conjunction of the stars that his father was dead. So he took the water- sprite with him and returned to Benares, and took upon himself the kingdom. And he made Moon Prince his heir-apparent, and Sun Prince his commander-in-chief. And for the water-sprite he made a dwelling-place in a pleasant spot, and took care that he should he constantly provided with the best of garlands and flowers and food. And he himself ruled his kingdom in righteousness, until he passed away according to his deeds.
The Teacher having finished this discourse spoke on the Four Truths. And when he had done, that monk entered the First Stage of the Path leading to Nirvāna. And the Buddha having told the double story, made the connexion and summed up the Jātaka by concluding, "The then water-sprite was the luxurious monk; the Sun Prince was Ānanda; the Moon Prince was Sāriputta; but the elder brother, the Prince Mahiŋsāsa, was I myself."[1]
END OF THE STORY ABOUT TRUE DIVINITY.
1 The whole of this story, including the introduction, is found also, word for word, in the commentary on the 'Scripture Verses' (Fausböll, pp. 302-305); and the commentator adds that the Buddha then further uttered the 141st verse of that collection:
Not nakedness, not plaited hair, not dirt,
Not fasting oft, nor lying on the ground;
Not dust and ashes, nor vigils hard and stern,
Can purify that man who still is tossed
Upon the waves of doubt!
The same verse occurs in the Chinese work translated by Mr. Beal (The 'Dhammapada, etc.,' p. 96). Another verse of similar purport has been quoted above (p. 69), and a third will be found in Āmagandha Sutta (Sutta Nipāta, p. 168, verse 11). The same sentiment occurs in the Mahā-Bhārata, iii. 13445, translated in Muir's 'Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers,' p. 75, and in the Northern Buddhist work Divyāvadāna (Burnouf, Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, p. 313).
- ↑ 1
