Then before him and his Act of Truth the Element went back a space of sixteen rods; but in receding it did not return to consume the forest; it went out immediately it came to the spot, like a torch plunged into water.
Therefore it is said —
"For me and for my Act of Truth The great and burning fire went out, Leaving a space of sixteen rods, As fire, with water mixed, goes out."
And as that spot has escaped being overwhelmed by fire through all this kalpa, this is said to be 'a kalpa-enduring miracle.' The Bodisat having thus performed the Act of Truth, passed away, at the end of his life, according to his deeds.
When the Teacher had finished this discourse, in illustration of what he had said ("That this wood is not passed over by the fire is not a result, O monks, of my present power; but of the power of the Act of Truth I exercised as a new-born quail"), he proclaimed the Truths. At the conclusion of the Truths some were Converted, some reached the Second Path, some the Third, some the Fourth. And the Teacher made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka, "My parents at that time were my present parents, but the King of the Quails was I myself."
END OF THE STORY OF THE HOLY QUAIL.[1]
- ↑ This story is referred to as one of the 'kalpa-enduring miracles' in Jātaka No. 20 above, p. 235.
knowledge of) all that is produced." It is used not infrequently in the Vedic literature as a peculiarly holy and mystical epithet of Agni, the personification of the mysterious element of fire, and seems to refer to its far-reaching, all-embracing power.
