Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

' If the lord Steward leaves the world for the Homeless State, we too will do the like. Whither thou goest, we will go.'

1 Mante. See last note.

2 Devata; ' like Sakka, king of gods, to all other heads of families.'
Cy. The phrase might be taken to mean that Brahma was not a
devata.

1). ii. 250. THE LORD HIGH STEWARD. 279

57. Then the High Steward, the Brahmin, went to his forty wives, all on an equality, and said : — ' Will each of you, ladies, who may wish to do so, go back to her own family and seek another husband ? I wish, ladies, to leave the world for the homeless life, in accordance with the word of Brahma . . .'

4 Thou, even thou, art the kinsman of our hearts'
desire ; thou art the husband of our hearts' desire.
If the lord Steward leaves the world for the Homeless
State, we too will do the like. Whither thou sroest,
we will go.'

58. And so the High Steward, the brahmin, when those seven days were past, let his hair and beard be cut off, donned the yellow robes and went forth from his home into the Homeless State. And he having so acted, the seven kings also, anointed kshatriyas, as well as the seven eminent and wealthy brahmins and the seven hundred graduates, the forty wives all on an equality, several thousand nobles, several thousand brahmins, several thousand commoners and several young women from women's quarters, let their hair be cut, donned the yellow robes and went forth from their homes into the Homeless State. And so, escorted by this company, the High Steward, the brahmin, went a-wandering through the villages, towns, [250] and cities. And whether he arrived at village or town or city, there he became as a king to kings, as Brahma to brahmins, as a deity to commoners. And in those days when any one sneezed or slipped, they called out : — ' Glory be to the High Steward, the brahmin ! Glory be to the Minister of Seven ! '

59. Now the High Steward, the brahmin, continued to pervade each of the four quarters of the horizon with a heart charged with love . • . with pity . . . with sympathy in joy . . . with equanimity. And so the whole wide world above, below, around, and everywhere did he continue to pervade with heart charged with equanimity, far-reaching, expanded, infinite, free from wrath and ill will. And he taught to disciples the way to union with the world of Brahma.

28o XIX. MAHA-GOVINDA SUTTANTA. D. ii. 250.

60. Now all they who at that time had been the High Steward's disciples and in all points wholly understood his teaching, were after their death reborn into the blissful world of Brahma. They who had not in all points wholly understood his teaching, were after their death reborn into the company either of the gods who Dispose of Joys purveyed from without, or of the gods of the Heaven of Boundless Delight, or of the gods of the Heavens of Bliss, or of the Yama gods, [25l] or of the Three-and-Thirty gods, or of the gods who are the Four Kings of the Horizon. Even they who accomplished the lowest realm of all, attained to the realm of the Gandharva fairies.

Thus of all those clansmen there was not one whose renunciation proved vain or barren ; in each case it bore fruit and development.'

61. ' Does the Exalted One remember?'