Then the Master knew that he had attained to spiritual insight; and without leaving his apartment, sent out an appearance as of himself, saying:
"Root out the love of self,
As you might the autumn lotus with your hand.
Devote yourself to the Way of Peace alone —
To the Nirvāna which the Blessed One has preached!"[1]
As the stanza was over the monk reached to Arahatship; and at the thought of now being delivered from every kind of future life, he gave utterance to his joy in the hymn of praise beginning —
He who has lived his life, whose heart is fixed,
Whose evil inclinations are destroyed;
He who is wearing his last body now.
Whose life is pure, whose senses well controlled —
He has gained freedom! — as the moon set free,
When an eclipse has passed, from Rahu's jaws.
The utter darkness of delusion, Which reached to every cranny of his mind, He has dispelled; and with it every sin — Just as the thousand-ray'd and mighty sun Sheds glorious lustre over all the earth, And dissipates the clouds!
And he returned to the Blessed One, and paid him reverence. The Elder also came; and when he took leave of the Teacher, he took his co-resident junior back with him.
And the news of this was noised abroad among the brethren. And they sat together in the evening in the Lecture Hall, extolling the virtues of the Sage, and
1 This is verse No. 285 of the 'Scripture Verses,' àpropos of which the commentator tells the same story as is told here.
- ↑ 1
