45. 'Behold the extraordinary might of the penance-groves honoured by the residence of ascetics. Their kindness towards guests has in this degree taken root in the breast of the foremost of deer.'
Madrî replied:
46. 'This is rather your superhuman power, I suppose. The practice of virtue by the pious, however deeply rooted, is not the same with respect to everybody.
47. 'When the beautiful reflection of the stars in the water is surpassed by the laughing lustre of the night-waterlilies, the cause thereof is to be found in the beams which the Moon-god sends down as if out of curiosity[1].'
While they were going on, so speaking to each other kind words of affection, see, another Brâhman came near, and asked the Bodhisattva for his royal chariot.
48. And the Bodhisattva, as he was indifferent to his own comfort, but to the beggars a loving kinsman, fulfilled the wish of that Brâhman.
He gladly caused his family to alight from the chariot, presented the Brâhman with it, and taking Gâlin, his boy, in his arms, he continued his way on foot. Madrî, she too free from sadness, took the girl, Krishnâginâ, in her arms and marched after him.
49. The trees, stretching out to him their branches adorned at their ends with charming fruits, invited him, as it were, to enjoy their hospitality, and paying homage to his merit-obtained dignity, bowed to him like obedient disciples, when they got sight of him.
50. And, where he longed for water, in those very places lotus-ponds appeared to his eyes, covered on their surface with the white and reddish-brown pollen fallen down from the anthers of the lotuses shaken by the wing-movements of the swans.
51. The clouds overspread him with a beautiful
- ↑ The white waterlilies (kumuda) are said to open at moonrise. The connection between these flowers and the moon is a common-place in Indian poetry.
