I</span>. No honourable tribe
+have I,—no Teacher. I go alone and content.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Brahman heard in great astonishment, for much as
+he had heard of religion it was not this. And he said,
+hesitating:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And where, sir, are you bound?” And the World-Honoured
+replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I desire to set revolving the Wheel of the Excellent Law,
+and therefore I go to the great and ancient city of Benares,
+to give light to them that sit in darkness and to open the gate
+of true Immortality to men.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the Brahman Upaka heard this his pride was
+revolted and he was angry that a man should assume to himself
+such mastership, and he replied curtly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Reverend person, your way lies onward,” and struck into
+the opposite path, yet as he went, he stopped, proceeded,
+stopped again, lost in thought, for there was that in the occurrence
+which startled him from his equanimity. So the
+moment goes by us, and we do not know it! But the Blessed
+One, proceeding quietly day by day, came at last to Benares,
+to the Deer Park of Isipatana where now dwelt the five
+ascetics who had scorned him. And there they sat practising
+the weary round of their austerities, not knowing that the
+Perfect One who approached them had discovered the way
+that leads from the world of sorrowful becoming and the
+flowing stream of transiency into the world of happy being
+where all is beheld as it is.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For to the man who knows not the way all things flow and
+pass in unreality and nothing abides; but the foot of him who
+has thus attained is set on the Eternal and in That is no motion
+nor any change.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So when they saw him coming the five ascetics were angry,
+and they said to one another:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Friends, here comes the ascetic Gotama [using in contempt
+his family name] he who eats rich food, who lives in self-indulgence
+and has given up his quest. Let us show him no
+respect nor rise up to meet him, nor take his alms-bowl nor
+cloak from him. Let us only give him a seat as we would to
+any person, and he can sit down if he likes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the nearer the Exalted One came to the five the more
+did the majesty of his presence precede him, and the less
+could they abide by their resolution. Slowly they rose, and
+went forward, and one took the cloak and alms-bowl—another
+brought a seat, a third brought water, and accepting the
+water the Blessed One sat down and bathed his weary feet.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And then they addressed him as “Friend” and “Gotama” but
+he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is not seemly, monks, that you should address Him who
+has thus Attained as ‘Friend’ and ‘Gotama.’ For I am now
+the Enlightened. Open your ears: I teach you the Law. If
+you will learn, the Truth shall meet you face to face.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But, still in much doubt, they said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If you were not able, friend Gotama, to attain full knowledge
+by mortification of the body, is it likely you can attain
+it by self-indulgence and a worldly life?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus replied the Blessed One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, I do not live in self-indulgence although I torture
+my body no more. Nor have I forsaken my quest. Open
+your ears. Found is deliverance from death and illusion!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And because the five still doubted, the Blessed One said
+to them:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Tell me, monks,—when we dwelt in the forest, did I ever
+before speak to you in this manner?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, never.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very Evening
+opened their ears and heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, with the five about him, the Perfect One spoke the
+first words of the Teaching of the Law, the first ever heard
+in this world,—and where the last shall be spoken who can
+tell? But it is needful that all to whom their happy Karma
+allows it should hear and ponder these words for in them is
+all truth. Now this is the high teaching in the Deer Park of
+Isipatana, as dusk came on and the shadows.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told in the ancient scriptures that the very evening
+appeared to bow at the knees of the Exalted One—the World-Honoured,
+that she might hear his word. Like a maiden she
+came, the stars the pearls about her throat, the gathering dark
+her braided hair, the deepening vastness of space her cloudy
+robe. For a crown had she the holy heavens where dwell
+divine spirits. The Three Worlds were her body, her eyes
+were as blue lotus blossoms opening to the moonlight, and her
+voice of stillness as the distant murmur of bees. To worship
+and to hear the Perfect One this lovely maiden came.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And though our Lord spoke in the Pali tongue each man
+heard his own. And thus said the Blessed One, the Tathagata,
+He who has thus Attained:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, there are two extremes which he who would follow
+my attainment must shun. The one is a life of pleasure devoted
+to desire and enjoyments. That is base, ignoble, unworthy,
+unreal, and is the Path of Destruction. The other
+is the life of self-mortification and torture. It is gloomy,
+unworthy, unreal. It is nothing and leads to nothing. But
+hear and be attentive, monks, for I have found the Middle
+Way which lies between these two, the way which in a spiral
+of eight stages ascends the Mount of Vision even to the summit
+where dwells the glory of the Peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is the Noble Eightfold Path, and the stages in their
+order. Right Comprehension. Doubts and wrong views and
+mere opinions must be laid aside. The man must perceive
+the distinction between the Permanent and the Transient.
+He must behold facts behind hypotheses. Realization of the
+need of truth is the attitude for its reception. This is the
+first stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Resolution. This is the will to attain, based on self-discipline
+and the vision which has perceived that attainment
+of perfect knowledge is possible. This is the second stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Speech. This is the first step in the practice of self-discipline.
+Indiscretion, slander, abuse, and bitter words are
+forbidden. Only such words must be uttered as are kind,
+pure, true. This is the third stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Conduct. Deeds which are blameless, true, and noble.
+These only must be done. Put away all thought of gain or
+reward here or hereafter, for the motive is the deed. Retaliation
+is dead. Impulse cannot exist with discipline. Deeds
+actuated by likes and dislikes are forbidden,—let each action
+be guided by inward Law irrespective of whom it concerns.
+Act only from this Law which is in its highest Love and Pity,
+and very swiftly will come the insight to distinguish which
+deeds are in harmony with the Law and which gainsay it,—and
+that blessedness will follow which the doer has not thirsted
+to gain or garner. This is the fourth stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Very difficult to climb are the two stages of Right Speech
+and Right Conduct, but, when they are surmounted, fair and
+wide and noble is the prospect seen from those heights, and
+very great self-mastery is gained.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Living. And this includes the right means of earning
+a livelihood for there are means a man cannot follow and
+maintain his integrity and purity. Let him take heed to avoid
+these dangerous circumstances, and which they may be that
+man’s mind shall declare to him if he have trodden the Four
+First Stages. Such a man cannot be in doubt. And so is
+the learner become a Master. This is the Fifth stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Effort. Now, loving, wise, and enlightened, he apportions
+all his strength to wise purpose, fully comprehending
+his deed and its aim. He who has reached this noble stage
+does all, whether eating or drinking, sleeping or waking, working
+or resting, in harmony with the great Law, for in his
+obedience he is perfect, and the Law is his life, nor does he
+need to consider longer than while a man in health need count
+his heart-beat. And this is the Sixth Stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Meditation. This is the right state of a mind at peace,
+self, he considers only the truth, and having utterly abandoned
+the thought of self he is clear in perception, having slain
+illusion and stood face to face with Reality as a man speaks
+with a friend. He is the Knower of Truth. More, he <span class='it'>is</span> the
+Truth, and this is the Seventh Stage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Right Meditation. This the right state of a mind at peace.
+At peace indeed, for what is left for grief? Nothing is here
+to wail, nothing but what must quiet us. Doubt and fear,
+trouble and confusions are dead. Groundless beliefs, false
+hopes and fears are forgotten, and in this stage is the attainment
+of the Peace which passes understanding. This is the
+Eighth Stage from which, having attained, a man cannot fall.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, monks, you may ask, what is the cause from which
+springs the need for the Noble Eightfold Path? It is this.
+Hear the Four Noble Truths.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Birth is the cause of suffering, for life is suffering, passing
+through all the stages of grief from birth to death. This is
+the first Truth. The cause of birth is the thirst for living,
+leading from birth to birth, fed by the lust of the flesh, the lust
+of the eye, the pride of life. This is the second Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The cure of the cause of birth is the extinction of this
+thirst for living by complete extinction of wrong desire, letting
+it go, expelling it, giving it no room. This is the third Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And the fourth Truth is the Noble Eightfold Path. These
+are the four Truths.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So by the truth of suffering, monks, my eyes were opened to
+these conceptions and judgment and vision were opened in me.
+Not by sacrifice nor mortification nor prayer, but by that
+which a man has in himself is the Way of Deliverance opened.
+And as long as I did not know this I had not received enlightenment.
+But now have I attained, and deliverance is secured,
+and henceforth I shall no more go out into birth and death.
+Death has no more dominion over me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This is the first Teaching and it was spoken in the Deer Park
+at Isipatana,—and the five ascetics sat about to hear,
+and borne on these great words, their eyes were opened and
+with joy they accepted the Law, and the chief of them, Kondanna,
+since called “Kondanna the Knower,” entreated the
+Lord that he would receive them as disciples, and in these
+words he received them:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Draw near, monks, well preached is the Doctrine. Walk
+in purity to the goal of the end of all suffering.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And further he taught them of the transiency and impermanence
+of all earthly things and of the Truth that lies beyond
+when the world is apprehended as it is, free of illusion, free
+of the fleeting apprehensions of the senses, and knowing this,
+they entered into the Peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when it was ended the darkness was deep about them
+and the night of rest was come.</p>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1 id='pt3'>PART III</h1></div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XIII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>S</span><span class='sc'>o</span> for a time the World-Honoured dwelt in the Deer
+Park of Isipatana, and men came eagerly to hear him,
+for his teachings resembled none they had heard as
+yet and delivered them from the yoke of priests in teachings
+and beliefs which if they could not inwardly accept made them
+very sorely afraid of the anger of the Gods and compelled
+much ceremonial and expiation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But He, who has thus Attained, the Tathagata, taught them
+thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No priest, no God, can deliver a man. By himself is evil
+done, by himself he endures the shame and pain. By himself
+and his own will and struggle he becomes pure. There is none
+can save a man but himself—No, none in heaven or earth.
+It is he himself who must walk the Way: The Enlightened
+can but show it. Therefore where and how can a priest aid
+you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this appeared to them a most wonderful doctrine, inspiring
+with great courage and resolution, and looking upon
+each other they said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If it be thus, and a man holds deliverance in the hollow
+of his hand, it can be done. To-day, brother, let us take the
+first step.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so the Exalted One taught them to break the fetter
+of the delusion of self—the delusive belief that the individual
+self is real and self-existent. For to abide contented in the
+prison of this apparent self not looking forward to its expansion
+into the Universal self is the shadow of egoism and
+egoism is the mother of sin.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he broke off them the fetter of the belief that outward
+righteousness of conduct will deliver a man, or that safety
+lies in rites and ceremonies, for truly a man can never say
+within himself, “I have placated the Gods and may now go
+my way in peace.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now at this time there was in the great city of Benares, a
+noble youth named Yasas, son of a rich man, master of one of
+the city guilds, and on this son his parents had lavished every
+good thing. He possessed a house of cool shades for summer,
+and another for the season of the rains. And his houses were
+full of delicately beautiful dancing girls, jewelled and perfumed,
+and what pleasure was absent, whether of food or
+wines, or music or any other?—None indeed, for the rich merchants
+dwell in luxury resembling that of kings.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at first all this was good to him and he asked no more;
+but fulfilled every desire on the instant. There are men so
+embruted that this will content them until bodily power fails,
+but the noble youth Yasas was not of these.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And suddenly in the midst of his pleasures deep loathing
+fell upon him and secret disgust because he had sounded the
+utmost of pleasure and no more or better remained, and it
+was like vomit in his mouth, revolting to his soul.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one night as he lay among his women, and they, abandoned
+to sleep, surrounded him, lovely as maidens of Mount
+Sumeru, he leaned against his silken cushions and the hall
+became hateful to him and he could no more endure it, but rose
+softly and put on his gilded shoes and went out into the midnight
+gardens where dripping dew impearled every leaf and
+blossom and glittered in pure moonlight, and the cool and
+calm were excellent. And he walked under the black and
+white light and dark of a long path by trees whose carven
+leaves hung like sculptured stone in the stillness of the air
+and their shadows flitted like dreams over his robes and face
+as he went, meditating upon the unspeakable weariness and
+distaste that filled him and the uncomforted wretchedness of
+youth that in all the world can find no good. And he said
+aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O my heart, how oppressive it is! O, my soul, the speechless
+weariness! Who in all the world shall show me any
+good.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, in his walking, he came to the gate of the garden and
+it stood wide open and the porter lay drowned in sleep, his
+face hidden from the moonlight, and there was none to see
+who came or went, and Yasas wandered on through dewy ways
+and silver pools of moonlight, not knowing where he went,
+having fled the house because he could no longer endure his
+despair. And as he came at last to the Deer Park of Isipatana
+the darkness began to thin for dawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so it was that the Lord had risen from sleep and
+walked beneath the trees of Isipatana in meditation and he
+saw a young man coming, and in the great stillness heard him
+say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O my grief, how deep is my wretchedness,” and he pitied
+him, for he himself had been a rich young man, and he knew
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, taking his seat, the Blessed One said aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, you are weary, but I hold in my hand a life that is
+neither grievous nor wretched. Sit down beside me and hear
+the Law. This doctrine, Yasas, is not oppressive. This is
+not afflicting.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Yasas seeing beneath the trees a young man of royal
+bearing and beauty like to but surpassing his own, yet robed
+as a monk, was startled. Nor could he refuse, and he took
+off his gilded shoes and having saluted the stranger with
+courtesy sat down beside him, and in the quiet of the coming
+dawn, the Blessed One spoke. And first he spoke of the
+misery, worthlessness and ruin of lust, of the strong calm of
+renunciation, of the high way of the Law, and as he heard, in
+place of burning disgust there flowed into the heart of Yasas
+the refreshing streams of wisdom, as when a man sets hot and
+travel-worn feet in the coolness of a pellucid lake. And there
+was that fruit of former births within the noble youth which
+drew him to high things, even as a pure silken fabric is with
+ease dyed a noble colour.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord saw this, and knowing his heart elate and
+ready he then set before him the Four Noble Truths of Sorrow
+and the Noble Eightfold Path, and the eyes of Yasas were
+opened and conquering joy possessed him, and the sun rose
+within and without him in splendour, and it was day.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then Yasas arose and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is impossible that I should return to my former life for
+I see it now unreal and foolish, a tale told by a madman
+signifying nothing. Let me receive from the Lord ordination
+and admission to the Order that I may spend eternity in acquiring
+knowledge.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, monk. The Doctrine is well taught. Lead henceforward
+a new life.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he was received into the Order.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And presently his father, the rich guild-master, came running,
+eagerly asking whether the Exalted One had seen his son
+pass that way. And thus he fell into talk with the Tathagata,
+(even with Him who has thus Attained) and he too became
+ensnared by that great Presence and great Doctrine as a bee
+with perfumed mogra blossoms, for sweet, sweet is the Truth
+to them who are akin to it; and last he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wonderful, great sir, most wonderful! This truly is showing
+the way to the lost and setting a lamp in darkness. I take
+refuge in the Lord, the Law, and the Assembly. May the
+Lord take me as a lay-disciple henceforth, while my life lasts.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he was accepted, and looked upon his son, now divested
+of jewels and clad in the yellow robe with bared shoulder,
+and the Exalted One said to him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it possible, householder, that Yasas, the noble youth
+should return to a worldly life of lusts and pleasure?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, it is not possible. It is gain to Yasas the noble youth,
+that his mind should be set free. Will the Exalted One consent
+this day to take food with me, with Yasas beside him as
+a younger brother?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Buddha by silence gave his consent. So were
+these two freed from the bonds of desire and entered into the
+Peace. For they knew the Truth, and this was their desire.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“From the unreal lead me to the real,</p>
+<p class='line0'>From darkness to light.</p>
+<p class='line0'>From death to immortality.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And of the light companions of Yasas, many, allured to the
+teaching by his joy, heard and were glad and followed, and
+many more, too many to tell, women as well as men (for
+the Blessed One welcomed women also, regarding neither sex
+nor caste) sought the Deer Park of Isipatana and followed the
+Law.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And these are the commandments they accepted, and be it
+understood that the first five only are binding upon laymen
+and women, but the whole ten are binding on the Brotherhood,
+and they may not marry nor take upon them the householder’s
+life while they are a part of the Order.</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote-right95percent'>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>1.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not destroy life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>2.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not take what is not given.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>3.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt abstain from unchastity.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>4.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not lie nor deceive.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>5.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt abstain from intoxicating drinks.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>6.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt eat temperately and not after noon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>7.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not behold dancing, singing, music, or plays.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>8.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not wear garlands, perfumes, ornaments and adornments.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>9.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not use high nor luxurious beds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='listEntry'>
+<span class='listTag'>10.</span><p class='listPara'>Thou shalt not accept gold and silver.</p>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now, when sixty of the disciples had attained complete
+enlightenment, it came into the mind of the Blessed One that
+the time was come to send them forth into the world to spread
+the high Doctrine, and he said to them:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“See now!—You have passed the river and reached the shore
+of peace, and for you birth and death are no more, being one
+with the Unchanging. Go then through every country, teach
+those who have not heard. Make known the Teaching, lovely
+in its origin, its progress, and most lovely in its consummation.
+Make it known both in the spirit and the letter, Go!—each
+one travelling by himself (But later they went two together)
+rescue and receive. I too will go—for the work is
+begun.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Yasas he would not send out into the world for his
+aged parents had need of him in Benares.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the sixty having in all reverence received his commands
+went forth, for in those days books were not and
+each man was a book of the Law, and the Lord himself went
+on to Gayasisa, followed by many who had been ascetics.
+And great joy went with them and a shining peace, for like a
+swelling wave exaltation lifted their souls so that each looking
+on the other was glad.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was at Gayasisa that the Exalted One uttered the great
+Fire teaching.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the cause of it was this. As he and his disciples sat
+on the Elephant Rock near Gaya, with the wide and pleasant
+valley of Rajagriha outspread beneath them, a jungle fire broke
+out across the valley and they watched it, and thus spoke the
+World-Honoured; drawing a lesson as they looked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Everything about and within us, brethren, is on fire, and
+how? The senses are afire with passion, hate and illusion.
+The mind with its perceptions and sensations is afire with
+passion, hate and illusion, betrayed and deceived every way.
+Every approach by which a man beholds and comes in contact
+with life is afire with passion and illusion, and these all in turn
+supply fuel to the burning. And the wise and noble disciple,
+perceiving this, is indifferent to the lies of the senses and the
+sensations arising from them whether pleasant or unpleasant.
+He is indifferent to mental perceptions whether pleasant or unpleasant.
+And this indifference extinguishes the fire and cools
+its ashes and deprives it of fuel and thus frees him from passion
+and illusion, and being free he recognizes his freedom. He
+clings no more to the individual and selfish self. Rebirth is
+destroyed, the life of pure duty and love is lived, and the world
+has no more wherewith to tempt him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And many heard and accepted the teaching and found peace,
+having seen that behind this false world of illusion created
+by the senses lies the true world of things as they are.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And from Gaya, the World-Honoured, followed by his disciples,
+went onward to the city of Rajagriha, the chief town
+of King Bimbisara, and with him went Kassapa, a great disciple,
+and wise, who had been a worshipper of the pure element
+of the sacrificial fire until he had heard the teaching of the
+Buddha, and so great and wise was this man that many of
+the people of Rajagriha doubted which was the Master and
+which the disciple. But the Exalted One willing to honour
+the disciple addressed him thus in presence of the King and
+people.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Welcome, great Master, welcome! Rightly have you distinguished
+Law, winning the highest wisdom. And now, as a
+wealthy noble displays his treasures to bring forgetfulness of
+sorrow to those who love beauty, so do you!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it is told that immediately Kassapa, composing himself
+into ecstasy, was raised up in the air before the eyes of all
+and this wonderful sight drew their eyes in adoration of so
+mighty a marvel, so that with different mouths but in language
+one they magnified the Buddha, exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let the World-Honoured be our teacher. We are his
+disciples.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And perceiving them eager to hear, he addressed them on
+the false self the lying, that is nothing but claims all within
+and without as fuel for its greed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Hear and be wise.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The mind, the thought and all the senses are subject to the
+law of life and death, and, understanding the self and the
+transient things of which it is compounded and how the thought
+and senses act, there is no room left for this individual <span class='it'>I</span> nor
+any ground for this <span class='it'>I</span>, for it is this belief in <span class='it'>I</span> which gives
+rise to all sorrows binding us as with cords to the world of
+illusion. But when a wise man knows there is no such <span class='it'>I</span> and
+that it does not exist, the bonds are severed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of those who believe in this false <span class='it'>I</span>, some say it endures
+beyond death some say it perishes. Grievous is the error of
+both. For if they say this <span class='it'>I</span> is perishable, then all the fruit
+of their striving perishes and there is no hereafter, and who
+can call this deliverance?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And if they say this greedy <span class='it'>I</span> is immortal, then in the midst
+of all life and death in this world of illusion there is but one
+identity that is not born and does not die—even this greedy
+<span class='it'>I</span>. And if the one immortal thing is this greedy <span class='it'>I</span> which arrogates
+all to itself then is it the one thing in the whole Universe
+that is self-perfect, and there is no need of high and noble
+deeds,—this greedy self is lord and master of all, and what
+need to strive for what is already done? For if this greedy
+<span class='it'>I</span> is lasting and imperishable then can it never be changed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But when a man has learned there is <span class='it'>no</span> greedy <span class='it'>I</span>, that it
+does not exist, that it can do nothing, is but an illusion, then,
+freed, he passes on to the wider outlook, the nobler knowledge,
+and he passes on also in other lives the same yet not the same,
+as the shoot springs from the seed, and the seed is not the
+shoot, not one and yet not different. Such is the birth of all
+that lives. Learn therefore that this <span class='it'>I</span> does not exist, and the
+illusion of it conceals That which Is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the World-Honoured, the Happy One, great and glad,
+addressed the King and people, and very joyfully they heard,
+understanding that in the egoism of the <span class='it'>I</span> lives all curse, all
+ignorance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the King became a lay follower and throughout his life
+was faithful and many of the noble young men about him
+believed also, and many of the people.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was here too, in happy Rajagriha, that the Perfect One,
+gained the two greatest of his Arhats, his perfected saints,
+and thus it befell.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On a day to be remembered, it so chanced that Assaji, a
+disciple, walked in the streets, collecting alms of food in his
+bowl, and he walked in the shade, in the yellow robe, one
+shoulder bare, composed and with majesty, musing as he went.
+And he was thus observed by a young Brahman of noble birth
+who was studying spiritual things in the city under a teacher,
+and when he saw him the dignity of his serene presence moved
+the heart of the Brahman Sariputta, and he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Surely this is one who has already attained the way of
+purity! I will go and ask him in whose name he has renounced
+the world and by what Law. Not yet, for he is collecting alms,
+but presently.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore he watched, and when the venerable Assaji had
+received food from the householders he turned back, and Sariputta
+approached him with a courteous salutation, which having
+concluded, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Friend, your eyes are shining, your colour pure and clear.
+Great is your composure. In whose name have you renounced
+the world and who is your honourable Master?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Friend, my master is the Son of the Sakya House, the descendant
+of Kings; I am but a novice. As yet I cannot tell the
+great heights of the Law, but in a few words I can give its
+spirit.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Be it so, friend. Instruct me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And musing a moment, Assaji said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Perfected One teaches how existences apparently
+separate are dependent upon One Cause, how they depend upon
+one another, their apparent separateness springing from ignorance
+and illusion as its cause, and how these existences can be
+ended and the Truth of Unity appear. This is the teaching
+of the Son of the Sakyas.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as he heard these words, suddenly their implications
+and how they affect all within and without us and the whole
+Universe, flashed into the clear vision of Sariputta, and he understood
+as a consequence:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whatever is subject to the law of beginning that also is
+subject to the law of decay, and how should the <span class='it'>I</span> be excepted?
+There is but one Unchanging, motionless and eternal.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And deeply moved, he said to Assaji:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If the teaching were nothing else but this you have at any
+rate overpassed suffering. That which many ages have not
+seen is revealed to us now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And leaving Assaji, who pursued his way in peace, Sariputta
+hastened with winged feet to his friend and fellow-student
+Moggalana, and Moggalana seeing him cried out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your eyes are shining. Your colour is pure and clear.
+Have you then found deliverance from death?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have found it. I have found it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And standing there breathless he told him of Assaji and his
+words, and on the great mind of Moggalana, strong in clear
+perception, flashed also the truth of the nonentity of the
+greedy <span class='it'>I</span>, and unable to delay, panting for the truth, they left
+the ascetic who taught them, and hurried to the wood where
+the Perfect One taught sitting among his disciples, and when
+he saw the two young Brahmans approach full of eagerness
+and awe, he said to those about him. “Welcome these two,
+for they shall be my greatest—the one unsurpassed for wisdom,
+the other for supernormal power.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he himself welcomed them with joy, seeing that they
+would stand about him as bright stars about the moon.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So when they had told him their case and heard his words,
+he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, monks, the Doctrine is well taught! Lead henceforward
+the pure life for the extinction of suffering,” and thus
+received them to be his own.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And shortly after this he founded the Sangha, the Brotherhood
+formally, and drew up the first code for its governance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the number of his followers grew and increased mightily,
+for not only the people but many of the noble youths of the
+Kingdom of Maghada joined themselves to this most noble
+young man, the Son of the Sakyas, so much so that some of the
+people were angry and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The ascetic Gotama is come to bring childlessness and
+widowhood and the decay of families,” and they made a verse
+that was repeated in the streets:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“The great monk has come through the wood-ways:</p>
+<p class='line0'>  he sits on the hill,</p>
+<p class='line0'>And whom will he steal from us next,</p>
+<p class='line0'>  for he takes whom he will?”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And his disciples hearing this verse went to the Exalted One
+and repeated it, dwelling on the anger of some of the people.
+But the Perfect One smiled, for the young monks were angry.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Seven days will this excitement last, monks, and for that
+time only. But if they taunt you with that verse, reply with
+this:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“The heroes, the Perfect Ones, lead by the Truth:—</p>
+<p class='line0'>    and who calls it amiss?</p>
+<p class='line0'>If the Buddha persuades by the truth, will ye</p>
+<p class='line0'>    blame him for this?”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the disciples smiled also and were content, and in seven
+days it was forgotten, and still the great and lowly flocked to
+hear.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now of the people who flocked to him many desired signs
+and wonders that so they might be convinced of the truth,
+but these were not given in that manner and the Blessed One
+forbade his disciples to exalt themselves thus. For there is
+nothing but the taintless beauty of Law throughout the worlds,
+and the wise know there is no miracle at all, but only a higher
+law, not known to the ignorant, which in its action appears to
+them strange and a miracle. Yet did our Lord teach that
+for the instructed there are the powers, since to them in their
+higher consciousness the bonds of time and space and form
+exist no more. But it is useless and perilous to expose these
+mysteries before the ignorant who can but see in them the
+breaking of the law, and see it either with fear or greed.
+Therefore he taught that those who have attained should be
+wise and silent in knowledge where the occasion does not
+demand speech or action, and very rarely can they be demanded,
+for each stage has its own knowledge and cannot rise to the
+knowledge of a consciousness above its own. Hence all this
+foolish talk of miracle and the like. But for those who know
+even in part the fetters are broken:—the binding fetters of
+form, time and space. And of such a case the Lord told this
+story, while he rested at one time at Jetavana:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There was a faithful, noble, joyful disciple who desired to
+hear again the words of Him who has thus Attained, and he
+came in the evening to the river Aciravati, hoping to cross
+by the ferry. But so it was that the boatman had himself gone
+to hear the great words and there was no ferry. Then, joyful
+in meditating on the Light, and lost of all else, that
+faithful disciple walked on the water of the river, and his
+feet made no holes in the water, and he went as if on dry land.
+But suddenly in the middle of the river he saw waves, and his
+joy sank and his feet with it, for fear entered his soul and
+fear is a fetter of the world of form, so that he immediately
+became subject to it. But again he strengthened his inmost
+self in meditation on the Enlightened One, and again he walked
+on the water and so came to Jetavana and saluted the Blessed
+One, and took his seat respectfully beside him, and the Lord
+asked: ‘Disciple, did you come with little fatigue by the road?
+Have you lacked for food?’ And he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, in my joyful meditation I received support so that
+I walked on the water and did not sink, and thus have I come
+to Jetavana as though I walked on dry land.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord said: “So also has it been in past lives.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For he taught that though there are times and seasons for
+the powers to be manifested to the ignorant, they are very
+few.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XIV</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>N</span><span class='sc'>ow</span> while the Perfect One dwelt by Rajagriha there
+came to him a message from Kapila, from his father,
+the Maharaja Suddhodana, and it said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My son, tidings have reached me of great things concerning
+you and the fulfilment of prophecies. But of these I will
+not speak for it is fitting that I should hear them from your
+own lips. But this I have to say: Is it not just and right
+that I should see my son before I die? Come to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when this reached the Enlightened One it was impossible
+that he should doubt or hesitate, for who had more right
+to call upon him? And so, preparing himself for the journey
+on foot with certain of his disciples, once more he set his face
+to Kapila looking toward the mountains.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And many things filled his heart, of memory and of affection,
+but all now controlled and guided by divine knowledge and
+certitude so that he went surrounded by peace and glad in that
+he carried a great gift to his father exceeding all gold, all
+jewels of all kings, if so it could be received, repaying thus
+the tenderness which had guarded his youth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the Maharaja and the people of Kapila heard
+he would come, from that day forth they watched the ways to
+the city that they might with due eagerness and joy welcome
+the great return of their Prince. For they said proudly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Our Prince who left us to seek enlightenment has now
+found it, and gloriously returns!” and they thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To what kingdom has the like happened?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So journeying on foot, the Blessed One, crowned with the
+Ten Perfections, at last approached Kapila, and those who
+were the far outposts of the watch ran back to the next and
+those to the next until it reached the city crying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Prince comes! The Prince comes!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Maharaja having prepared himself, surrounded by
+his lords and all the neighbouring nobility, went forth along
+the flower-strewn ways (for the people hurried with flowers
+and banners and perfumes) to meet the great guest. And the
+heart of the Maharaja was hot within him and exulted,
+thinking:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He returns and the clouds are past and the sun of his glory
+drowns all in its brightness, and my good days are come again.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they paused in the principal street of the town and there
+waited in the shade, with banners and flowers making gay the
+blue air about them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then at long last moving through the streets, followed by
+two others, the Maharaja and his nobles saw a young monk
+clad in the yellow robe, with one shoulder bared, who in his
+hands carried an alms-bowl, and at each house door stopped
+and silently tendered the bowl, receiving with majesty what
+was given, and passing on with patience when it was refused.
+And it was his son.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then shame and love and anger contended in the heart of
+the Maharaja and tore him like a whirlwind among the leaves
+of a tree, and he clenched his robe across his breast and cried
+out aloud to Siddhartha:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am put to shame—to horrible shame. My son a beggar!
+Our race is beaten to the earth with shame.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And standing calmly before the angry Maharaja the Blessed
+One after due salutation lifted his eyes and replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Maharaj, this is the custom of our race.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This horrible thing is not so. Not one of our ancestors has
+ever begged his bread.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Maharaj, you and your high race claim descent from kings,—but
+my descent is far otherwise. It is from the Buddhas
+of ancient days, and as they have done, begging their food from
+the charitable, so do I, nor can I otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But seeing his father still in pain from anger and sorrow,
+the Perfected One spoke thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do I not know that the King’s heart bleeds with love and
+memory, and that for his son’s sake he adds grief to grief?
+But now let these earthly bonds of love be instantly unloosened
+and utterly destroyed, for there are greater and higher. Ceasing
+from thought of such love, let the King’s mind receive
+from me such spiritual food as no son has yet offered to father,
+a gift most beautiful and wonderful.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So leading the King by the hand they went together to the
+palace, the mind of the Maharaja quieted and subdued as after
+a storm the billows sink to rest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And within the palace the Perfected One looked for Another,
+but she was not there, for her very life beat against her body
+in agony, remembering, remembering, and she said in her
+heart:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I will not go. I cannot go. If I am of any value in his
+eyes, I, the mother of his son, he will come to me. I cannot
+go to him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, when a little time had passed, the Perfected One arose,
+and attended by the two mightiest of his disciples and followed
+by the Maharaja went to the Palace of his wife, and as he
+went, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, if this lady should embrace me, do not hinder her,
+though it be against the rule.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And pacing silently beside him, the two comprehended the
+wisdom and compassion of the Lord, bowing their heads.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they entered the hall where the Princess stood unveiled,
+the glory of her hair shorn, clad in a coarse robe of
+yellow resembling his own, and divested of all jewels and
+splendours, and she stood like the marble image of a woman as
+he entered, pale in the shadows.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, seeing him, suddenly love and manifold anguish broke
+in a freshet in her heart as when the melting snows fill Rohini
+until she floods her banks; and pride and love, each stabbed
+to the heart, strove within her, and with piteous eyes she looked
+upon her Lord once so near and now so far, as he stood calmly
+regarding her with a look she could not understand, and love
+had the victory, and she ran to him and falling on the ground
+laid her face upon his feet and embraced them weeping most
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was silence, none hindering or speaking, and he
+looked down upon her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So she lay.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But after awhile remembrance returned to her and his silence
+and the distance wide as heaven and earth between them,
+and she rose with majesty and withdrew herself to one side
+and stood with bowed head while the Maharaja declared to the
+Perfected One her griefs and patience and mortifications so
+that she might resemble him, abjuring her bed for a mat laid
+upon the ground, and the feasts of the palace for one poor
+meal a day, and much more. And the Prince heard and speaking
+slowly, still with his eyes upon her, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is true. Great also was the virtue of this high lady,
+the mother of Rahula, virtue in a former life which I remember
+and she too will remember one day with gladness. Lady,
+mother of my son, the way that I have opened is open for you
+also. Come and hear.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And with his eyes upon her to the last he turned and went
+away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So that evening, seated by the bank of Rohini, the Perfect
+One taught the Way before his own people, and they crowded
+to hear; and this high lady seated, veiled so that none might
+see her hidden eyes, heard also, and as she listened, illusion
+fell from her; she perceived the Unchanging, the Formless, the
+Beautiful, and the illusory forms of this world and the delusion
+of time fell from her also, and she beheld her love no longer
+past and done with, but eternal as the eternity of the Self that
+alone endures, and the imprisoning self which alone can suffer
+died within her and left her enfranchised, and inward light
+shone upon her and she knew the truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So also was it with the Maharaja and the Maharani Prajapati
+and many more.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But on the next day the Princess Yashodara called to her son
+Rahula and dressed him in his best until he shone bright and
+beautiful as a star, and she laid her cheek against his, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Go now, beloved, and seek your father and ask for your
+inheritance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mother, I know of no father but the Maharaja. What father?
+And why should he withhold my inheritance?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she said: “Go and ask. But first see, that you may
+know him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She led the boy to the window and pointed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That monk, clothed in the yellow robe, he whose face
+shines like the sun in its strength, is your father. And he has
+great wealth—riches, not to be told in words. Go, son, and
+demand your inheritance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the boy went, wondering and desiring, and in the garden
+he ran quickly and catching the robe of the Blessed One, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My father, how happy I am to be near you. O day of
+gladness,” and tears of joy overflowed his eyes, seeing his father
+so great and beautiful. But to test him, the Blessed One was
+silent, pacing toward the Nyagrodha grove, and still the child
+followed, entreating for his inheritance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then when they reached the grove, the Perfected One turned
+smiling to Sariputta the great disciple, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monk, what think you? For worldly wealth perishes, but
+this remains. Shall I make my son heir to the Greatest? Let
+us admit him to the Order.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it was done, and the heart of the Princess sang within
+her for bliss, and henceforward the boy trod the way of Peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So leaving joy and tranquillity behind him and measureless
+content in the soul of Yashodara, the Blessed One returned to
+Shravasti on the river Rapti and there a rich merchant, Anathapindika,
+gave to the Order a pleasant grove named Jetavana,
+and a monastery, and there during the rains our Lord
+dwelt and many of his teachings and discourses were spoken at
+Jetavana.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this was the manner of his life.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The Blessed One would rise early in the morning, and that
+some one of his followers might gain merit he accepted service,
+and water was brought to him for ablution, and having performed
+this he would sit alone until it was time to go and beg
+his food. Then he would put on his tunic, girdle, and robe,
+and taking his bowl would enter the village or town for alms.
+Sometimes alone, sometimes with other monks, many of them
+men of great and noble birth. And it seemed that gentle
+breezes cleared the air for him and clouds let fall rain to lay the
+dust, and where he placed his foot the way was even and
+pleasant and flowers blossomed. And it appeared to those
+who saw, that rays of radiance surrounded his person, since
+he possessed the attributes of that true world which encompasses
+the illusions of the false world perceived by the senses.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>By all these tokens and more did the people know who approached,
+and they said to each other:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Bhagavat—the Blessed One—has now entered for alms,”
+and robed in their best, with perfumes, flowers, and such offerings
+as they could give, they came into the street. There,
+having paid their homage, some would implore him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Reverend sir, let us feed ten monks,” and some, “Let us
+feed twenty,” and the rich “Let us feed a hundred.” And the
+most fortunate would take the bowl of the Blessed One and
+fill it with food.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When he had finished his meal, the Blessed One considering
+what was suited to the minds of those who listened, would so
+teach them the Law that many would attain to the fruit of
+knowledge in its different degrees, and some in the highest—that
+of a clear perception in saintship,—and having thus given
+his good gifts to the multitude he would rise and return to the
+quiet monastery.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On his arrival there he sat in a pavilion shaded from the
+sun, on an excellent Buddha-mat which had been spread for
+him, and there waited for the monks to finish their meal, and
+when this was done he entered his chamber and bathed his
+feet from the dust of travel.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then, standing, he exhorted the assembly of monks, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, diligently work out your salvation, for not often
+is a Buddha—an Enlightened One—seen in the world—not
+often is it possible thus to hear the Law. And if even an animal
+can keep the Precepts, how much more a man.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at this point some would ask the Blessed One for exercises
+in meditation and to each he assigned what suited
+best their characters. And then all did obeisance to the Perfect
+One, and dispersed to the places where they were in the
+habit of spending the night or day, some to the forest, some
+to the foot of trees, some, in meditation, to the heavenly places.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One, then entering his chamber, would, if
+wearied, lie down for awhile, not sleeping but mindful and
+conscious and on his right side, as a lion takes his repose. And
+when refreshed he rose, and sent his gaze through the world
+(for to the Illuminated this is possible), to see who it was possible
+he might aid.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And after this, the people of the village or town near which
+he might be dwelling assembled, again in their best robes, and
+he, approaching with majesty, took his seat on the Buddha-mat
+in the little audience hall, and declared the doctrine to his
+hearers who sat before him rapt in hearing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when they had made obeisance and departed it was the
+custom of the Perfected One to bathe himself, and after that
+to assume his tunic and girdle, and throwing his robe over his
+right shoulder to go into his chamber and there fall into
+deep meditation, and after that was the rest of the day given
+to the monks who assembled, coming from here, there, and
+everywhere, to question the Blessed Lord and ask his instructions
+or plead for a sermon and all this he very gladly gave,
+so consuming the first watch of the night.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And during the middle watch of the night he would commune
+with the blessed spirits of the Universe, they drawing very
+near him in the true accord.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the last watch of the night he divided into three parts,
+and weary with much sitting he paced up and down considering
+many things, and in the second part would enter his chamber
+and rest, and in the third, seated, send the diamond-clear
+ray of his perception through the world that he might commune
+with any soul who needed that communion.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus were spent the days of him who had attained the
+<span class='it'>Paramitas</span>, the Ten Perfections.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And if there be any who would know of the ten, these are
+they.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Almsgiving, morality, long-suffering, manliness, meditation,
+mystic insight, resolution, strength, knowledge, and skill in
+the choice of means.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>In all these was our Lord perfected. And above even these
+in Love. For hear the teaching of the Lord:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her
+son, her only son, so let the disciple cultivate love without
+measure toward all beings. Let him cultivate toward the
+whole world above, below, around, a heart of love unstinted,
+unmixed with differing or opposing interests. And let a man
+maintain this mindful love whether he stands, walks, sits or
+lies. For in all the world this state of heart is best.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For the Lord, the Blessed One, taught that this love must
+increase until the wide Universe is suffused with its radiance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Our mind shall not waver. No evil speech will we utter.
+Tender and compassionate will we abide, loving, void of malice.
+And with rays of love shall we suffuse all that is, even with
+love grown great and measureless.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And because of this high teaching many men and women attained
+to Arhatship, becoming perfected saints, seeing things
+as they are in themselves and not according to their illusory
+appearances in this world of illusion,—and they made great
+songs of triumph and victory, saying that when the Hindrances
+are removed from a man he is as one set free from debt, imprisonment,
+and slavery.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For when the five Hindrances are put away within him, he
+is a free man and secure, and gladness springs up within him,
+and joy, and so rejoicing all his frame becomes at ease, and
+in that peace his heart is stayed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again, this song of Right Rapture.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“It is in very bliss we dwell, we who hate not those who hate us:</p>
+<p class='line0'>Among men full of hate we dwell, who are void of hate.</p>
+<p class='line0'>It is in very bliss we dwell, we in health among the ailing.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Among men weary and sick, we continue well.</p>
+<p class='line0'>It is in very bliss we dwell, we, free from care among the careworn.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Among men tortured with unrest, we are calm.</p>
+<p class='line0'>It is in very bliss we dwell, we who have no hindrances.</p>
+<p class='line0'>We have become feeders on joy, like to the shining Gods.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The shining Gods.” What then are these Gods and Shining
+Ones? Thus have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Surely the Gods are they who having acquired mighty merit
+by great good deeds reign and shine for ages until the power
+of their good deeds is exhausted. For they knew not the
+Nirvana and the disintegration of the false self, and so desired
+Paradise as their reward, and Paradise they have. But though
+it last for ages, when the power of their good deeds is exhausted
+then they too must enter again by the gate of birth and humbly
+learn to extinguish all desire, even though it be the desire of
+Heaven, and to know that the greedy <span class='it'>I</span> which desired these
+things is non-existent, until they too, treading the Noble Eightfold
+Path, enter upon the highest wisdom and attain to the Nirvana,
+the Peace, for this alone is that comprehension which
+beholds the heavens and hells as pictures, as illusions, as nothing,—and
+whoso possesses it sits above manhood and Godhead
+alike, having utterly attained.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus it must be when ignorance is dead and wisdom made
+perfect, for the vain shows of ignorance are dispersed in clear
+perception of the things that are true and eternal.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When the wise man by earnestness has driven vanity far
+away, he has climbed the terraced heights of wisdom, and,
+care-free, looks down upon the illusory world, the careworn
+crowd, as he who standing upon a mountain top watches serenely
+the toilers in the plain.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a man must have what he desires, be it the Paradises
+that pass, or the Peace that is eternal.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XV</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now persons of all castes, high and low, women as
+well as men, sought the teachings of the Lord—and
+he received all with courtesy and gladness, for he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There is no caste in blood and tears.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they brought him their griefs and questionings. And
+very strange to them did it seem to behold a great Prince surrounded
+by young men of the noble families who each and all
+had thrown off the Hindrances of the illusory world and forsaking
+all had followed the Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when they themselves had seen the light no longer did
+it appear strange, for who will stay to watch a fragment of
+broken glass flash in the sun, when before him pulse the great
+lights of a royal jewel, brother of the sun and stars.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And about this time the beautiful harlot of Vaisali, the Lady
+Amra, lovely as the divine Shri rising from the ocean, heard
+that a great Lord of Wisdom was come to Vaisali, and she offered
+him the use of her Garden of Mangoes outside the city
+that he might rest in the delicious shade of her trees and in the
+little pavilion where she took her pleasure, for she was rich in
+gold and jewels and resembled a great Princess in pride and
+beauty. But she did not herself think to see him, for the joy
+of life held her as the nectar of flowers holds the clinging bee,
+making his wings heavy so that he scarce can fly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But her steward came to her, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O auspicious lady, I know not how it is, but all the nobles
+and people are afoot, making their way to the Garden of
+Mangoes, and when I asked the reason they replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is because of the man who rests there. There is none
+like him—none! And he is the son of a King and has forsaken
+his kingdom that he may find a greater.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she leaped to her feet laughing, ever ready for some
+new sight, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it so? Then make ready my vehicle and I will go with
+Subaddha to see the man.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they harnessed her velvet-white oxen with tassels of
+gold to her gilded car, and she took her place with the lady
+Subaddha at her feet and a golden canopy above her head,
+shining like the moon in her glory, and she went as a queen,
+casting proud glances about her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now it was so early in the day that folk were busied with
+their labours and the nobles were yet sleeping and the way was
+clear before her, and the oxen trod quietly between the neem
+trees and fan palms until she came to the gate of her Garden
+of Mangoes, and there they halted in young sunlight and the
+dew of dawn. And a man stood by the gate as though he
+guarded it, and he was robed in yellow with one arm and shoulder
+bare, and when she would have entered he stretched out his
+arm and forbade her, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lady, being such a woman as you are, how is it seemly that
+you should enter this garden? Return whence you came.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the blood fell away from her face and left her pale
+at that saying, for she had lived all her life like a queen, and
+now it seemed that scorn and the end were come upon her, and
+her beauty nothing though she shone like a night of moon and
+stars in her woven webs of gold. And silence fell upon her
+as she looked upon this noble young man serene and beautiful,
+who regarded her not, nor could she say, “The garden is mine,”
+for she was afraid.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So then, between the feathering palms and the bamboo leaves
+that floated on still air, came another man, also clothed in the
+yellow robe, but walking like a Prince, and he said softly to
+the other:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Stay her not, brother Yasas, for our Master would look
+upon her beauty. Descend, Lady, and follow.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a little comforted at his saying she descended from
+beneath the canopy and followed through the palms and the
+mango trees that were her own and now seemed not hers.
+And there was great quiet, for the monk said no word and
+the leaves forbore to stir and not a cricket chirped and the
+sun was very early and dewy in the green ways. And she
+thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What shall I see? For kings and princes have feared my
+beauty and I mocked them. And if he be wise, yet have the
+stern ascetics of the forests—those whose power the very Gods
+dreaded,—been seduced from their wisdom by the nymphs of
+Heaven. They have gone utterly astray, and very certainly
+I am beautiful as Menaka or Urvasi.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, now they turned into a green way beside the still
+pool where the lotuses bloomed, and it was cool and dim with a
+deep shade of trees, for they let down pillared stems to root
+again in earth and make a forest temple that scarcely a ray
+might pierce. And within the shade was One seated with
+folded hands and feet and behind his head a raying light that
+shone like the midnight moon, and, lost in calm, he looked out
+into the worlds.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the man beside her fell on his knees and hid his face.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Not for me, O, not for me, least of all the disciples is it
+meet that I should tell of this or of the similitude of the Blessed
+One—the very wise, the passionless, the desireless Lord in the
+eyes of such as loved him. Only this I know, that the woman
+stood amazed, forgetting her beauty, forgetting herself, forgetting
+all in the Three Worlds but only that One. And the
+rock crystal that was her heart melted within her and flowed
+away in a river of tears: nor could she stay her feet, but slowly,
+very slowly, she approached and before his feet she fell and
+laid her face on the earth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now after awhile the Exalted One commanded her to rise
+and be seated, and he incited and gladdened her with high
+discourse so that she could no longer fear but only love in
+hearing these great words with ears that drank them as the
+parched earth yearns for the rains. And if it be asked how a
+woman of evil life should thus be honoured, should thus harken
+with love and understanding, I tell this thing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Many lives ago was there a deep forest where beasts and
+birds dwelt and nourished their young in peace, but one day
+a wind blew and brought on its wings a great fire. And none
+had pity on the beasts and birds but one pheasant, glorious of
+plumage, and this, caring nothing for her own life, plunged
+into a stream of pure water, and flying upward shook the drops
+from her feathers on the flames. Therefore Indra, King of the
+Gods, seeing said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Foolish bird! and what can this do? You weary yourself
+in vain! This is a deed for the great and not for a little bird!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she: “You are Indra, King of Heaven, and with a wish
+you could quench this fire, yet do not. But as for me while
+it burns I have no time for words.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again she flew against the fire, sprinkling water. And
+the Great God blew with his breath, extinguishing the fire, but
+the pheasant had perished. Now in that former life was the
+Lady Amra that bird, and because the fruit of a high deed can
+never perish so, passing through many lives, she attained at last
+to lie at the feet of the Blessed One. Just and perfect is the
+Law.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, seated, at his feet, she received the Heart of Wisdom
+and accepted the first noble Truth, the Truth of suffering.
+And when the Exalted One judged that she could receive no
+more that day, he dismissed her, and she bowed at his feet
+and said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O, may the Lord in deep compassion do me the honour of
+eating at my house to-morrow.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And all assembled thought this could not be, but the Blessed
+One gave by silence his consent, and circling reverently about
+him three times she departed glad of heart, and the people
+made way for one so honoured.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now the nobles of Vaisali had come out to meet the World-Honoured
+and they were on the road, and Amra in the dancing
+joy of her heart drove up against them, axle to axle, and they
+said angrily.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How is it, Amra, that you, being such a one, drive up
+against us?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she cried aloud.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble persons, I have bidden the Exalted One for tomorrow’s
+meal, and he comes—he comes!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they halted amazed, and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sell us the honour of his company for great weights of gold.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she, glowing with joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble persons, were you to give me Vaisali and all its subject
+territories yet would I not give up this honourable meal.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the angry nobles cast up their hands, crying.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We are outdone by this mango-girl! We are out-reached
+by this mango-girl.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in anger they proceeded to the garden and went in before
+the Lord where he sat surrounded with calm, and they
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May the Exalted One do us the honour of taking his meal
+together with his disciples at one house to-morrow?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Noble persons, I have promised to eat with the Lady Amra.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again they threw up their hands exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We are outdone by this mango-girl. Great shame to us is
+this!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord Buddha robed himself early in the morning
+and took his begging bowl and his disciples followed, and he
+went to the Street of Flowers, and Amra set sweet milk-rice
+and cakes before the Lord and his followers and she herself
+attended upon them in great humility and they ate the food
+they had not thought to eat, and when it was eaten, she sat
+lowly by his side and folding her hands, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Holy One, I present this house to the Order. Accept it, if
+it be your will.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One accepted the gift, seeing the heart that
+made it, and after inciting and gladdening her with high discourse,
+he rose and went his way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in merciful deeds and right living this lady grew, and
+the Heart of Wisdom strengthened in her, and in this very
+life she became a perfected saint—a great Arhat—and entered
+the Nirvana—the Peace. For, as the lotus flowers do not
+grow on dry land but spring from black and watery mud, so
+even by the strength of her passion and sin and the deeps of
+experience she reached the heights. And she it was who made
+The Psalm of Old Age, and smiled in its making.</p>
+
+<div class='dramastart'><!----></div>
+
+<p class='dramaline-cont'>“Glossy and black as the down of the bee my curls once clustered.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>They, with the waste of years, are liker to hemp or to bark-cloth,</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Such and not otherwise, runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.</p>
+
+<p class='dramaline-cont'>Lovely the lines of my ears as the delicate work of the goldsmith.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>They, with the waste of years, are seamed with wrinkles and pendent.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Such and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.</p>
+
+<p class='dramaline-cont'>Full and lovely in rounding rose of old the small breasts of me.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>They, with the waste of the years, droop sunken as skins without water.</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>So and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.</p>
+
+<p class='dramaline-cont'>Such hath this body been. Now age-weary, weak and unsightly,</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>Home of manifold ills: old house whence the mortar is dropping</p>
+<p class='dramaline'>So and not otherwise runneth the rune of the Soothsayer.”<a id='r4'/><a href='#f4' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[4]</span></sup></a></p>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<div class='footnote'>
+<p class='footnote'>
+<span class='footnote-id' id='f4'><a href='#r4'>[4]</a></span>
+
+Translated by C. F. Rhys Davids.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And inasmuch as the Sister thus discerned impermanance in
+all phenomena, knowing the world we see is but the creation
+of our senses, she, making clear her insight, attained, leaving
+behind her all fear and grief. For who shall measure the
+bounds and deeps and height and length of that wisdom that
+is one with Love?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Hear also the story of the very wise and glad and gay Lady
+Visakha—that pillar of the Order, who abiding in the world as
+a great lady of riches yet gave her heart to wisdom and the
+Law of the Perfect One, for open is the way to all.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She was daughter to a great man, Balamitra, and was a young
+maiden in her father’s house, when a Brahman commissioned
+by the Treasurer Migara to choose a wife for his son came
+that way, and when he arrived he saw Visakha and other girls
+going into the wood in search of amusement, and he watched
+them idly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now the other girls were frivolous, running, skipping, whirling
+about and singing, but Visakha walked quietly with them,
+observing all and saying little. And when they came to the
+tank the others carelessly stripped themselves and began to
+play in the clear water. But Visakha lifted her clothes by
+degrees as she entered and by degrees lowered them as she came
+out, careful and modest in her conduct. And, after this, food
+was distributed, and the other girls ate hurriedly and greedily
+and then gave the remnants to their attendants. But Visakha
+gave food first to those who served her, and then ate temperately
+herself.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Brahman, still watching, saw that as the girls returned
+there was water across the path and the others took
+off their shoes and waded, but Visakha remained shod, and
+when they came to a wood she kept her sunshade up though
+the others had lowered theirs.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there the Brahman came up with her, in much astonishment
+and questioned her, and seeing him to be a holy and dignified
+person she replied with respectful courtesy. And thus
+he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear girl, whose daughter are you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sir, I am the daughter of Balamitra.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear girl, be not angry if I question you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“While those girls were skipping, dancing and twirling, with
+other unseemly manners, you walked quietly; why, dear girl?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because, great sir, all girls are their parents’ merchandise.
+If in leaping and twirling I were to injure myself, I must be
+kept by my parents while I live, for none would woo me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good, dear girl. I understand. Now, in entering the water
+your companions stripped themselves but you went clothed
+and modest. And why?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O uncle, maidens must be shame-faced. It is not well for
+them to be seen unclothed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear girl, there was none to see.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Uncle, you saw.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good, dear girl. And again, the others neglected their attendants,
+but you fed yours first. And why?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For this reason, uncle; we have easy days and feastful;
+they, hard work always.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good, dear girl. And why in wading through the water did
+you keep your shoes on?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because in water one cannot see where one plants one’s
+feet. I would not cut mine!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And in the wood, dear girl, you kept your sunshade open.
+Why? For then there was shade from the trees?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But also, uncle, the droppings of birds, the malice of
+the monkeys letting fall unpleasant fragments, the falling of
+leaves and twigs. In the open this seldom happens; in a wood
+often.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So full of delight at her good sense, the Brahman went to
+her parents, and asked her in marriage for the son of Migara.
+And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This girl will make a noble wife and a great lady, for she
+is full of thought for others and wise with the very wisdom
+of the Law. Give her to the son of Migara.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it was granted and they sent her to her husband in the
+city of Savatthi. Now Visakha was one who followed the
+Enlightened One with all her wise heart, but it was not so with
+Migara, her husband’s father, nor yet with his household.
+But she gratified their eyes for they demanded the Five Beauties
+in a daughter of the House, and these five she richly possessed
+namely, beauty of hair, beauty of flesh, beauty of bone,
+beauty of skin, and beauty of youth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And beauty of hair is when the hair resembles a peacock’s
+tail, falling to the end of the tunic where it curls upward.
+Beauty of flesh, when the lips resemble a bright red gourd.
+Beauty of bone, when the teeth gleam between the rosy lips like
+cut mother-of-pearl, with even division. Beauty of skin, when
+without the application of any cosmetic it is smooth as a lotus-wreath
+and white as Kanikara flowers. Beauty of youth is
+the endurance of the gaiety and freshness of youth after many
+child-births. All these had Visakha, and yet another, for her
+voice was sweeter than music, like the silver sounding of a little
+gong. And on parting her father presented her with a magnificent
+jewel adornment known as the Great Creeper Parure,
+and a part of it consisted of a peacock with five hundred feathers
+of red gold in each wing, the beak of coral, the eyes of
+jewels and likewise the neck and tail-feathers. And on Visakha’s
+head it resembled a peacock perched on a height, and it
+gave forth music and appeared to be real.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when she was established in her new home she found
+that Migara, her father-in-law, was a follower of the naked
+ascetics, and they and he cast scorn on the Perfect One, and
+this disturbed her much, and the ascetics said to Migara:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O householder, you have introduced into your family an
+arrant misfortune breeder, a disciple of the monk Gotama.
+Expel her instantly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And that is not easy!” thought Migara, “for she comes of a
+great family,—But I will take measures.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he sat down and began to eat sweet rice-milk from a golden
+bowl, and Visakha stood before him, dutifully fanning him.
+And a holy mendicant entered with his begging bowl for alms,
+but Migara made as though he did not see him, and ate on,
+keeping his head down.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Pass on, reverend sir!” said Visakha with courtesy. “My
+father is eating stale food—it would not be agreeable to you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when she said this, Migara leaped to his feet and cried:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Take away this food and drive the girl from the house.
+To think the slut should accuse <span class='it'>Me</span> of eating stale food, and
+at a time of festival!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Father!” said Visakha, with composed serenity. “I shall
+not easily leave the house. For I am no harlot picked up at
+some river bathing place, but a great lady. And my father
+foresaw such a case, and when I left commanded eight householders
+of this town to investigate any charge brought against
+me. Summon them now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Migara agreed joyfully, knowing what they must adjudge
+to such insolence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then they came—eight grave and wise men, and the story
+was told. And when it was heard:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear girl,” said the eldest householder, “is it as he says?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That is not as <span class='it'>I</span> say! For when my father-in-law ignored
+the monk I said ‘He is eating stale fare.’ And I meant this—He
+is uselessly consuming the merit acquired in a former life
+instead of making fresh. Now, what fault was that?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“None, dear girl. Our daughter speaks justly. Why are
+you angry with her, sir?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sirs, granted that was no fault,—But when she came to us
+her mother gave her ten admonitions of a hidden meaning, and
+I dislike them. First: ‘The indoor fire is not to be taken out
+of doors.’ Now you know it is the friendly custom to send
+fire to our neighbours.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it as he says, dear girl?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good sirs, this is the meaning: ‘If you notice any fault
+in any of your new family, never tell it outside the house. For
+there is no worse fire than this.’ Was this a fault in me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Migara was ashamed and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sirs, I grant this. But she was also instructed thus:
+‘Outdoor fire must not be brought indoors.’ It is the custom
+to accept fire if ours should go out, and therefore this was an
+unseemly instruction.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And seated in a row and consulting, the householders appointed
+their eldest to answer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it as he says, dear girl?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, good sirs. The meaning is—‘If any outside the house
+speak ill of any within, never repeat it within doors. For there
+is no fire like the tongue.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well and good, dear girl. And the rest?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she repeated.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I was instructed. ‘Give to him who gives and also to him
+who does not give,’ and this means ‘Be liberal to needy relatives
+and friends whether they can repay you or no.’ And
+again: ‘Sit happily.’ And this means—‘When you see your
+father-in-law or his wife or your husband, you must rise and
+stand before them.’ ‘Eat happily.’ This means—‘They must
+be served by you before you eat yourself.’ ‘Wait upon the
+fire.’ This signifies, ‘These three must be looked upon as beautiful
+as a flame of fire or a royal serpent.’ ‘Reverence the
+household divinities.’ This means that these three are your
+divinities indeed. ‘Sleep happily.’ This means ‘You must not
+lie down to sleep till you have done all possible services for
+them.’ All these rules, good sirs, I have kept. Now am I in
+fault?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Migara sat with downcast eyes and the eight said to him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Treasurer, is there any other sin in our daughter for she
+is clear of any wrong in all this.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No. None.” But Visakha then arose in just anger.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good sirs,” she said, “It would not have been fitting that
+I should be dismissed, yet now I am found guiltless I will go.
+It is a good time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she ordered her many carriages and slaves to be made
+ready. But Migara implored her to remain with them, half
+in fear and half in shame. And when she refused he redoubled
+his entreaties, and asked her forgiveness earnestly. And she
+replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good sir, what there is to pardon I pardon cheerfully. But
+I am daughter to a family which follows the Law of the Exalted
+One. If I can be allowed to attend upon the Assembly,
+then I will stay. Not otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dear girl, wait on your Assembly as you please.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the end of the matter was that Migara went with Visakha
+to hear the World-Honoured, doubtful and unwilling, and
+it appeared to Migara, as it did always to all, that the eyes of
+the Buddha were fixed steadfastly on him and his proclamation
+of the Law addressed to him, and to him only. And Migara
+heard and the words reached his innermost being and he became
+established in the truth and acquired an immovable faith
+in the Three Refuges—the Law, the Lord, and the Assembly.
+And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Truly it was for my advantage, truly it was for my good
+that my daughter-in-law came to my house,” and when he returned,
+he touched her breast with his hand, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Henceforth you are as my mother,” thus giving her the position
+of honour. And he caused to be made for her an ornament
+known as the Highly Polished Parure, and gave it to her under
+the eyes of the Buddha.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And she continued to give alms and to do many deeds of
+merit, and as the crescent moon rounds in the sky she became
+great in sons and daughters, ten of each. She lived to be an
+hundred and twenty years old, and not one grey hair was seen
+upon her head, insomuch that when she walked to the monastery
+with her children and their children, people asked:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Which is the great Visakha?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they said: “That great lady who walks so lightly,”
+and the others replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May she walk further! Our lady looks well when she
+walks.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And those who saw her stand, sit, or lie, would say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hope she may do each a little longer. Our lady looks
+well in all she does.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So that it could not be charged against her that there was
+any posture in which she did not look well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And great and magnificent were her charities to all who
+needed. And even the great Creeper Parure she gave for
+the needy, and redeemed it with a King’s ransom, and she
+attended upon the sick, healing them with wise medicaments,
+and she built a monastery and it is easy to rehearse what she
+did not do that was good, but impossible to rehearse all her
+innumerable nobilities of deed and thought.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it was of her the One who is Awakened said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just, monks, as a skilful garland-maker if he obtain a
+heap of flowers will go on making beautiful garlands without
+end, even so does the mind of Visakha incline to do all manner
+of noble deeds weaving them into loveliness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this is the history of that great, generous and happy lady,
+the daughter of the Law.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XVI</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At this time the Queen Prajapati, she who had
+nourished the Blessed One with noble milk when his
+mother Maya was received into Paradise, sent to our Lord, with
+a message from herself and from the Princess Yashodara and
+other ladies of the royal family, and it was this.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Full of hindrances is the household life, very free the life
+of the homeless for such as would walk in the way. Let the
+Blessed One, the Happy One, permit that women also retire
+to the peace of the homeless life under the discipline taught by
+the Exalted Lord.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he was silent, and a second time they made their petition,
+for they thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Much need have women of the Peace, and is the way closed
+to them only?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Queen Prajapati came herself and besought him
+with tears, and he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enough, Lady. Do not make this request,” and weeping
+and saluting him with reverence she left him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So wandering from place to place and teaching by the way,
+the Blessed One came to Vaisali and stayed awhile in the
+Pagoda Hall, and when she knew where she could find him the
+Queen Prajapati with shorn hair and yellow robes, followed
+by a number of the Sakya women journeyed along the dusty
+ways to Vaisali and stood in the porch of the Pagoda Hall
+weeping and very sorrowful.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now it so chanced that the disciple Ananda, cousin of the
+Exalted One and much loved by him (and he was chosen
+to wait always about his person), saw those weeping women
+stand in the porch, dusty and foreworn with the long journey
+and their tender feet swollen and cut with unwonted
+travel, and he pitied them and inquired into the cause of
+their grief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having heard all he approached the Blessed One with
+reverence where he sat full of peace looking out into the green
+shade of the nyagrodha trees, and after salutation Ananda the
+beloved sat down beside him waiting until the Lord turned his
+eyes serenely upon him. And then said Ananda:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Reverend Sir, here in the entrance stands Prajapati the
+Queen with swollen feet, sorrowful and weeping, and her word
+is that the Blessed One will not permit women to retire to the
+homeless life. Exalted One, I beseech you for these. Let
+their petition be heard.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Blessed One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enough, Ananda. Do not ask this.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again and yet again the beloved Ananda besought and
+still the Lord refused. And then the thought occurred to
+Ananda that he might ask in another manner with more success,
+for he pitied the women for this great denial of their
+hope. And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, if women retire to the homeless life is it possible for
+them to attain to the goal of returning only once more to
+rebirth? Is it possible that escaping from sorrow they should
+attain to saintship?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One in whom is all truth, answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is possible.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the face of Ananda gladdened even like his name which
+signifies Joy, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then I beseech the Perfected One to consider how great
+a benefactress to the Order has been the Queen. She is sister
+to the mother of the Blessed One and at her breast was he
+nourished. I beseech and yet again beseech that they be admitted,
+for if it be possible that they thus make an end of
+sorrow shall not this be permitted?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then said the Blessed One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hard is it to refuse and I cannot. If therefore these
+women will accept eight weighty regulations in addition to
+those accepted by the Order—eight weighty regulations making
+them subject to the Order, it shall be reckoned to them for
+ordination.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he had received the eight weighty regulations
+hard to be borne, for they set the oldest and most venerable of
+nuns below the youngest and least of the Order, Ananda went
+out to the Queen and told her all as she stood patiently with
+the wearied women. And when they heard the regulations
+sorrow passed from them as when the moon escaping
+from a cloud floats in pure radiance in pure air, and the
+Queen answered for Yashodara and for all those tender
+ones:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Reverend Ananda, as a woman young, beautiful, and loving
+to beautify herself, having obtained a wreath of blue lotus-flowers,
+or of perfumed jasmin, takes it and wreathes her head
+with joy, so do we. O venerable Ananda, we take up those
+eight weighty regulations, not to be transgressed while life
+lasts.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And that was their ordination, as the Exalted One had said,
+and Ananda returned to the Lord and told him of their joy.
+And he meditated and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If, Ananda, women had not retired to the homeless life,
+under my discipline then would religion have endured long
+in this country, even a thousand years. But now, not very long
+will the discipline and religion endure. And just as a man
+prudently builds a dike in order that water confined may not
+transgress its bounds, have I laid down the eight weighty regulations.
+Yet shall it not endure, since women have accepted the
+rules.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And true it is that in India the faith has not endured, but
+over the rest of Asia has it spread, strong and mighty.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the women were glad at heart, for the homeless life drew
+them with the very passion of peace and many became great
+saints, some dwelling in forests and in caves, and great to them
+was the joy of peace in the solitudes far from crowds, and they
+were filled with the life of trees and great forests and the
+strength of the up-running sap and the speechless communion
+and growth of trees and plants. And in many joy broke forth
+in words and they made the Psalms of the Sisters, even as
+their brothers the monks also sang for joy and could no more
+be silent than birds at dawn, and the world they had known
+called to ears that heard no longer. And thus it called:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Young art thou, sister, and faultless—what seekest <span class='it'>thou</span> in the holy life?</p>
+<p class='line0'>Cast off that yellow-hued raiment and come!”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And each replied in her own manner.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“I what was well to do have done, and what</p>
+<p class='line0'>Is to my heart delectable. Therein</p>
+<p class='line0'>Is my delight, and thus through happiness</p>
+<p class='line0'>Has happiness been sought after and won.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>Young and old they rejoiced, and the solitudes were kind to
+them, admitting them to fellowship. And one aged sister spoke
+this:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Though I be suffering and weak and all</p>
+<p class='line0'>My spring of youth be gone, yet have I come</p>
+<p class='line0'>Leaning upon my staff and climbed aloft</p>
+<p class='line0'>On mountain peak. My cloak have I thrown off</p>
+<p class='line0'>My little bowl o’er-turned; so sit I here</p>
+<p class='line0'>Upon the rock. And o’er my spirit sweeps</p>
+<p class='line0'>The breath of Liberty. I win, I win</p>
+<p class='line0'>The Triple Lore! The Buddha’s will be done.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>For now, they who had been the prisoners of man and of
+opinion learnt the beauty of the solitudes, and knew the silence
+that is in the starry sky, the sleep that is among the lonely hills,
+and it became theirs, and they attained to the coolness, purity
+and luminance of the Peace, bathing in it as in moonlit water.
+For they had passed through the Three Grades of Training,
+the Higher habit of Conduct, the Higher Consciousness, and the
+Higher Wisdom, and thus, knowing the world, not as it appears
+to be but as it is, knowing “This is Ill; this is the cause of Ill;
+this is the way leading to the cessation of Ill,” they were glad,
+and right ecstasy was theirs and joys that cannot be told, and
+they were free.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And another said this:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Nirvana have I realized and gazed</p>
+<p class='line0'>Into the mirror of the holy Norm.</p>
+<p class='line0'>I, even I, am healed of all my hurt.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Down is my burden laid, my task is done,</p>
+<p class='line0'>My heart is wholly set at liberty.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='noindent'>And again:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“One day bathing my feet, I sit and watch</p>
+<p class='line0'>The water as it trickles down the slope.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Thereby I set my heart in steadfastness,</p>
+<p class='line0'>As one shall train a horse of noble breed.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Then, going to my cell, I take my lamp,</p>
+<p class='line0'>And seated on my couch I watch the flame.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Taking the pin I pull the wick right down</p>
+<p class='line0'>Into the oil. Extinguished is the fire.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Lo, the Nirvana of the little lamp.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Emancipation dawns. My heart is free.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>For as the flame is quenched so are all lusts, desires and
+cravings extinguished in the clear waters of Nirvana. There
+is no fire so burning as the greed of passion, no luckless cast of
+the dice so cruel as hate, no ill so miserable as that of the ego
+that would claim all. Nor is there any bliss to be compared
+with the Nirvana.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the monks, also musing, made psalms that cannot die,
+for upon them also was the bliss.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“When in the lowering sky thunders the storm-cloud’s drum,</p>
+<p class='line0'>And all the pathways of the birds are thick with rain,</p>
+<p class='line0'>The brother sits within the hollow of the hills</p>
+<p class='line0'>Alone, rapt in thought’s ecstasy. No higher bliss</p>
+<p class='line0'>    Is given to men than this.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>Or where by rivers flowers crowd the bank,</p>
+<p class='line0'>And fragrant rushes scent the tranquil air</p>
+<p class='line0'>With heart serene the brother sits to see,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Alone, rapt in an ecstasy. No higher bliss</p>
+<p class='line0'>    Is given to men than this.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='noindent'>And another:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Whene’er I see the crane, her clear pale wings</p>
+<p class='line0'>Outstretched in fear to flee the black storm cloud,</p>
+<p class='line0'>A shelter seeking, to safe shelter borne,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Then does the river Ajakarani</p>
+<p class='line0'>    Give joy to me.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>Who shall not love to see on either bank</p>
+<p class='line0'>Clustered rose-apple trees in bright array</p>
+<p class='line0'>Beyond the great cave of the hermitage?</p>
+<p class='line0'>Or hear the soft croak of the frogs, their foes,</p>
+<p class='line0'>The legions of the air, withdrawn, proclaim</p>
+<p class='line0'>Now from the mountain streams is’t time to-day</p>
+<p class='line0'>To flit. Safe is the Ajakarani.</p>
+<p class='line0'>She brings us luck! Here it is good to be.”<a id='r5'/><a href='#f5' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[5]</span></sup></a></p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<div class='footnote'>
+<p class='footnote'>
+<span class='footnote-id' id='f5'><a href='#r5'>[5]</a></span>
+
+These Psalms are all translated by C. F. Rhys Davids.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='footnotemark'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus very great joy had come to be by the Blessed One’s
+sufferings, and for each pang he had paid came a golden harvest
+of the peace of others.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>To Him who had thus Attained came men and women from
+far and near with doubts and questions, and seated with dignity
+(for his noble Aryan birth was upon him as well as the
+Peace) he received them all, answering and resolving their
+doubts, nor was it difficult for him to do this for his eyes were
+as the sun in his strength to divide light from darkness.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet let it be well understood that of certain things he would
+not speak, counting them beyond human knowledge and knowing
+well that in no human speech are there words to bear the
+burden of the Ineffable. Therefore when men asked him of
+the Beginning, how division from the Eternal into the false ego-self
+came into the world and from what well of bitterness evil
+thought and evil doing flowed to become tears and blood in
+their flowing, he would not answer, for none but a Buddha can
+comprehend the deepest, and he only in ways beyond transmission
+to others. And he would say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The arrow sticks in the wound, will you wait before the
+healer draws it out to enquire of what wood is it made and
+whether the bowstring is of hair or vegetable fibre? Life
+is ebbing while you theorize credulously about present and
+future, self or identity. Of the origins I do not teach.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when again they besought him to say whether life or
+nothingness lay beyond death, only his own nearest disciples
+could read the fathomless depths of his calm, looking
+rather to this than to his speech. For he said, being alone
+with them to whom it was given to know:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this world of forms and illusions created by our senses,
+according to our illusion a man either is or is not, either lives
+or dies, but in the true and formless world this is not so for
+all is otherwise than according to our knowledge and it is easier
+to answer in negatives than in affirmatives. And if you
+ask Does a man live beyond death, I answer No, not in any
+sense comprehensible to the mind of man which itself dies at
+death. And if you ask does a man altogether die at death, I
+answer No, for what dies is what belongs to this world of form
+and illusion, that is the false I, but beyond this is another world
+incomprehensible as yet to such as are not instructed and beyond
+all human categories, so that if I would I cannot tell you
+of it, but I would not, for the things are disturbing and do not
+aid the traveller on the only path which can bring him to
+their threshold. Therefore of that and of the origins I do not
+teach.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But this ego which the unenlightened believes to be himself,
+very certainly falls apart and dissolves at death, nor is there
+any place of continuance for it, and it is wholly extinct.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it so happened that one day a wandering monk, by
+name Vacchagotta, came to the Exalted One, and saluting him
+with friendly greetings he sat down beside him, and he asked:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How does the matter stand, venerated Gotama? In a man
+is there the Ego?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Exalted One was silent, and Vacchagotta asked
+again and yet again and still there was silence, and after awhile
+he rose and went away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the beloved Ananda came to Him who has thus Attained,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, sir, did you not answer the wandering monk Vacchagotta?”
+And, smiling, he looked in the face of the beloved
+Ananda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If, Ananda, when he asked me, I had answered ‘The ego
+is,’ then that reply would have confirmed the teaching of those
+who believe in the permanence of that false ego which is a
+bundle of tendencies and consciousness and proudly calls itself
+I and the Soul; and if I had said the ego is not, this would have
+confirmed the teaching of those who say there is annihilation
+and nothing beyond death. For neither of these schools, nor
+yet Vacchagotta, know the distinction between the ego of
+which he asked me and the true Ego, for this last is eternal and
+beyond comprehension, and the false ego passes and is gone like
+a dream in the awakening of dawn. Therefore since Vacchagotta
+has not attained to the threshold of that knowledge, being
+prisoned in the world of appearances, what could I do but keep
+silence?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the beloved Ananda laid his hand upon his mouth and
+retired, for with all his heart of love he had not yet attained
+to the full insight of the unreality of appearances, but where
+he could not understand he loved. And love is also the Way,
+as witness the monk Purna who was about to carry the light
+into a land of violent and perilous people. So the Perfected
+One sent for him, and asked:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And if, monk, these people abuse and injure you, what will
+be your thought?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That these people are good in that they only abuse me
+and do not beat me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But if they beat you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then I shall think they are good in that they only beat me
+and do not stab me with swords.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But if with swords?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then I shall think: They are good. They leave me my
+life.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But if they take your life?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then,—They are good to me in that they have lifted a burden
+from me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And looking upon his face the World-Honoured said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well have you spoken, Purna. Go and deliver, you who
+have delivered yourself. Comfort, for you are comforted.
+Guide to the Peace, for you have entered it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So Purna went in joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was a monk named Yamaka who, considering the
+teaching, believed that on the dissolution of the body the man
+who has lost all depravity is annihilated and exists no more.
+And his fellow monks having in vain urged him to abandon so
+wicked a heresy called upon Sariputta the Great to teach him
+better, and by his silence he consented.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So when the evening was come, Sariputta the Great rose from
+deep meditation and drawing near to Yamaka he greeted him
+with courtesy as one monk should another and sitting down respectfully
+beside him he questioned him thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is the report true, brother Yamaka, that the wicked heresy
+of annihilation has sprung up in your mind?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so, brother, do I understand the teaching of the
+Blessed One.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Sariputta the Great mused a moment and resumed:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What think you, brother Yamaka;—is his bodily form the
+saint?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No indeed, brother.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are sensation, perception, predispositions, the saint?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly not, brother.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then can you consider the saint as apart and distinct from
+form, sensation, perception and predispositions?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Brother, I cannot.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And if separately they are not, are they when united the
+saint?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Brother, no.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then what think you, brother Yamaka? If you cannot
+prove the very existence of the saint in this world of forms
+and appearances, is it reasonable for you to say that at death
+the saint is annihilated and does not exist.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And holding down his head for shame Yamaka answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Brother Sariputta, it was through ignorance I held that
+wicked heresy, but now I have acquired the True Doctrine.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For Sariputta the Great taught as did his Master that the
+true being is detached from each of these delusive selves of
+consciousness, sensation, perception, and predispositions, and
+the saint who has attained has detached himself even in this
+life from belief that these are himself—his ego. How then
+should it be that the essential perishes when these dissolve
+with the dying brain in death? Yet has this wicked heresy
+been spread, though clear as day must it be made to those who
+tread the way that it is a lie and no truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For thus have I heard. After the death of the Perfected
+One, the King of Kosala, journeying from Savatthi, met with
+the learned nun Khema, renowned for wisdom, and the King,
+respectfully saluting her, asked her of the Teaching.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Venerable Lady, the Perfect One is dead. Does he exist
+after death?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great King, the Exalted One has not declared that he exists
+after death.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then, venerable Lady, does the Perfect One not exist.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Perfect One has not declared that he does not exist
+after death.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, venerable Lady,—does and does not? How is this
+possible?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, smiling a little, the learned nun replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great King, have you an accountant or a mint-master who
+could count the sands of Ganges and lay the figure before you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Venerable Lady, no.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Or who could measure the drops in the ocean?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Again no, venerable Lady.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And why? Because the ocean is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable.
+So also is it if the existence of the Perfect One be
+measured by any human category, for all statements of bodily
+form are abolished in the Perfect One; their root is severed;
+they are done with and can germinate no more. The Perfect
+One is released from the possibility that his being can be gauged
+in any human terms. He is now deep, immeasurable and unfathomable
+as the ocean, and neither the terms of existence or
+of non-existence as understood by the world fit him any more.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then there was a long silence and the King having heard
+the nun Khema’s words with approbation, rose and bowed
+reverently before her and went his way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can the tongue tell of
+such matters for they are beyond and above us. And it is
+for this reason that the Blessed One replied thus to the venerable
+Malukya, when he reproached the Perfect One as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is the world eternal or the slave of time? Does the World-Honoured
+live on beyond death? It pleases me not at all that
+all these important matters should remain unanswered. May
+it please the Master to answer them if he can. And if he
+does not know let him say so plainly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Master replied with his smile:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Did I say to you, Malukya,—‘Come and be my disciple,
+and I will teach you whether the world is everlasting or finite,
+whether the vital faculty is separate from the body or one
+with it, whether the Exalted One lives or does not live after
+death?’ Did I promise all this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, sir, you did not.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And, Malukya, if a man is struck by a poisoned arrow,
+suppose he says—‘I will never allow my wound to be treated
+until I know who shot the arrow—was it a man of high or
+low caste. And I must know whether he is tall or short, and
+how his bow and arrows are made!’—Would this be a sensible
+proceeding? Surely no. He would die of his wounds.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why have I not made these things clear? Because the
+knowledge of them does not conduce to holiness nor right detachment,
+nor to peace and enlightenment.—What is needed
+for these I teach, the truth of suffering and its origin, the
+truth of the Way to its cessation. Therefore let what I have
+not revealed rest, and follow that which I have revealed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Malukya was content, knowing at last that in this life
+these questions are deep, mysterious and unanswerable, and the
+sole way to their understanding is to live the life, untroubled
+by controversy and dogma on such things as cannot be uttered
+in terms of human knowledge.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For there is a Knowledge veiled in excess of light which
+dazzles the eyes to blindness. Let words be few. Let good
+deeds be many. He understands it for whom it passes thought.
+Who thinks of it can never know it. And if it could be told
+in words it would not be the Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there is yet another example of this. For once in early
+days the Blessed One sat high among his own upon the Peak
+of Vultures, and there came before his quiet feet a Shining
+One and laid there a golden flower, praying that he would
+speak and in sweet speech instruct them of the innermost of
+the Peace. The Blessed One received the golden flower within
+his hand and sat in utter calm but spoke no word and all the
+Assembly mused what this might mean, and, musing, could
+not know. But at long last, Kassapa the Great smiled, also
+in silence, and the Blessed One said softly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hold within my heart the Treasure of the Law, the wondrous
+knowledge that is the Peace. This have I given to
+Kassapa wordless, and wordless he has seen and known.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So passes the vision from heart to heart. But words cannot
+tell it to the brain.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XVII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>A Brahman, high and haughty, having great possessions
+and full of this world’s power, raised his voice
+railing against the teaching of the Holy One, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But this is against the teaching of the Vedanta! Who shall
+hear Gotama the Sakya when he teaches thus?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he came proudly from Rajagriha far off, and stood beside
+to hear, that he might scoff at his ease, but the nobleness
+of the teacher drew him as with the kindred understanding of
+high birth, and the marvellous deeps of the Law caught him
+by the pride of his intellect for he thought it was too high for
+the foolish, and the wisdom beyond all words that falls like dew
+on the thirsty soul subdued him into an amazing quiet, and
+when it was done he went alone into the wood and sat himself
+in the shade by a clear running stream and considered these
+things in his heart.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he could not stay away for cords drew him and bonds
+were forged between him and That Other and they were
+smithied in iron unbreakable. So after awhile he rose, and
+hanging his head went back to the Jetavana monastery and demanded
+to see the World-Honoured, and when he came, this
+Brahman Vasettha made due salutation and seated himself respectfully
+beside him, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It has been told to me, Gotama, that the monk Gotama
+knows the way to the state of union with the Ultimate.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Perfect One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is to be known I know.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So has it been told to me, Gotama. It is well. Let the
+venerable Gotama be pleased to show me the way.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then said the Happy One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Know, Vasettha, that from time to time is born into the
+world a fully Enlightened One happy with knowledge of the
+Truth, a Blessed Buddha, and he sees as it were face to face
+this Universe, freed from his senses in that they no longer can
+shape illusions to blind and deceive him, for with ordinary men
+their thought creates shapes about them, a false world in which
+they believe and are blinded. But it is not so with the Buddhas
+for they see things as they are. Then do they proclaim this
+truth of the Universe as it is, lovely in origin, lovely in progress,
+lovely in consummation, and this is to be known by the
+higher life, which is the Way to Wisdom in all its purity and
+perfectness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Brahman Vasettha as in a dream, fixed, unconscious
+of all else, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Speak, Lord,—I hear.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There are two levels of the Way. One for the monk, one
+for the householder, and of the monk I speak first.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He takes nothing that is not his own. He is content with
+what is given, and honesty and a pure heart are his.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“His life is pure, having put aside the habit and thought of
+sexual intercourse. This is for the householder only, but in
+all purity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From truth in speech he cannot swerve, faithful and trustworthy,
+he hurts no man by deceit.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Slander is not for him, and calumny dies upon his tongue.
+He is a binder together of those who are divided, a peacemaker,
+a peace-lover, impassioned for peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From him come no harsh words. Whatever word is humane
+and lovely, pleasing and comforting, that he speaks.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Foolish talk and idle words are not his. In season he speaks
+what redounds to profit and wisdom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He will not injure any creature. He eats but once a day.
+Gay and trivial shows are not for him. He does not adorn
+himself richly, for this is folly for a grown man.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For riches, be it in silver and gold and jewels, or flocks and
+herds he has no desire, and putting field to field does not tempt
+him who knows the world as it Is. And as for any deed of
+fraud or violence the possibility of it is not in him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nor will he teach magical spells nor gain a living or influence
+by any such arts or lying practices. And among the disturbed
+and careful, he moves serene and pure, as the moon,
+freed from clouds, pursues her way in midnight skies, shedding
+her light abroad to guide the wayfarer.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Vasettha, musing, said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is no low teaching. This is the way of a great nobleman,
+and such are his manners.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is true. And there is more. Having attained right conduct
+within and without, he sets his mind free like a bird uncaged
+from the self, to pervade the four quarters of the world
+with love and sympathy, and as a mighty trumpeter makes
+himself heard with ease in all the four directions, so there is
+no living thing he passes by, but surrounds them with love,
+grown great and beyond measure.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And when Love is attained, the way to be one with the Supreme
+is known and is not far from him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was a silence, and the Brahman Vasettha said
+slowly:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Venerable Gotama, I have been a liberal giver: justly I
+sought riches, bountifully I bestowed them. Was this well?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well. Yet have I shown you a more excellent way, for
+love is the path of wisdom to true understanding and union
+with all that is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Brahman said with passion:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Instruct me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the Perfect One opened to him the Way and, seated beside
+him, the Brahman Vasettha learned the Four Noble
+Truths of suffering, the truth, the cause, the cessation, and the
+way that leads to its extinction. And immediately there arose
+within him forgetfulness of all his riches and wisdom came
+upon him—the Light-bearer, so that he knew illusions for what
+they are and saw the Universe about him wholly fair, being
+united with it as a bridegroom with a bride. And seeing being
+substituted for blindness, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Most excellent, Lord, are the words of your mouth, most
+excellent! Just as if a man were to bring a lamp into the
+darkness so that all is seen clear, so is the truth made known
+by the Blessed One. And I, even I, betake myself to the
+Blessed One as my refuge, and to the Truth and the Brotherhood.
+May I be accepted!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, monk! Well taught is the Doctrine. You have
+broken every fetter. You have made an end of pain.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So Vasettha was made one of the Brotherhood and glad at
+heart he exalted the word of the Blessed One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so it was that even the Shining Ones desired instruction
+of the Perfect One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When He who has thus Attained dwelt in the monastery of
+Jetavana, once there came to him a Shining One in the dead of
+night, and the place was lit up by the clear luminance that
+streamed from his body. And this Shining One placed himself
+neither too far nor too near, but where he should rightly
+be, and bowing low thus he addressed the Buddha:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Most Excellent, during the twelve years of teaching many
+Shining Ones desiring to reach the holiness of the Peace have
+striven to discover what things are blessed, and still are ignorant.
+Instruct us therefore in those matters which are most
+blessed. Pronounce the Beatitudes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Perfected One replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to shun the company of the foolish, to
+pay homage to the learned, to worship what is worship-worthy,
+these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them
+well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to dwell among good men: to hold within the
+consciousness of good deeds done in a former state of existence,
+to guard well the actions;—Son of Light, these are blessed
+things. Mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to hear and see much in order to acquire
+knowledge, to study all science that does not lead to sin, to use
+right language, to study right manners, these are blessed things.
+Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to treat parents with tenderness and love, to
+guard wife and children, to do no evil when tempted, these are
+blessed things. Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to make offerings and give nobly, to follow
+the precepts of law and virtue, to assist relations and friends:
+these are blessed things, Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to avoid sin steadfastly, to abstain from strong
+drink, to lay up great treasure of good deeds: these are blessed
+things. Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to reverence those who are worthy of veneration,
+to walk in humility, to dwell in content and gratitude, to
+hear the teaching of the Law; these are blessed things. Son of
+Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to be patient and endure suffering, to rejoice
+in good words, to visit saintly persons when possible, to talk
+on high matters; these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark
+them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to practise holy austerities, to walk steadfast
+in the Truth with eyes fixed on the attainment of the Peace:
+these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Son of Light, to be unmoved, to be of serene mind, exempt
+from passion, composed and fearless amid all earthly dangers:
+these are blessed things. Son of Light, mark them well.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O Son of Light, whoever possesses these blessings shall
+never be overcome; shall in all things find joy. Son of Light,
+mark them well, thus attaining the peace of the Arhats, the
+Perfected Saints.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus replied the World-Honoured and the Shining One
+heard and went away content. And it is told that it was the
+beloved Ananda who handed down this discourse to the ages,
+having received it from the Blessed One, and mark it well, for
+in a little compass it contains all.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Praise be to the Possessor of the Six Glories, the Holy, the
+All-Wise!</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now of the bodily presence of the Blessed One will I say
+this.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When age came upon him it came with beauty, so that all
+hearts fell at his feet and embraced them because he was as
+one to whom all evil things must fly for refuge that being
+delivered from the self they might be made one with him and
+the Truth. And none could see him without this desire. Nor
+in his presence was virtue remembered for he was virtue’s self
+made manifest in love, and in the ocean of love were all submerged
+who saw him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>His face was worn and calm as in an image of royal ivory,
+his nose prominent and delicate, bespeaking his Aryan birth,
+his eyes of a blue darkness, and he carried himself as one of
+the princes. But all this might be said of another, and there
+was none like him—none! For Wisdom walked on his left
+hand and Love on his right, and light as of the sun surrounded
+him. Wise and piercing were his words, delighting even those
+who would have scoffed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And once the Holy One approached with his begging bowl
+the ploughed fields of a rich man and stood apart, waiting, and
+the man saw this saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Having ploughed and sown I eat. You also should plough
+and sow, for the idle shall not eat.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I also, Brahman, plough and sow.” Thus said the Perfected
+One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yet we do not see the plough of the Venerable Gotama!”
+so said the other, mocking. And the World-Honoured answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Faith is the seed, understanding the yoke and plough, tenderness
+the deliverance. So is my ploughing done. And the
+fruit is immortality, and having thus ploughed a man is freed
+of all ill.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Brahman poured rice-milk into a bowl and offered
+it, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let the Blessed One eat of the rice-milk for he also is a
+ploughman who makes to grow the fruit of immortality.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this man also entered the Way and became glad at heart,
+having heard the Truth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Holy One talked with men and women of all ranks
+and affairs, so that the mind of none was hidden from him, and,
+even as they felt, he knew, and their hopes and fears were not
+far from him. Fathomless were the wisdom and compassion
+of Him who has thus Attained.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So also with women, from the queens to the weaver-maidens
+they feared not to implore his mercy. Very patiently and according
+to the measure of their weakness he instructed them,
+and they grew like bamboos in a night shooting up to the
+light with glory of leaf and stem. And surely in these tender
+ones the Lord beheld the likeness of his mother, of whom
+it was said, “Joyful and reverenced of all, even as the young
+moon, strong and calm of purpose as the earth, pure of heart
+as the lotus, was Maya the Great Lady.” And of these women
+many became nuns and teachers, and not a few attained unto
+the Perfect Enlightenment passing even in this life into that
+Nirvana wherein are no more birth and death. And even the
+light women sought him in hope and he drove them not away,
+and wisdom rose within them like a wind of fire and burnt
+away all dross and alloy and they too entered the Way and
+wielded the powers, perceiving the Love in which all loves are
+one.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet let it not be thought that because of this compassion
+the Lord at any moment relaxed the watchfulness of those
+who followed him, knowing well that of all snares women
+may be the very worst. Stern were the rules he made for
+the men who live on the austere heights of contemplation,
+strait the fences about the way. For the householders, purity
+in marriage, kindness reverence to mother, sister, wife, daughter,
+in their daily duties. For all, watchfulness and discipline
+lest the foot slip in the mire.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one day, when they rested in the shade on a journeying,
+Ananda the well-beloved, cousin of the Lord, asked an instruction.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, how should we who are monks, conduct ourselves
+with regard to women-kind, for this is a hard matter.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Excelling One said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“See them not, Ananda.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so, Lord. But if we should see them, what then?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Abstain from speech, Ananda.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so, Lord. But if they should speak to us, what
+then?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Keep wide awake, Ananda.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And O that it were possible to set down the laughter of
+the Lord among his own, and the sweet converse when he related
+to them the stories of his former births, and whether
+parables or truths, how is it possible for the not wholly enlightened,
+who know not their own chains of births, to say?
+But wise were these stories and sweet and full of teaching for
+the little ones of the Law and babes might run to hear and
+laugh, and yet again the wisest pause and ponder the noble
+truths hidden in them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Hear now a Birth Story of the Lord. For this is called
+the Holy Quail, and the Blessed One told it as he and his went
+through a jungle. For there a very great jungle fire arose
+and roared toward them very terribly, and some would have
+made counter-fire and burned the ground before it, but others
+cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, what is it you would do? Surely it is madness,
+for we journey with the Master who can do All. And yet,
+making a counter-fire you would forget the power of the Buddhas!
+Come, let us go to the Master.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they went, and the flame came roaring on to the place
+where they stood, and when it came within fifteen rods of the
+Blessed One it was extinguished like a torch plunged in water,
+and they magnified him. But he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Monks, this was not due to my power but to the faith of
+a Quail. Hear this.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so, Lord.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the beloved Ananda folded a robe and spread it as a
+seat and he sat and told this tale:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this very spot long, long ago, was a young Quail, and he
+lay in the nest and his parents fed him, for he could neither
+fly nor walk. And with a mighty roar there came a jungle
+fire and all the birds fled shrieking away and even his parents
+deserted him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So the young Quail lay there alone, and he thought this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Could I fly, could I walk, I might be saved, but I cannot.
+No help have I from others and in myself is none. What
+then shall I do?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he reflected thus.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this world is Truth if it can be found. There are also
+the Buddhas who have seen the Truth and have shown it
+abroad, and in the Buddhas is love for all that lives. In me
+also is the Truth (though but a poor little Quail) and faith
+that has power. Therefore it behoves me, relying on these
+things to make an Act of Faith and thus to drive back the fire
+and find safety for myself and the other birds.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So the Quail called to mind the Powers of the Buddhas, the
+Truth-Seers, and making a solemn asseveration of faith existing
+in himself he said this:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Wings have I that cannot fly,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Feet I have that cannot walk.</p>
+<p class='line0'>My parents have forsaken me,</p>
+<p class='line0'>O all-devouring fire, go back!”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And before this Act of Faith the fire dropped and died, retreating.
+And the Quail lived his life in the forest and passed
+away according to his deeds, and because of his strength of
+faith fire dies for ever when it touches this spot.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So said the Excellent One, and when he had finished this
+discourse he made the connection and summed up, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My parents at that time were my present parents, and the
+Quail was I myself.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they marvelled and were instructed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one day two monks approached him, having travelled
+far, and according to his manner he said in welcoming them:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it well with you, monks? Are you able to live? Have
+you passed the rains in peace and unity, and have you experienced
+any lack of support?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is not well with us, Blessed One, for there is great anger
+between us, and we devour our hearts with bitterness and know
+no peace.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they laid their case before him in mutual hatred, and
+he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He abused me! He beat me! In those who harbour such
+thoughts how can hatred die? By oneself evil is done. By
+oneself one suffers. The swans go on the path of sun, they
+go through the air by means of their miraculous power. In a
+man’s power is his salvation from evil. There is no fire like
+passion: there is no losing throw like hatred. Let a man leave
+anger, let him forsake pride. Let him overcome anger by love
+and conquer the liar by truth. For hatred ceases not at any
+time by hatred, but only by love. This is an old rule.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>An old rule. Yet when the Lord spoke it from his heart of
+bliss it became a new commandment and wisdom. So these
+two saluted one another in love before the face of the Perfect
+One, and, hand clasped in hand, they left him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again when a young monk was led away by the transient
+smile of a woman to his undoing, the Perfected One said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Rise above the five senses which see things as they are not,
+and open the sight which see things as they are. Even the
+Divine Beings may well envy him whose desires like horses well
+broken are utterly subdued. Him whom no false desires can
+lead captive any more, by what temptation can he be felled—he
+the Awakened, the all-seeing, the desireless? And make
+thought pure, for all that we are is the result of what we have
+thought. It is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our
+thoughts. If a man speaks or acts from an evil thought pain
+follows him as the wheel follows the ox that draws the carriage.
+Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the
+drowsy, the wise man presses steadily onward to joy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they said, “Even so, Lord,” and seeing their faces glad
+about him, he added:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As on a heap of refuse cast forth by the highway a lily may
+grow filling the air with sweetness, thus the disciples of the
+true Buddha shine forth among the people who walk in darkness.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And on another day when they talked of the lures of desire,
+the Lord said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As long as the evil deed does not bear fruit the fool thinks
+it sweet as honey, but later comes the bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And when the evil deed is thrown upward in recklessness,
+like a stone it falls back on the fool and breaks his head.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For those who will not learn, who cannot as yet understand,
+hard to follow is the path of the wise man, like that of birds
+flying home through trackless depths of air. But what is difficult
+may with taking thought be done. The arrow-maker
+trues his arrow, the carpenter shapes his log, the wise man
+shapes himself, for no other hand can do it. Tranquil are his
+thoughts, serene his meditation when he has obtained freedom
+by knowledge. But the beginning is this—Let no man think
+lightly of the beginning of evil, saying—‘It is only a little
+thing,’ for by the falling of water drops one by one, a pit is
+filled, and so is it with a little evil,—and with good it is the
+same. Little by little do good thoughts and deeds grow into
+the Peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“By a man’s self is evil done, by himself he suffers, by himself
+comes good, by himself purification, and by none other.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is the sole victory that brings gladness, for in the world
+of forms victory breeds hatred for the conquered is unhappy.
+He who has given up both victory and defeat, he is the taster
+of bliss.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I write and men read, but who can declare the wisdom of the
+Lord? For as mists ascend at dawn so illusion was dispersed
+before his radiance and the veil was lifted and men beheld
+about them the true Universe of the Powers and the Truth,—the
+One, the Alone, in which we live and move and have our
+being.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XVIII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>T</span><span class='sc'>hus</span> have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet another thing, and heed it well for it was a day
+precious as clean gold.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As the Lord went with his disciples, they came to the river
+by the fields of Dhaniya the herdsman, a rich man who trusted
+in his goods, but kindly and simple, such as the Blessed One
+loved. And here he stayed his feet, smiling a little as at a
+thought of his own; and his disciples stood about him, and he
+said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Here we see great riches of beasts and pasture; surely the
+man owning these good things is well content!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Dhaniya seeing the Holy One, drew near in his peasant’s
+pride and addressed him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have boiled my rice, I have milked my cows,” so said the
+herdsman Dhaniya. “I dwell near the banks of the Mahi, my
+house is roofed, my fire kindled. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain,
+O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For believing his riches a strong shield he feared nothing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am free from anger, free from stubbornness,” said the
+Blessed One, “For one night I abide by the Mahi river. My
+house is unroofed, the fire of passion is extinguished. Therefore,
+if thou wilt, rain, O sky!” And he smiled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Gadflies are not found with me,” said the herdsman
+Dhaniya. “In meadows rich with grass my cows are roaming,
+and well can they endure rain when it falls. Therefore if thou
+wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have made a raft, I have passed over to the shore of the
+Peace,” so said the Blessed One. “Therefore if thou wilt, rain,
+O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My wife is obedient!” boasted the herdsman Dhaniya.
+“Winning she is, and I hear no ill of her. Therefore, if thou
+wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My mind is obedient, delivered from all worldly matters,”
+so said the Blessed One. “And in me there is no ill. Therefore
+if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I support myself by my own riches!” so said the herdsman
+Dhaniya, “and my children are healthy about me. I hear
+nothing wicked of them. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am no one’s servant,” so said the Perfect One, “with what
+I have gained I wander through the world. For me there is
+no need to serve. Therefore, if thou wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have cows, I have calves!” so said the herdsman Dhaniya.
+“I have also a bull as lord over the herds. Therefore if thou
+wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have no cows, I have no calves!” so said the Happy One,
+“—And I have no bull as lord over the herds. Therefore, if
+thou wilt, rain, O sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The stakes are driven in and cannot be shaken,” so said the
+herdsman Dhaniya. “The ropes are new and well made: the
+cows cannot break them. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O
+sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Having, like a bull, rent the ropes: having like an elephant
+broken through the tangle,” so said the Blessed One, “I shall
+no more be born to death. Therefore if thou wilt, rain, O
+sky!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he smiled as one at rest, enthroned above pain or change.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then all at once, from a full-wombed cloud, a shower poured
+down, filling both land and water. And the eyes of Dhaniya
+were enlightened, and seeing the true riches of the empty hand
+and freed soul, the herdsman spoke thus, bowing at the feet of
+the Perfect One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No small gain has indeed accrued to us since we have seen
+the Blessed One. We take refuge in thee, O Wisest. Be thou
+our Master.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He who has cows has care with his cows,” so said the
+Blessed One, concluding the matter. “But he who is free of
+these things has not care.” So Dhaniya entered the Way of
+Peace, and taking the vow of the householder was at rest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now in this of Dhaniya is a thing much to be pondered.
+For it is observable that the Holy One said these words to him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have passed over to Nirvana—to the Peace.” How could
+this be and he yet living in the world of form? What then is
+the Nirvana? For, since the departing of Him who has thus
+Attained, the ignorant have taught the heresy which Sariputta
+the Great rebuked in the monk Yamaka,—even that the true
+Nirvana is extinction, is dispersal of all that once was the man,
+the ego known to himself and others, he being annihilated in
+death as a flame blown out in vast darkness. Yet no, and
+again, not so, though not in words may the Truth be fully told.
+Yet—if a man may attempt to throw a stone at a star, this that
+follows may be told of the Nirvana.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>They who talk of existence and non-existence are ignorant,
+for these are words only. There is no existence or non-existence,
+but in their stead reality and unreality, and in this
+world of form is unreality and in That World, reality. So
+that the unreal ego which we here believe to be the man is
+nothing and whether here or there has no reality but is a compound
+of causes which dissolve at death, while the reality
+of the man abides whether here or There. True it is that after
+death no longer can it be perceived, no longer can it be guessed
+by the bodily senses—the liars, the deceived, the slaves; yet in
+a profundity beyond all depths of all oceans it abides. The
+rest is silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus, the Blessed One and they who with him attained, were
+in life delivered from the illusion of the world of forms and seeing
+all as it is were glad. For the true Nirvana is an extinction—not
+of the eternal—but of craving, the lust of the flesh, the
+lust of life, and the pride of life. And when the inward fires
+of lust, and hatred and pride are extinguished, then that man
+has entered into the Nirvana whether here or there. And
+surely this was the Lesson of Lessons, and many a parable,
+many a teaching did the World-Honoured utter in all solemnity
+that we might know it is the self—the individual self lurking
+in a man like an ape in the boughs, clutching, greedy, foul,
+foolish, that is the cause of all evil and sorrow and of his separation
+from the universe of life and light that lies about him.
+And he must learn that this foul and foolish chatterer is dream
+and illusion of the senses and consciousness, for when this
+teaching is mastered we lift the true eyes of wisdom and look
+about us seeing at last that the world is wholly fair. Know
+this, for it is the very kernel of the nut. This is the Way of
+Peace, this is the Gate of the Ten Perfections whereby we also
+are perfect being One; this is the Nirvana, absolute in joy
+and bliss immortal.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Be not misled. If this false belief of annihilation be accepted
+the belief in the Karma and its awful justice falls to the
+ground, and the Blessed One is made to utter words unreal
+and deceptive. It is not well to traduce the teaching of the
+Blessed One, for what he taught he knew, and where he was
+silent it was from knowledge too great to be uttered save to
+his high initiates, and they too, knowing, were content. For
+a man can but receive as he is able, and the Truth needs two
+servants—the one to speak and the other to hear.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>True is it that the Lord before he passed away from the
+world of the senses said to the beloved Ananda, this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have preached the truth, Ananda, and in respect of the
+Truth He who has thus Attained had no such thing as the
+closed fist of the Teacher who holds back his knowledge.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yes, but a man can but take what he can, and where the
+great saints of the Lord knew and were content, the lesser
+men guessed and stumbled blindly by excess of light and this
+was unavoidable for they were not prepared, and in future lives
+they have learned, will learn, and they too be content in wisdom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore when men ask the disciple of the Nirvana, and
+say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it annihilation? Is it the end of all, for so many teach?”
+reply thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is the annihilation of ignorance and passion and all their
+brood. It is the annihilation of conditioned being and of all
+the illusion that fettered us. It is the rending of the painted
+veil of life that hides from us the light. It is the end of all
+turning of the wheel of the long pilgrimage through self-shaped
+dream-worlds of deception. It is the end of grief and self-deceit.
+It is awakening from the dream of life, from the crippling
+of the ego-self, into freedom. It is beyond all that we
+call life, and death is unknown to it. It is All and One and
+above right and wrong and in it are all things reconciled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And it is us and in us and we in it for ever.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Open the eyes of understanding and see and know, as he
+the Awakened, has taught.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now must the story turn to the Princess Yashodara, released
+from grief and grown strong in wisdom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Musing night and day on these thoughts and this blessedness
+the Princess excelled in knowledge and in her true eyes the
+light shone brighter and more bright in the deep contemplation
+of her heart, and when in the passing of the years the wealth
+of the Maharaja fell into her hands she valued it nothing, placing
+it where most good and least harm could flow from it.
+And with attendant princesses she walked nearly five hundred
+miles, refusing all offers of assistance, that she might be near
+the World-Honoured, breathing the same air, sometimes attendant
+upon his teaching, sometimes sending dutifully to enquire
+after the health of the monk Rahula, her son.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, having grown old, but still eminent in the nobility of her
+beauty and its calm, as she sat alone one day she remembered
+many of her friends who through the Peace here to be attained
+had departed to that Other. And she thought this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I was born on the same day as my lord, the Awakened
+One, and in the regular order of things I should on the same
+day enter the Great Peace. But this is an honour too great
+for me and far beyond my deserts, nor can it be. I am now
+seventy eight years in this world of illusion, and in two years
+from now, he, the Blessed One, will enter that which cannot be
+named. I will therefore request permission to precede him,
+as the lower should precede the great.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, accompanied by her attendants, the Princess went to the
+Vihara, the monastery, where the Lord sat at the time with a
+company of disciples, and presenting herself before him humbly
+asked forgiveness for any faults she might have committed.
+And he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You are the most virtuous of women. But from the time
+you received the Light, you have done no marvels, so that
+many have not known the power that is in you, doubting
+whether you were indeed an Arhat. There is a company assembled
+about us, who know not the Powers. Show them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Princess, doubting in her humility that this should
+be, doubting whether a woman should display the beauty of
+her person to onlookers, was not assured that this was well.
+Yet, with the insight to which time is nothing, she spoke, rehearsing
+the mystery and marvel of all her former lives, for
+now having vanquished rebirth she was as the traveller who
+nearing the mountain top and the eternal purities sees the way
+by which he has come, rejoicing in perils escaped and rest unending.
+And all sat entranced, listening to the music of her
+voice and the marvels she—to whom time was no more than a
+child’s toy cast aside—unfolded before them. And suddenly,
+as she ended, the air upbore her light feet and a marvel was
+done before them, for in the air she prostrated herself before
+Him who has thus Attained, attributing to him the knowledge
+that had guided her into bliss. And those who saw hid their
+faces.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when all was concluded she retired to her own dwelling
+and there, that same night, rising from contemplation to contemplation,
+she beheld the Peace, being delivered for ever from
+all illusion, and so passed into That which is to come.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And of her son—the monk Rahula—this also must be told:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At one time the Lord, with robe and bowl, went to Savatthi
+in search of alms, and his son Rahula followed step for step,
+and the Blessed One, turning, said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whatever form one bears, monk, is to be viewed with perfect
+wisdom and the understanding—‘This is not mine; it is
+not I. This is not my true self.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Rahula answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And only form, O Lord, and only form, O Happy One?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Form, Rahula, and sensation and perception and the tendencies
+and consciousness. These also are not the true self.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Rahula, being thus addressed with an Instruction, would
+not go to roam and beg among the people, but set aside his
+bowl, and sat beneath a tree to meditate upon the Instruction.
+And in the evening, having ended his calm contemplation, he
+sought the Blessed One and saluting him reverently seated
+himself respectfully beside him and besought him to instruct
+him on the discipline of meditation and training, and the
+Blessed One instructed him in all the processes, even to the
+ruling of the breath in inspiration and expiration so that the
+false senses may be lulled and the true eye of wisdom opened,
+and pleased and gladdened was the venerable Rahula with that
+high instruction.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus Rahula in time became first a great warrior for the
+Truth and then a great Arhat: a perfected saint. And in what
+way did he become a warrior? Even as a monk asked of the
+Awakened One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Warriors, warriors, we call ourselves, O Happy One, and in
+what way are we warriors?”, and had this reply:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We make war, monk. Therefore are we warriors?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And for what do we make war, O Leader?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For perfect virtue, for high endeavour, for sublime wisdom.
+To see in a world of blindness, to be free in a world of slaves,—therefore,
+do we make war.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when is the victory gained?—When the dark night of
+I-ness is enlightened,—when the man is no longer a swimmer
+struggling for life in agony against the waves, but the grey
+gull borne on the winds in bliss or floating at peace on the billows
+of eternity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This is the victory of the monk Rahula and of the wise.</p>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1 id='pt4'>PART IV</h1></div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XIX</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>S</span><span class='sc'>o</span> continued our Lord, wandering from place to place, or
+resting in the season of the rains in the monasteries provided
+by the supporters of the Brotherhood, and, followed
+by his own, he taught the Breaking of the Fetters—and
+the fetters he broke are these:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The delusion of self—namely that the individual ego is real
+and self-existent. For what can exist outside the Universal
+Self? And egoism is the very root of death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Doubt. For who can advance boldly, doubting the way
+and where he shall set the next step?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Belief in good works and ceremonies. For what good work
+can open a man’s eyes if his motive is mean, and what value
+have rites and ceremonies in themselves?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Fleshly lust. By no means did the Lord command a cruel
+asceticism, for this he had tried to the uttermost and having
+laid it aside, passed on. No, but a joyous temperance, the
+child of wisdom and duty, the fosterer of endeavour. And
+duty in all things, a strength by some to be attained now, by
+others with patience in later lives.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Ill-will. For this is a cruel fetter, biting to the very bone
+of the wretch who carries it, and it is forged indeed from the
+black iron of egoism and belief in the separate ego.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this being all accomplished the last fetters to be broken
+are:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The desire for separate and individual life in the world of
+forms we see about us.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The desire for separate life in the formless world to which we
+shall attain.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Pride—the very snarer of Divine Beings.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Self-righteousness, the womb-sister of pride.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And last, the most terrible of fetters—</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Ignorance—mother of a deadly brood.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And where he went these fetters fell before him, and prison
+doors were opened and they who had sat in darkness walked in
+light. And they aspired to perfection for he taught that Perfection
+was their heritage, if not now, then in some future life
+where the sown seeds of good expanding should throw out
+strong arms and glorious blossom.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they believed, and some set tottering steps in the path,
+and some advanced with wings rather than feet, but all were
+seekers and finders.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But he compelled none, nor threatened, for by a man’s
+true self comes his salvation, and seated among his own he
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Tathagata—He who has thus Attained, does not think
+that it is he who must lead the Brotherhood or that the Order
+is dependent upon him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Only, steadfastly pointing the way, he rejoiced that men
+should follow it, casting forth his light like the sun, not compelling
+men to guide their steps by it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Nor did he teach resignation to sorrow nor its acceptance
+as a blessing and discipline. Far from it. For in the clear
+percipience of the Lord sorrow is ignorance and shameful.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“One thing only, monks, now as always I declare to you—sorrow
+and the uprooting of sorrow.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For what man would wander in the mist of sorrow when he
+may walk glad and straight to the goal in the sunlight of wisdom.
+And sorrow understood is sorrow ended.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore the Lord taught understanding of sorrow, as the
+first need and therefore says the wise Nagasena:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As a boy I was admitted to the Order, and nothing did I
+know of the goal. But I thought—‘These men taught by the
+Awakened One will teach me.’ And they taught, and now I
+know with understanding the foundation and the crown of Renunciation.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And what the Lord taught he knew: that there is no sorrow
+for the wise.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And thus when he stayed at Alavi, by the cattle-path in the
+forest he rested on a couch of leaves, and it so chanced that a
+man of Alavi as he went through the forest saw the Exalted
+One sitting absorbed in meditation, and greeting him with
+respect this man sat down at his side and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Master, does the World-Honoured live happily?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Perfect One answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is so, young man. Of those who live happily in the
+world I also am one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Cold, Master, is the winter night, the time of frost is coming:
+rough is the ground trodden by cattle: thin is the couch of
+leaves: light the monk’s yellow robe: sharp the cutting winter
+wind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For his heart pitied the aging of the Exalted One. But he
+replied, again smiling:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is so, young man. I live happily. Of those who live
+happily in the world I also am one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so it was, and with his own also. For his mendicants
+rejoicing said to one another:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We who call nothing our own, drenched with happiness, we
+in this world cast out light like the radiant Gods.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And their song was—</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Abolished is the round of birth: Completed the ascetic life;</p>
+<p class='line0'>      Done what was to do.</p>
+<p class='line0'>  This world of form is no more. This we know.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And sometimes proud and learned Brahmans would come
+to dispute haughtily with the Perfect One, and they, full of
+pride and anger, would rage and trip in their discourse thinking
+to show their much learning rather than to seek the truth.
+But like the waves of a muddy river lashing rock so were they,
+and the Lord sat there always, answering duly, teaching duly,
+clothed in serenity, his skin the colour of bright gold, his eyes
+bright and calm, for he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That in disputation with anyone whatsoever I could be
+thrown into any confusion or embarrassment,—there is no possibility
+of such a thing, and because I know of no such possibility
+I remain quiet and confident. And even when I am carried
+here upon a bed shall my intellectual strength remain
+unabated.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And his monks said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Truly from the Exalted One comes all our wisdom.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And because he was so near the Blessed One many monks
+would come to the venerable Ananda and say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is long, brother, since we heard a discourse from the
+Exalted One. It were very good if we might hear one now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, venerable ones, betake yourselves to the hermitage
+of the Brahman Rammako. Perhaps you will get to hear a
+discourse from the lips of the Exalted One.” For Ananda was
+wise in the ways of the Master.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now after the Perfected One had returned from his begging-round,
+he turned and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, Ananda, let us go to the East Grove, to the terrace
+of the Mother of Migara, and stay there until the evening.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they went, and when he had finished his meditation he
+turned to the venerable Ananda:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, Ananda, let us to the Old Bath and refresh our
+limbs.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they went. Then the beloved Ananda addressed the Perfected
+One thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The hermitage of the Brahman Rammako, Master, is not
+far from here. It is pleasantly situated in peaceful solitude.
+Good were it if the Master should betake himself there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One signified by silence his assent. And
+there they found many monks in edifying discourse. And he
+waited till they were done, and cleared his throat and rapped at
+the knocker, and they opened the door, and the World-Honoured
+entered in and seated himself and incited and gladdened
+them all with great and high discourse.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So they got what they needed, for very wise was the beloved
+Ananda in dealing with the Master.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Amazing indeed were the experiences of those who followed
+the Lord, and not to be understood of those who have not stood
+face to face with Truth and Love unveiled and terrible in
+beauty, and terrible also in the loves they inspire. What can
+words avail?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And where he went the Awakened One strewed little precepts
+like flowers, easy for a child to remember yet each an upward
+spiral on the Way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If all knew the fruits of alms-giving as I, monks, know them,
+most surely they would not eat the last least mouthful without
+dividing it with another.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they answered, “Even so, Lord,” and gave of their food,
+living in peace amidst the Transient, until even its semblance
+should pass for ever away. And nothing else than food had
+they to give, being monks.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And one asked of the learned nun Dhammadhina:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And how, venerable Lady,—how and what has the Blessed
+One taught about the arising of the false ego in the beginning
+of things? How came it to be? What does he teach of this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is the lust of life that sows repeated being in successive
+lives.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And how is the annihilation of the false ego to be attained,
+Venerable Lady? How has the Exalted One taught?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even by the complete annihilation, rejection, and driving
+forth of the lust of life—this is what was taught by the Exalted
+One.” So answered the nun Dhammadhina. “Even through
+the breaking of any attachment to the Transient.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But of how Attachment began to be in the beginning of
+things the Lord would not answer. The Way out, he taught;
+the way in concerns not at all the man who is fleeing for his
+life to peace and safety from attachment to the Transient and
+its illusion.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But what follows after death? What follows after the extinction
+of illusion?” the seeker asked of the learned nun
+Dhammadhina. And she replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Abandon the question, brother. I cannot grasp the meaning
+of the question. If you will, go to the Enlightened One
+and ask him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he went, and the Lord answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wise is Dhammadhina and mighty in understanding. My
+answer is hers.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For the Unknown cannot be known until the way is built to
+it. Build then the way, and knowledge will come in time.
+But, without words, to the few, the very few, this knowledge
+has come, as has been told.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when the nun Gotami asked him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Will the Exalted One teach me the very quintessence of the
+Law,” he answered thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whatever teaching leads to passion and not to peace, to
+pride and not to humility, to desire of much in place of little,
+to love of society and not of solitude, to idleness and not to
+striving, to a mind of unrest and not to a mind at peace—that,
+O Gotami,—note well!—that is not the way,—that is
+not the teaching of the Master.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And as they sat in the calm of the sunset and discoursed,
+Sariputta the Great said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I desire not life. I desire not death. I wait until my hour
+shall come like a servant that waits for his wage. I await the
+coming of the hour, conscious and of thoughtful mind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus steadfast in the way they continued, not cruelly mortifying
+the body but in the true asceticism of the heart that cannot
+be tempted. For the Awakened One said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I teach asceticism inasmuch as I teach the burning away of
+all evil conditions of the heart. And the true ascetic who thus
+lives may fitly and rightly eat of the food that is given him in
+alms, of rice pleasantly prepared and such-like, and it will do
+him no ill.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So quietly and in radiance life went on as a summer day
+which from dewy dawn passes through every gradation of light
+until the night comes, taking the world in her net of stars and
+laying all to rest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And still the Exalted One journeyed and taught, now being
+very aged, and the seeds of his doctrine were carried as if by
+far-flying birds into the outer lands which had never felt in this
+life the tread of his blessed feet nor seen the calm of his face
+nor the majesty that attended him. And taking root these
+seeds shot up later into mighty trees of glorious growth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And still he journeyed to and fro, and the people said to
+the monks:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let not the World-Honoured overweary himself, for in
+what are we worthy that our well-being should cost the world
+its Light?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All he does is well. This also is well and could not be
+otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the beloved Ananda saw with fear that the World-Honoured
+moved more slowly and with more painful effort
+on each journey he made. And awe and grief possessed Ananda,
+seeing this, for he had not as yet attained to perfect enlightenment,—and
+with many cares he compassed the Blessed
+and followed him wherever he went.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XX<br/> <span style='font-size:smaller'>THE LAST JOURNEY</span></h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>A</span><span class='sc'>nd</span> the Blessed One passed through Pataligama and
+went on to the river and at that time Ganges was
+swollen and brimming, and some with him began to
+seek for boats and some for basket-rafts that they might pass
+over. But the Exalted One, swiftly as a powerful man could
+stretch out his arm and withdraw it, vanished from the hither
+side of the river and stood on the other bank with the brethren.
+And he uttered this verse:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Those who cross the stormy sea</p>
+<p class='line0'>Making a firm way for their feet,</p>
+<p class='line0'>While the blinded tie their basket-rafts,</p>
+<p class='line0'>These are the wise, these are the safe and glad.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they passed on to the villages of Nadika and at the last
+the Happy One rested at the Brick Hall, and the beloved Ananda
+(who tended him always) came and sat down respectfully
+beside him, and having passed through the village and heard of
+the deaths of several devout followers, men and women, who
+had followed them formerly, he asked the Lord of their destiny
+and of what had befallen them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And naming them each and all by name, replied the Exalted
+One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of those men and women there are some who in their first
+return to this world will make an end of sorrow and illusion
+and return no more. And some there are for whom having attained
+the highest knowledge, it is no longer possible that they
+should return to mortal birth, for they are now assured of final
+salvation.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in the Brick Hall at Nadika he taught the people, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great is the fruit, great the advantage of earnest contemplation
+when adorned with right doing. And great the fruit
+of high intellect adorned with earnest contemplation. For the
+mind set round with intelligence is thus delivered from sensuality,
+from the false ego, from delusion and ignorance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they went on to Vaisali, and from thence to Beluva, and
+there the Blessed One rested in the village. And he said to
+the brethren:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mendicants, do you take up your abode round about Vaisali
+for the rains, each according to his friends. For I shall
+enter upon the rainy season here at Beluva.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So be it, Lord,” said the brethren in assent, and so it was
+done.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now when the Blessed One had thus entered on the rains at
+Beluva there fell upon him a sickness, and sharp pains came
+upon him even to death. But mindful and self-possessed he
+bore them without complaint. And this thought came into his
+mind:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It would not be right for me to pass away without addressing
+the disciples, without taking leave of the Order. Let me
+now by a strong effort of the will bend down this sickness and
+keep my hold on life until the allotted time be come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he bent that sickness down and it abated.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he began to recover he went out of the little vihara—the
+monastery, and sat down behind it on a seat spread out
+for him. And the venerable Ananda went where the Blessed
+One was, and sat respectfully beside him, and said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have seen, Lord, how the Blessed One suffered, and
+though at that sight my body became weak as a creeper, yet I
+had some little comfort in thinking that the Blessed One would
+not pass from existence until at least he had left some instructions
+touching the Order.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What then, Ananda? Does the Order expect that of me?
+Now, He who has thus Attained thinks not that it is he who
+shall lead the Order or that it is dependent upon him. I too,
+Ananda, am now grown old and full of years. My journey is
+drawing to its close. I have reached my sum of days, I am
+turning eighty years of age. And just as a worn-out cart can
+only with much additional care be made to move, so, I think,
+the body of the Tathagata can only be kept going with much
+additional care. It is only when ceasing to attend to any
+outward thing he becomes plunged in devout meditation concerned
+with no material object,—it is only then that the body
+of the Tathagata is at ease.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And there was a long pause, and the venerable Ananda remained
+steadfastly gazing at the Perfect One, absorbed in his
+words as foreseeing the end. And the Lord resumed:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Therefore, Ananda, be lamps unto yourselves. Betake
+yourselves to no external Refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a
+lamp. Look not for refuge to anyone beside yourselves. And
+whoever after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves and
+holding fast to the truth look for refuge to no one outside
+themselves, it is they, among my mendicants, who shall reach
+the Height.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And again the Blessed One robed himself early in the morning
+and taking his bowl went into Vaisali for alms and when he
+returned he sat down upon the seat prepared for him and when
+he had finished eating the rice he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Take up the mat, Ananda,—I will go to spend the day at
+the Kapila Ketiya.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So be it, Lord,” said the venerable Ananda, and he followed
+step for step behind the Blessed One.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he had come there the Blessed One sat down upon
+the mat spread out for him, and the venerable Ananda took his
+seat respectfully beside him. And the Blessed One said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whoever, Ananda, has developed himself and ascended to
+the very heights of the four paths to Power, thus transcending
+bodily conditions and using these Powers for good may if he
+desires it, remain in the same birth for an age, or that portion
+of the age which is yet to run. Now He who has thus Attained
+has developed these Powers and could therefore live on
+yet for an age or that portion of the age which has yet to run.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But even though this suggestion was given by the Blessed
+One, the venerable Ananda did not comprehend it, nor did he
+say, “Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain! Live on for the good and
+happiness of the peoples, out of pity for the world and the weal
+of Divine Beings and men.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a second time did the Blessed One say this, and yet did
+not the beloved Ananda speak.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now the Blessed One addressed him thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You may leave me, Ananda, for awhile.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And rising from his seat, Ananda saluted the Lord, and sat
+down at the foot of a tree not far off, and when he was gone,
+the Evil One, the Tempter, approached the Lord and stood
+beside him, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Pass away now, Lord, from existence. Let the Blessed
+One die. For did he not say that when the Order was established,
+and the lay-people, and the truth made known, that then
+the time would be come? And all this is now done, and the
+time is here. Pass away now, therefore, Lord. Let the
+Blessed One die.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he had spoken, the Blessed One said to the Evil
+One:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Be happy. At the end of three months from this time the
+Blessed One will die.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus did the Lord deliberately and consciously reject the
+rest of his possible sum of life. And there followed an earthquake
+and tremblings and thunders.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Ananda returned in haste and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wonderful and marvellous is this earthquake, Lord, and
+what is its cause?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of the eight causes of earthquake and tremblings, this is
+one—when an Awakened One,—He who has thus Attained,
+consciously and deliberately rejects the remainder of his life,
+then is the earth shaken.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, still speaking of the mastery of the Powers, the Lord
+continued:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now I call to mind, Ananda, how when I used to enter into
+an assembly of many hundred nobles with discourse of religion
+I would instruct and gladden them, and they would say,—‘Who
+may this be who thus speaks? A man or a God?’ And
+having taught and gladdened them, suddenly I would vanish
+away. But they knew me not even when I vanished away, and
+they would say in bewilderment, ‘Who may this be who has
+thus vanished away? A man, or a God?’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he spoke also of the eight stages of deliverance from
+errors of perception, passing beyond the apprehension of form
+through infinite space and infinite reason and finally beyond
+sensation and ideas, even into the eighth stage of deliverance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And having given this instruction the Lord related to the
+venerable Ananda how that in three months’ time he should
+hear his voice no more, and the venerable Ananda cried out
+vehemently:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Vouchsafe, O Blessed One, to live. Stay with us for the
+weal of Divine Beings and men.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Lord answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The time for making such a request is past.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And a second and a third time Ananda entreated and the
+Lord replied, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Verily, the word has gone forth from Him who has thus
+Attained. That the Tathagata for the sake of living should
+repent of that saying can in no wise be. Come, Ananda, let us
+rise and go to the Mahavana.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they went to the Mahavana, to the Service Hall, and
+he commanded Ananda to assemble there such of the brethren
+as dwelt in the neighbourhood of Vaisali. And when they were
+assembled the Blessed One sat down upon his mat and addressed
+them. And he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The truths, monks, which I have made known to you and
+you have mastered, these practise, meditate, and spread abroad,
+that it may continue to be for the good and happiness of great
+multitudes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Behold, monks, now I exhort you. All component things
+must grow old and pass away. Work out your salvation with
+diligence. At the end of three months from this time He who
+has thus Attained will die. My age is now full ripe: my life
+draws to its close. I leave you, I depart, relying on myself
+alone. Be earnest, holy, full of thought. Be steadfast in
+resolve. Keep watch over your own hearts. Who wearies
+not, but holds fast to the Law, shall cross this sea of life, shall
+make an end of grief.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So he spoke, and they dispersed silently.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One robed himself early in the morning
+and took his bowl and went into Vaisali for alms and when he
+had eaten his meal and was returning, he gazed steadfastly at
+Vaisali and he said this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is the last time, Ananda, that He who has thus Attained
+will behold Vaisali. Let us now go to Bhandagama.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they went, and the Lord rested in the village itself, and
+there he addressed the brethren, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is through ignorance of the Truths that we have had to
+run so long, to wander so far in this weary road of rebirth—you
+and I. But when the noble conduct of life, noble meditation,
+noble wisdom and noble freedom are realized and known,
+then is the craving for existence rooted out, the chain broken
+and we return to earth no more.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it was there also that he delivered the high discourse on
+the nature of the Four Truths; and having done this he pressed
+on with the venerable Ananda and a great company of his own
+to Pava. And there he stayed in the Mango Grove of Chunda,
+and Chunda was a smith by family.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when Chunda heard that the Perfect One had come to
+Pava and rested in his Mango Grove, he went to him and saluted
+him joyfully, and with reverence took his seat beside him,
+and the Blessed One gladdened him with talk of high things.
+And, so gladdened, he addressed the Lord, and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May the Blessed One do me the honour of taking his meal,
+together with the brethren, at my house to-morrow?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord signified by silence his consent, and seeing
+he had consented, Chunda the worker in metals, bowed before
+him and keeping him on his right hand, departed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at the end of the night Chunda made ready in his house
+excellent food, hard and soft, sweet rice and cakes and the
+food, found in the earth and loved by boars, truffles, and when
+all was ready he announced it to the Lord saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Exalted One, the meal is ready.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One robed himself and took his bowl and
+he and his followers went to the dwelling-place of Chunda.
+And when the meal was over, he gladdened the smith with discourse
+of high matters, and so rose and departed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But after the Blessed One had eaten of his food then fell
+upon him a grievous disease, and sharp pain came upon him
+even to death, but he bore it without complaint mindful and
+self-possessed. And to the venerable Ananda he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, let us go to Kusinara.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Even so, Lord,” said the venerable Ananda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they went, but as they went the Blessed One grew very
+weary and he rested beneath a tree and said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Fold the robe and spread it for me, I pray you. I am
+weary, Ananda, and I must rest awhile.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the robe was spread, folded fourfold, and when the
+World-Honoured was seated he asked for fresh water to drink
+and Ananda answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, Lord, five hundred carts have just gone by across the
+stream and stirred up by the wheels it has become fouled and
+turbid. Let us wait for the river, cool and transparent, easy
+to get into. There the Blessed One may drink and cool his
+limbs.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But his thirst would not wait, and taking a bowl Ananda
+went down to the stream, and when he came to it it flowed clear
+as light. And he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How wonderful, how marvellous is the power of Him who
+has thus Attained. For this turbid stream is flowing brightly
+now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he returned he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Great is the power of the Lord. Let the Happy One
+drink!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Now at that time a young man named Pukkusa, a disciple of
+the Brahman Alara, passed along the highway, and seeing the
+Blessed One very weary beneath the tree he came and saluted
+him taking his seat respectfully beside him, and the Holy One
+discoursed with him on the depths of calm in pure contemplation
+and abstraction of mind from the vain shows about us,
+and with every power of his mind and heart did the young man
+listen, and when the great teaching was ended, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Most excellent, Lord, are the words of your mouth—most
+excellent. As it were to bring a lamp into the darkness so
+are your words. And I, even I, betake myself to the Blessed
+One as my refuge, to the Truth and the Brotherhood. May I
+be accepted as a disciple!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the young Pukkusa presented two robes of burnished
+cloth of gold to the World-Honoured, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May favour be shown and these accepted at my hand!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In that case, Pukkusa, offer the one to me and the other to
+Ananda.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so it was done and the young man gladdened and
+strengthened, rose and bowed down and went his way.</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XXI</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>N</span><span class='sc'>ow</span> not long after the young man was gone the venerable
+Ananda placed that glorious robe upon the
+Blessed One, and so placed it appeared to dim and
+lose its splendour, and Ananda said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, it is marvellous that the colour of the skin of the
+Blessed One should now be so clear, so bright, beyond measure,
+for this robe of burnished gold has lost its splendour in the
+radiance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is even so, Ananda. For on the night that He who has
+thus Attained achieves supreme Enlightenment and also on
+the night in which he passes away for ever leaving no residue
+behind, the colour of his person becomes exceedingly bright
+and clear. And now this day at the third watch of the night
+at Kusinara, between the twin sala trees the utter passing away
+of Him who has thus Attained will take place. Come, let us
+go forward.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he was come to the Mango Grove by the river, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Fold a robe for me, Kundaka, for I am forespent and
+would lie down.” And it was done and the Blessed One laid
+himself down on his right side, and meditated, calm and self-possessed,
+and finally, calling to Ananda the beloved, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now it may happen that someone may grieve Chunda the
+smith, saying, ‘it is evil to you, Chunda, and loss, that the
+Blessed One died after he had eaten his last meal from your
+provision.’ But check this remorse, Ananda, by saying—‘It
+is good and gain to you, Chunda, that this should have been.
+For the very mouth of the Blessed One has told me this—There
+is laid up for Chunda the smith a good Karma of long
+life and good fortune and good fame and the inheritance of
+Heaven and sovereign power.’ In this manner check any remorse
+in Chunda the smith.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then once more rising, the World-Honoured began again his
+pilgrimage of pain, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, let us go to the Sala Grove of the Malla people at
+Kusinara.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they went on.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So with the monks the Exalted One reached at last the Sala
+Grove of the Mallas, and he desired that Ananda the beloved
+would lay a couch for him with its head to the north between
+the twin sala trees that they knew. And this was done, and
+the sala trees shed their dropping blossoms on the body of the
+Blessed One, for so it must be with a departing Buddha.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And here, Ananda seeing that the time drew on, reverently
+besought the commands of the Lord as to the disposal of his
+mortal body. And he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hinder not yourselves by honouring what remains of Him
+who has thus Attained. Be zealous, I beseech you, in your
+own behalf: be intent on good. There are wise men among the
+nobles who will do due honour to the body of the Tathagata.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he heard this Ananda could no longer endure his
+grief, and that the Lord might not see his tears, he went into
+the monastery and stood leaning against the door and wept, for
+he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Alas! I still remain but a learner, one who has not yet
+attained perfection, and the Master is about to pass away from
+me—he who is so kind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the Blessed One called the brethren and asked:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where then, monks, is Ananda?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they told him, and he said to a certain brother:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Go, brother, and say ‘Brother Ananda, the Master calls
+you.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And it was done and the beloved Ananda returned, and the
+Blessed One said to him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enough, Ananda. Do not let yourself be troubled. Do
+not weep. Have I not often told you that it is in the very nature
+of things most near and dear to us that we must divide
+ourselves from them and leave them? How then could it be
+possible that anything containing within itself the necessity of
+dissolution should not be dissolved? For a long time, Ananda,
+have you been very near to me by acts of love, kind and good,
+that never varies and is beyond all measure. And not only
+by acts but by words and thoughts of love. You have done
+well, Ananda. Be earnest in effort and you too shall soon be
+delivered and attain the perfect percipience.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the Blessed One said to the others:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He is a wise man, monks, is Ananda. Knowing what is
+right he has four marvellous qualities, for those who see him,
+who hear him speak or teach are filled with joy on beholding
+and hearing him, and the company of the Assembly are ill at
+ease when Ananda is silent.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And later he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Go now, Ananda, to the town of Kusinara and inform the
+people of the Mallas that in the last watch of the night He
+who has thus Attained will pass away. And say this—‘Be
+favourable herein, Mallas, and leave no occasion to reproach
+yourselves that you did not visit the World-Honoured in his
+last hours.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Ananda the beloved went, robed and carrying his bowl
+and attended by a member of the Order.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And, as it chanced, the Mallas were assembled in the Council
+Hall and when they heard his words, they wept, they and
+their wives and children saying:</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Too soon will the Blessed One die!</p>
+<p class='line0'>Too soon will the Happy One pass away.</p>
+<p class='line0'>Too soon will the Light of the World be darkened!”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And trooping out with their wives and children, these Mallas
+came to the Grove of the sala trees, and Ananda considering
+their great number thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There is not time that they should speak singly with the
+Lord. But I will present them by families.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this he did, causing the Mallas to stand in groups and
+so presented them, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lord, a Malla of such and such a name, with his wives, his
+children his retinue and his friends, humbly bows down at the
+feet of the Blessed One.” And that family with its retinue
+then advanced, weeping.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And after this manner were all presented during the first
+watch of the night, and when it was done they retired in heavy
+grief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But there was yet one work of mercy left unto the Lord.
+For at this time a mendicant named Subaddha was dwelling at
+Kusinara, and he heard the news that the Blessed One was
+about to pass away and his religious doubts rushed into his
+mind and he thought:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Seldom indeed in this world do the authentic Buddhas appear.
+I have faith in the monk Gotama that he may be able to
+remove my uncertainty. I will go to him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he went and told his case to Ananda and he replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enough, friend Subaddha. Do not trouble Him who has
+thus Attained. The Lord is weary.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And three times he refused. But the Lord heard and he
+said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let him come to me. He will ask from a true desire of
+knowledge and will quickly understand my replies.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So Ananda said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enter in, friend Subaddha. The Blessed One gives you
+leave.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And speaking respectfully that mendicant put his questions,
+awaiting the answer with anxiety. And it was this: “Is the
+Way of the Law the only path possible for a saint? Can that
+way alone produce sainthood of the first order?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Lord replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perfect saints from the first to the fourth degree are found
+only in the Noble Eightfold Path.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And when he had given the reason why only under such
+discipline is perception perfected, Subaddha, hailing his words
+with gladness, every doubt lost in light, besought admission as
+a disciple and it was granted and the probation of four months
+remitted, though Subaddha himself willingly undertook that
+probation. But the Lord said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this case I acknowledge the difference in persons.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this was the last man the Lord himself received. And
+because it could not be otherwise Subaddha attained light and
+percipience, and became conscious that for him birth was at an
+end, and he became a great Arhat. And he sat beside the
+Blessed One until the end.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now the time drew on swiftly and knowing this, the
+Blessed One said, while they all stood in great grief surrounding
+him:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It may be, Ananda, that in some of you the thought may
+arise—‘Now that the word of the Master is ended we have no
+Teacher.’ But this is not so. The truths and the rules of the
+Order—let them be your Teacher when I am gone. And when
+I am gone, Ananda, let the Order if it will, abolish the Lesser
+Precepts.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And after awhile the Blessed One spoke again, and he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It may be, brethren, that there is doubt or misgiving in the
+mind of some brother as to the Buddha, the Truth, the Way.
+Enquire freely, monks! Do not reproach yourself afterwards
+with the thought,—‘We were face to face with the Blessed
+One, and yet could not bring ourselves to enquire.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the brethren were silent. And again and a third time
+the Lord repeated this. And in his care for them he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It may be that the brethren will not question out of reverence
+for the Teacher. Let one friend then communicate with
+another.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And still they were silent, and the venerable Ananda said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is wonderful, Lord. I have faith to believe that in this
+whole Assembly of the brethren there is not one who has any
+doubt or misgiving as to the Buddha, the Truth, or the Way.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the Blessed One, sinking yet lower into weakness,
+answered:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From the fulness of faith do you speak, Ananda. But He
+who has thus Attained knows of certain knowledge that in this
+whole Assembly there is not one brother who has any doubt or
+misgiving. For even the most backward of all these brethren
+knows and has seen and will be born no more in a state of
+suffering and is assured of final peace.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And by these words did the World-Honoured reassure
+Ananda the beloved in whom as yet the tenderness of love crippled
+its wings, restraining it from the eagle-flight of the perfected
+Arhat.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Ananda knelt, hiding his face beside the sala trees where
+lay the Blessed One, for he knew that the parting drew very
+near. And there was a deep silence, and it was as though all
+the spirits of earth and air, and the Divine Beings and the
+Three Worlds, the earth, the heavens, and hells waited with
+them nor would lose a breath that remained. And He who has
+thus Attained lay with closed eyes, submerged in calm as in a
+great ocean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And after awhile his eyelids opened and for the last time he
+looked upon them and for the last time his disciples heard his
+voice, strong in death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying—‘Decay is inherent
+in all component things. Work out your own salvation
+with diligence.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they trembled, kneeling about him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then the Blessed One entered into the first state of ecstasy,
+and, rising from this, into the second, and so passed into the
+third and into the fourth and rising from that realm of ecstasy
+he entered the realm of the infinity of space, and from this he
+entered the realm of the infinity of consciousness and rising
+from this he entered the realm of nothingness, and beyond this
+the realm of neither perception nor non-perception, and from
+this he arrived at the cessation of sensation and idea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Ananda cried out to the great Anuruddha in an agony:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“O my Lord—O Anuruddha, the Blessed One is dead!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he, leaning above that Peace, said with calm:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nay, brother Ananda. He has entered that state where
+sensation and ideas have ceased to be.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk100'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And all veiled their faces.</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk101'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the mind of Him who has thus Attained retraced its
+way downward again and passing through all the stages entered
+into the fourth stage of deep meditation and passing out
+of this he immediately entered the Great Peace.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And at the moment of his expiring the thunders of Heaven
+broke forth roaring about them and there was a loud and terrible
+trembling of the earth and the voice of Him who is the
+First uttered this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All beings in the world must lose their compound selves
+and individuality, and even such a Master as this, he, unrivalled
+and endued with all the powers, even he has passed
+into the Nirvana.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the voice of Indra, King of Gods, took up the tale.</p>
+
+
+ <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+ <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Transient are all component things.</p>
+<p class='line0'>They being born must die, and being</p>
+<p class='line0'>    dead are glad to be at rest.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>And Anuruddha the Great said these words:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When he, the Desireless, lay in peace, so ending his span
+of life, resolute and with unshaken mind did he endure the
+pains of death, attaining his final deliverance from the Fetters.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Ananda cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then there was terror, then the hair rose on the head, when
+he who possessed all grace—the supreme Buddha died.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus spoke the Four Loves, from the highest to the lowest,—and
+these of the brethren who were not yet enfranchised
+from the passions wept and wailed in anguish, crying aloud:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Too soon has the Blessed One died. Too soon has the
+Happy One departed. Too soon is the World’s Light darkened.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the great Arhats bore their sorrow calm and self-possessed,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Transient are all earth’s things. How is it possible they
+should not be dissolved?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And all that night did the great Sariputta and Anuruddha
+spend in high discourse but Ananda wept nor could be comforted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And in the morning the great Anuruddha addressed the sorrowing
+Assembly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Enough, my brethren. Weep not nor lament. Has not
+the Blessed One declared to us that it is in the very nature of
+things near and dear to us that we and they must part? How
+then can it be possible that anything born and thus containing
+within itself the necessity of dissolution should not dissolve?
+Weep no more. Even the spirits would reproach us. For
+they who have attained wisdom say ‘Transient indeed are all
+component things. How is it possible they should not be dispersed?
+This cannot be.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And calling to Ananda he sent him into the town of Kusinara
+that he might tell the faithful Mallas that their Lord was departed
+and that in their true hands should be the burning.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they came out lamenting, having made great and costly
+preparation, and they encased the body of the Lord in new
+cloth and folded sheets of wool and lastly in a vessel of iron
+for the burning, and having clad themselves in new garments
+eight chieftains of the Mallas lifted the body, and they bore
+it through their little town to their own shrine, and there in
+the presence of the Order with devotion and spices and flowers
+and perfumes they did what was needful, and the body of the
+Lord passed into grey ash, fulfilling all even to the uttermost.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Bow down with clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hard, hard is it to meet with a Buddha through hundreds
+of ages.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But they knew in whose presence they had stood.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This also have I heard.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The great Ananda, casting aside the fetters of love and retaining
+only its radiance, became a mighty Arhat and laid aside
+all sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After these things, one day it so chanced that one of the
+brothers sat with Pingiya the aged Brahman, the disciple of
+the Lord, and Pingiya from the fulness of his heart spoke of
+the Blessed One, saying:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As he saw the Way, so he taught it, he, the very wise, the
+passionless, the desireless Lord, and how should he do otherwise,
+for in him was no shadow nor turning of untruth. I will
+praise the voice of him who was without folly, who had left
+arrogance far behind. It is he only, the Dispeller of darkness,
+the high Deliverer, who giveth light.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And seeing his love, the other said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How then can you stay away from him even one instant,
+O Pingiya?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the old man replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not even for one instant do I stay away from him, my
+brother. Vigilant day and night I see him in my mind. In
+reverencing him do I spend the night, and verily I think I am
+not far from him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And he mused awhile and added this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am worn out and feeble, but my heart, venerable brother,
+is joined to him for ever.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And lo, as Pingiya sat and said this word, there shone about
+them a great light and Pingiya beheld the Blessed One stand
+there in majesty that cannot be uttered. And he said these
+words:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Strong is thy faith, O Pingiya, and it shall be made glad.
+Fear not. You too shall reach that further shore, the haven
+of the realm of death.”</p>
+
+<div><h1>CHAPTER XXII</h1></div>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='dropcap'>A</span><span class='sc'>nd</span> when the burning was done, the faithful Mallas
+gathered the bones and they took them to their Council
+Hall and surrounded them with a lattice-work of
+spears and a rampart of bows, and there for seven days they
+did them reverence and homage with solemn dance and music
+and garlands and perfumes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And the King of Maghada sent to beg a portion of the relics,
+for he said: “The Blessed One was of the soldier caste and so
+too am I; I am worthy to receive a portion and I will set
+over it a sacred monument and hold a solemn feast.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And other peoples, and among them the Sakyas of Kapila,—the
+Lord’s own people—sent demanding each a portion. And
+the Sakyas said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He who has thus Attained was the pride of our race. We
+are worthy to receive a portion, and we will put up a sacred
+monument and celebrate a solemn feast.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so it was with six more peoples all demanding their
+portion, and the true Mallas grew angry, for they loved the
+Lord, and they replied:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Blessed One died in our land and he is ours. We will
+not give away any of the relics.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the wise Brahman Dona rose amongst them and said
+this:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hear, sirs, one word from me. Our Lord taught forbearance,
+and gentleness was the law of his lips. Would it
+not be unseemly that strife should arise over the relics of
+him who was in all things highest? Sirs, let us all with one
+accord unite in friendly harmony to divide these precious relics
+into eight portions.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And they asked him, this being so, to undertake the division,
+and he answered “Be it so,” and with scrupulous care he
+divided the relics, asking for himself the vessel that he might
+set a monument over it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And to the Moriya people (who too late asked their share
+of the precious relics), seeing their grief they gave the embers
+of the pyre, and these with all reverence they took away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus is the story told of Him who cast aside earthly love
+and riches and power that he might open the way to the
+myriads of mankind who have trodden it after him and who
+will tread it until all things merge in the unity and reconcilement
+of the Peace. For like a bright shining went forth the
+words of the Lord unto the ends of the earth, and those
+countries that have not heard shall yet hear and rejoice, for in
+Him were all wisdom and all love. And Kings and Emperors
+have heard and adored, and peasants looked up in gladness
+to see the night of sorrow dawn into the sunrise of joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And for that man who desires no longer the illusions of earth,
+ended—ended is the passing from death to death, the illusion
+of that false self and ego being slain over whom alone death has
+dominion! For the All in whom we are One is life and not
+death.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet do not think that all the appearances of this world are
+wholly illusion for that was not the Teaching of the Lord.
+No; but he taught that the five senses cannot see nor hear
+nor touch nor the dissolving brain apprehend Absolute Truth,
+and that this being so there is only relative truth for those
+unenlightened who see but as in a glass darkly, while those
+who have attained enlightenment, as did He who has thus
+Attained, behold the Truth face to face.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore here we see things but as they can appear to us
+and not in their true Being, and are most mistaken and
+deceived.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Furthermore it is a strange thing and not to be uttered in
+words how by following the narrow way of right thinking and
+right doing is the cleansed perception attained. But the Lord
+said: “Do thus and thus, and you shall know.” And so it is.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And to the weak and poor in spirit as to the great of mind
+he did not say:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Believe this, for so it is told you” but “Do this, and little
+by little, as when a man climbs a mountain the earth unfolds
+beneath him, for yourselves you shall see and know, needing
+no testimony from another—No, not even from the ancient
+scriptures, the Vedas, the Vedanta or any Brahman nor another.
+For the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Look
+inward and see it and be glad.” Thus the Lord taught and
+so it was.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And because this is so I who have seen many teachings of
+the old writings and of the Brahmans pass away in later
+knowledge have never seen one jot or one tittle of the Law pass
+rebuked into oblivion, neither shall I, nor any other. Knowledge
+is a good thing and a great, but all knowledge that comes
+through the brain and the five senses shall be rebuked later
+or sooner by the majesty of the Truth and shall crumble and
+pass. Only he who perceives beyond knowledge and sees beyond
+sight can apprehend these matters and so sit above error,
+being one with the One, and beyond that is the Nirvana, and
+even beyond the Nirvana it may well be there are states inconceivable
+in glory.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As for the ignorant, nothing is as they think it and they
+move through a world of distorted forms most alien to the
+Truth, just as in the lower consciousness of insect, reptile, and
+beast the forms perceived by them are still more alien from the
+Truth, for consciousness evolves from lowly beginnings. And
+this must be so since the thing seen is shaped by him who sees
+it through his own fettered consciousness, the limits of which
+he can in no way escape until he reaches that perception to
+which the perception of the ignorant is as the snail’s or worm’s
+to the man’s.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet let us not think that Reality is far from us. It lies
+about and in us and we walk in it and see it not, and in the
+higher perception bright things move about us and we of
+the lower perception see them no more than the blind man
+the sunshine in which he sits, and they touch us with strange
+instincts and visitings through the dark and we do not know,
+and our heart calls them to come nearer and there is silence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the
+Blessed One summed up all teachings of the wise men of old
+and those who are yet to come, and no more can be added
+to it though it shall be more clearly understood as time and
+knowledge join hands. Therefore walk in the Way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And whereas there are wise men of the West who teach that
+there is but one life in this world of form and illusion, one
+hope of development and knowledge,—I say this: Very wise
+and near the Truth must be those men of the West if one life
+of twenty, thirty, ninety years suffices to free them from the
+fetters of ignorance and render them perfect as their Father in
+Heaven (for so they phrase it) is perfect. With us this is not
+so, nor yet do we hold that any of the Buddhas can pay the
+debt of another nor lift his sins from his shoulders, holding
+that the debt incurred must be paid by the debtor, and this for
+the sake of immortal Justice and for his own sake also. For
+the Law is evolution in the innermost as in the mortal body.
+First the lowly beginning, the seed in black earth. Then the
+tender shoot, the waxing strength of trunk and bough till they
+can bear the glory of expanding blossom, and last, the perfect
+fruit. And in one life this cannot be. And so have all the
+Buddhas taught.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Yet another thing. It was said by our Wisest that the man
+who truly perceives sits above good and evil and may do what
+he will. Is this a hard saying? How can it be?</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It is because the Truth is now his will. It is his being; he
+sits in it and it in him, and the Truth and he are one. How
+should such a man think; “This is right. I will do it. This
+is evil; I will not do it,” any more than he will think; “I must
+breathe or I shall die,” considering each breath or heart-beat?
+How can sin draw him any more than the writhing of the
+snake tempts to imitation the man who walks erect? These
+things are the necessary laws of the beginner in the Way.
+They are stages of the Noble Eightfold Path, but for the
+Enlightened, they who see things as they are, laws have no
+meaning, for they themselves are Law.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And this is the faith that must triumph, for Wisdom is its
+sceptre and Knowledge its footstool, and the science of the
+schools its slave to follow where it has led the way.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Did not the Blessed One say—“We know. He who has thus
+Attained has nothing to do with theories.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And great is the patience of the Law, for Eternity is its own
+and of time it knows nothing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now in ending I write down a few maxims which the
+wise have made for those who did not see the Face nor hear
+the Voice of Him who has thus Attained, that they also may
+consider and attain. For these are steps on the Way. “Let
+a man learn to comprehend the True Nature of the World of
+Law. Then will he perceive that all things are but the production
+of Mind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In all living creatures there exists and has existed from
+the beginning the nature of the Law. All, by this nature, contain
+the original essence of Enlightenment. Wherefore birth
+and death and even the Nirvana itself are transcended and become
+for us a dream of the night that is gone, being lost in a
+greater Light.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To the eye of flesh, plants and trees appear to be gross
+matter. But to the eye of the Buddha they are composed of
+minute spiritual particles.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Grass, trees, countries, the earth itself, all these shall wholly
+enter into Enlightenment.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hail to the Buddhas of the Three Worlds, who are all but
+One in the One Mind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So I end.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With lips of clay have I told that which cannot be uttered
+and with mortal thought have I set forth the Highest. And
+well I knew this could not be, for it is above the flesh and the
+tongue cannot speak it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Glory to the Blessed One, the Holy, the Perfect in Enlightenment!</p>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:3em;margin-bottom:2em;font-size:.8em;'>THE END</p>
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