1 This paragraph is of importance to the orthodox Buddhist as proving the Buddha's power of prophecy and the authority of the
maha-parinibbAna-sutta.
29. Now Sunldha and Vassakara, the chief
ministers of Magadha, proceeded to the place where
the Blessed One was. And when they had come
there they exchanged with the Blessed One the
greetings and compliments of friendship and civility,
and stood there respectfully on one side. And, so
standing, Sunldha and Vassak&ra, the chief ministers
of Magadha, spake thus to the Blessed One :
'May the venerable Gotama do us the honour
of taking his meal, together with the company of
the brethren, at our house to-day/ And the Blessed
One signified, by silence, his consent.
30. Then when Sunldha and Vassakara, the chief
ministers of Magadha, perceived that he had given
his consent, they returned to the place where they
dwelt. And on arriving there, they prepared sweet
dishes of boiled rice, and cakes ; and informed the
Blessed One, saying :
Buddhist scriptures. To those who conclude that such a passage must have been written after the event that is prophesied, it is valuable evidence of the age both of the Mah& Vagga and of the Mah&parinibb&na Sutta; — evidence, however, that cannot as yet be applied to its full extent, as the time at which Pa/ali-gama had grown into the great and important city of Pa/ali-putta is not as yet known with sufficient certainty. The late Burmese tradition on this point given in Bigandet's Legend of the Burmese Buddha, vol. ii, p. 183, can scarcely be depended upon, though it doubt- less rests on older documents, and is mentioned also by Hiouen Thsang.
The curious popular belief as to good and bad fairies haunting the sites of houses gave rise to a quack science, akin to astrology, called vatthu-vi^a, which Buddhaghosa explains here at some length, and which is frequently condemned elsewhere in the Pali Pi/akas. See, for instance, § 1 of the Maha-sila/w, translated below in the Tevi^a Sutta. The belief is turned to ridicule in the edifying legend, No. 40, in my 'Buddhist Birth Stories/ pp. 326-334.
'The hour of food has come, O Gotama, and all is ready/
And the Blessed One robed himself early, took
his bowl with him, and repaired with the brethren
to the dwelling-place of Sunldha and Vassak&ra,
and sat down on the seat prepared for him.
And with their own hands they set the sweet rice
and the cakes before the brethren with the Buddha
at their head, and waited on them till they had had
enough. And when the Blessed One had finished
eating his meal, the ministers brought a low seat,
and sat down respectfully at his side.
31. And when they were thus seated the Blessed One gave thanks in these verses : —
4 Wheresoe'er the prudent man shall take up his abode
Let him support there good and upright men of self-control.
Let him give gifts to all such deities as may be there.
Revered, they will revere him : honoured, they
honour him again ; Are gracious to him as a mother to her own, her
only son.
And the man who has the grace of the gods, good fortune he beholds V
1 This passage gives Buddhaghosa a good deal of difficulty, as it apparently inculcates offerings to the gods, which is contrary not only to both the letter and spirit of Buddhism, but also to the practice of Buddhists. He explains away the gifts to the deities by saying they are gifts of merit only (patti) — the giver giving the four necessaries to Bhikkhus, and then expressing a wish that the Devatas should share in his pu##a. I am inclined to think, on the authority of the Deva-dhamma Gataka (No. 9 in ' Buddhist
32. And when he had thanked the ministers in
these verses he rose from his seat and departed
thence. And they followed him as he went, saying,
' The gate the Samara Gotama goes out by to-day
shall be called Gotamas gate, and the ferry at
which he crosses the river shall be called Gotama's
ferry/ And the gate he went out at was called
Gotamas gate.
33. But the Blessed One went on to the river. *
And at that time the river Ganges was brimful and
overflowing 1 ; and wishing to cross to the opposite
bank, some began to seek for boats, some for rafts of
wood, while some made rafts of basket-work 2 . Then
the Blessed One as instantaneously as a strong man
would stretch forth his arm, or draw it back again
when he had stretched it forth, vanished from this
side of the river, and stood on the further bank with
the company of the brethren.
34. And the Blessed One beheld the people
looking for boats and rafts, and as he beheld them
he brake forth at that time into this song : —
' They who cross the ocean drear Making a solid path across the pools —
Birth Stories '), that by the deities are here meant the * good and upright men of self-control/ mentioned in the previous clause. The verses were perhaps originally non-Buddhistic.
1 Samatittika kakapeyyd. See the note on Tevi^a Sutta I, 19, translated below, where the same expression occurs.
2 Ulumpan ti p&ra/rc gamanatthaya awiyo ko//etva ka- tam; kullan ti valli-ddihi bandhitva katabbaw, says Buddhaghosa. The spelling u/umpaw would correspond better to the Sanskrit form u</upa, and has been chosen by Childers in his dictionary, and by Oldenberg in his transliteration of this passage (Maha Vagga VI, 28 : 11, 12).
Whilst the vain world ties its basket rafts — These are the wise, these are the saved indeed 1 !'
End of the First Portion for Recitation.
1 That is, those who cross the 'ocean drear' of ta«h£, or craving; avoiding, by means of the 'dyke* or causeway of the Noble Path, the ' pools ' or shallows of lust, and ignorance, and delusion (comp. Dhp. v. 91), whilst the vain world looks for sal- vation from rites, and ceremonies, and gods, — ' these are the wise, these are the saved indeed ! '
How the metre of the verses in the text fell into the confusion in which it at present stands is not easy to see. One would expect —
Ye visa^a pallalani taranti 2Jimyz.ni saraw Kulla/w hi ^ano bandhati ti»;/a medhdvino ^ana\ That a gloss can creep into the text, even in verses, is clear from the indisputable instance at Gataka II, 35; and the words setuai katv&na would have been a very natural gloss had the passage once stood as above. Then supposing that a copyist or reciter had found the words ye visa^a pallalani setum katvana taranti a««avaw saraw, he might have corrected, as he thought, the order of the words so as to avoid any possibility of the words being taken to mean that the setu, the solid causeway, was made over the awwavaw sara/ra, the vastly deep, which would be pal- pably absurd. Buddhaghosa found setuw katv&na in the text, but it is not possible to tell in what order he found the words. The Tumour MS. of the Sumangala Vilasint has pabandhati, but a Ceylon copy of the Samanta Pasadikd confirms the Burmese read- ing bandhati at Mahd Vagga VI, 28, 13. I need scarcely say that the translation follows the printed text. We know too little about the history of the Pali Suttas to be able to do more than make a passing note of such curiosities.
On vanishing away from a place, comp. below, III, 22.
MA HA-PARIN IBBAN A-SUTTA.
Chapter II.
1. Now the Blessed One addressed the venera-
ble Ananda, and said : ' Come, Ananda, let us go
on to Kotfg&ma/
' So be it, Lord ! ' said Ananda, in assent, to the Blessed One.
The Blessed One proceeded with a great company
of the brethren to Ko/ig&ma ; and there he stayed
in the village itself 1 .
2. And at that place the Blessed One addressed
the brethren, and said : c It is through not under-
standing and grasping four Noble Truths, O brethren,
that we have had to run so long, to wander so
long in this weary path of transmigration, both you
and IT
' And what are these four ? *
' The noble truth about sorrow ; the noble truth
about the cause of sorrow ; the noble truth about
the cessation of sorrow ; and the noble truth about
the path that leads to that cessation. But when
these noble truths are grasped and known the
craving for existence is rooted out, that which
leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and then
there is no more birth ! '
3. Thus spake the Blessed One ; and when the
Happy One had thus spoken, then again the
Teacher said:
1 As will be observed from the similar passages that follow, there is a regular sequence of clauses in the set descriptions of the Buddha's movements. The last clause should specify the particular grove or house where the Blessed One stayed ; but it is also (in this and one or two other cases) inserted with due regularity even when it adds nothing positive to the sense.
24 THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.
* By not seeing the four Noble Truths as they really are,
Long is the path that is traversed through many a birth ;
When these are grasped, the cause of birth is
then removed, The root of sorrow rooted out, and there is no
more birth/
4. There too, while staying at Korig&ma, the
Blessed One held that comprehensive religious dis-
course with the brethren on the nature of upright
conduct, and of earnest contemplation, and of in-
telligence. ' Great is the fruit, great the advan-
tage of earnest contemplation when set round with
upright conduct. Great is the fruit, great the
advantage of intellect when set round with earnest
contemplation. The mind set round with intelligence
is freed from the great evils, — that is to say, from
sensuality, from individuality, from delusion, and
from ignorance/
5. Now when the Blessed One had remained as
long as was convenient at Ko/ig&ma, he addressed
the venerable Ananda, and said : 6 Come, Ananda,
let us go on to the villages of Nddika/
* So be it, Lord ! ' said Ananda, in assent, to the Blessed One.
And the Blessed proceeded to the villages of
N&dika with a great company of the brethren ; and
there, at Nddika, the Blessed One stayed at the
Brick Hall 1 .
1 At first N&dika is (twice) spoken of in the plural number ; but then, thirdly, in the last clause, in the singular. Buddhaghosa,
Ii. Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta. 2 5
6. And the venerable Ananda went to the
Blessed One and paid him reverence and took
his seat beside him. And when he was seated, he
addressed the Blessed One, and said : ' The brother
named S&Z&a has died at N&dika, Lord. Where has
he been reborn, and what is his destiny ? The
sister named Nandd has died, Lord, at N&dika.
Where is she reborn, and what is her destiny ?'
And in the same terms he enquired concerning
the devout Sudatta, and the devout lady Su^ita,
the devout Kakudha, and Kalinga, and Nika/a,
and Ka/issabha, and Tu/Ma, and Santu/Ma, and
Bhadda, and Subhadda.
7. * The brother named S£L/>£a, Ananda, by the
destruction of the great evils has by himself, and in
this world, known and realised and attained to Ara-
hatship, and to emancipation of heart and to emanci-
pation of mind. The sister named Nandi, Ananda,
has, by the complete destruction of the five bonds
that bind people to this world, become an inheritor
of the highest heavens, there to pass entirely away,
thence never to return. The devout Sudatta,
Ananda, by the complete destruction of the three
tonds, and by the reduction to a minimum of lust,
hatred, and delusion has become a Sakaddgimin,
Tvho on his first return to this world will make an
end of sorrow. The devout woman Su^&ti, Ananda,
by the complete destruction of the three bonds, has
become converted, is no longer liable to be reborn
in a state of suffering, and is assured of final salva-
explains this by saying that there were two villages of the same name on the shore of the same piece of water. On the public resting-place for travellers, which in this instance bore the proud title of Brick Hall, see ' Buddhist Birth Stories/ pp. 280-285.
26 THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. CH.
tion \ The devout Kakudha, Ananda, by the com-
plete destruction of the five bonds that bind people
to these lower worlds of lust, has become an inheritor
of the highest heavens, there to pass entirely away,
thence never to return. So also is the case with
K&linga, Nika/a, Ka/issabha, Tu#/6a, Santu/Ma,
Bhadda, and Subhadda, and with more than fifty
devout men of N&dika. More than ninety devout
men of N&dika, who have died, Ananda, have by
the complete destruction of the three bonds, and
by the reduction of lust, hatred, and delusion, be-
come Sakadagamins, who on their first return to
this w T orld will make an end of sorrow. More than
five hundred devout men of N&dika who have died,
Ananda, have by the complete destruction of the
three bonds become converted, are no longer liable
to be reborn in a state of suffering, and are assured
of final salvation.
8. * Now there is nothing strange in this, Ananda,
that a human being should die, but that as each one
does so you should come to the Buddha, and en-
quire about them in this manner, that is wearisome
to the Buddha. I will, therefore, teach you a way
of truth, called the Mirror of Truth, which if an
elect disciple possess he may himself predict of him-
self, " Hell is destroyed for me, and rebirth as an
animal, or a ghost, or in any place of woe. I am
converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a
state of suffering, and am assured of final salvation."
9. * What then, Ananda, is this mirror of truth ?
It is the consciousness that the elect disciple is
in this world possessed of faith in the Buddha —