pleasures is to be searched for even among those who dwell in penance-groves.
43. 'In you the appellation of "great," O Mahârâga, is a brilliant ornament. For the name of a virtue, conferred upon persons devoid of virtue, has a rather harsh sound, as if used in contempt.
44. 'Nor is there any reason for me to be astonished or agitated by this grand deed of yours, who are a mine of virtues, as the sea is of jewels[1].'
In this manner, then, the virtuous, even when sick with heavy sorrow, are disinclined to follow the road of the low-minded, being prevented from such actions by the firmness of their constancy [and their being conversant with the Law by long and good practice. Thus considering, one ought to exert one's self in practising constancy and the precepts of the Law].
The tale of the maiden making mad all who see her, and the love-smitten monarch who prefers walking on the right path and even death to indulging in passion, is found also outside Buddhism. In the preface of his edition, Prof. Kern points out its being told thrice in the Kathâsaritsâgara; in the fifteenth, the thirty-third, and the ninety-first taraṅga. The last version, being a Vetâla-tale, is found also in the prose-work Vetâlapañkavimsati (Kathâ 14). Of the non-Buddhistic redactions all agree in this point, that the king at last dies from love, and that the faithful officer then kills himself. No doubt, this must be the original conclusion.
XIV. The Story of Supâraga.
(Cp. the Pâli Gâtaka, No. 463; Fausb. IV, 137-143.)
Even speaking the truth on the ground of Righteousness is sufficient to dispel calamity, what can be said more to assert the good results of observing the Law? Considering thus, one must observe the Law. This will be taught now.
In one of his Bodhisattva-existences, the Great Being was, it is said, an extremely clever steersman.
- ↑ This epithet of the sea is very common in Indian rhetorical style.
