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

3. Now at that time the Vediya mountain was bathed in radiance, and so was Ambasa;^a, the brahmin village, — such is the potency of the celestials — so much so that in the villages round about folk were saying : — ' For sure the Vediya mountain is on fire to-day, for sure the Vediya mountain is burning to-day, for sure the Vediya mountain is in flame to-day ! Why, O why, is the Vediya mountain bathed in radiance to-day, and Ambasa;^a too the brahmins' village ? ' And they were anxious and sore afraid.

4. Then said Sakka, the king of the gods, to Fivecrest the Gandhabba : — [265] ' Difficult of approach, dear Five-crest, are Tathagatas, to one like me, when they are rapt in the bliss of meditation, and for that purpose abiding in solitude. But if you were first to gain over the Exalted One [by your music] then might I afterwards come up and visit him, the Arahant, the Buddha supreme.'

' So be it and good luck to you ! ' consented Fivecrest, and taking his lyre he went to the Indra-Saltreecave. On coming there he thought : — ' Thus far will the Exalted One be neither too far from me nor too near to me, and he will hear my voice.' And he stood on one side, and let his lyre be heard and recited these verses concerning the Awakened One and the Truth, the Arahants and Love : — 1

1 This idea is found again in the Maha-bharata (I, 2. 383). That poem there claims to be artha-sastra, dharma-sastra, and kama-

D. ii. 266. THE QUESTIONS OF SAKKA. 3OI

5. ' Lady, thy father Timbaru I greet
With honour due, O Glory-of-the-Sun ! x
In that he wrought a thing so nobly fair
As thou, O fount divine of all my joy !

Sweet as the breeze to one foredone with sweat,
Sweet as a cooling drink to one athirst,
So dear art thou, O presence radiant !
To me, dear as to Arahants the Truth.

[266] As medicine bringing ease to one that's

sick,
As food to starving man, so, lady, quench,
As with cool waters, me who am all a-flame.

E'en as an elephant with heat oppressed,
Hies him to some still pool, upon whose face
Petals and pollen of the lotus float,
So would I sink within thy bosom sweet.

E'en as an elephant fretted by hook,
Dashes unheeding curb and goad aside,
So I, crazed by the beauty of thy form,
Know not the why and wherefore of my acts.

By thee my heart is held in bonds, and all
Bent out of course ; nor can I turn me back,
No more than fish, once he hath ta'en the bait.

Within thine arm embrace me, lady, me
With thy soft languid eyne embrace and hold,
O nobly fair ! This I entreat of thee.

Scanty in sooth, O maid of waving locks,
Was my desire, but now it swelleth aye,
Indefinitely great, e'en as the gifts
Made by the faithful to the Arahants.

sastra. So Windisch ('Buddha's Geburt,' 82) speaks of a group of ideas, recurrent in Indian literature, which very happily sums up and exhausts the matter — the Useful, the True, and the Agreeable— to which Emancipation is sometimes added as a fourth. Our passage here is the earliest in which such a group appears.

1 Suriya-vaccase, the young lady's name; sunshine in prose.
See § 10 of the Maha-samaya.

I

p. 267

[267] Whate'er of merit to such holy ones
I've wrought, be thou, O altogether fair,
The ripened fruit to fall therefrom to me.

Whate'er of other merit I have wrought
In the wide world, O altogether fair,
Be thou the fruit thereof to fall to me.

As the great Sakyan Seer, through ecstasy
Rapt and intent and self-possessed, doth brood
Seeking ambrosia, even so do I
Pursue the quest of thee, O Glory-of-the-Sun !

As would that Seer rejoice, were he to win

Ineffable Enlightenment, so I

With thee made one, O fairest, were in bliss.

And if perchance a boon were granted me

By Sakka, lord of Three-and-Thirty gods,

'Tis thee I'd ask of him, lady, so strong

My love. And for thy father, wisest maid —

Him as a sal-tree freshly burgeoning

I worship for such peerless offspring giv'n.'

6. When Five-crest had finished the Exalted One said to him : — ' The sound of your strings, Five-crest, so harmonizes with that of your song, and the sound of your voice with that of the strings, that your lyre does not too much colour your song, nor your song too much colour your play. Where, Five-crest, did you learn these verses " concerning the Awakened One and the Truth, the Arahants, and Love ? "