No. 237.

SAKETA-JATAKA.

"Why are hearts cold," etc.--This story the Master told during a stay near Saketa, about a brahmin named Saketa. Both the circumstances that suggested the story and the story itself have already been given in the First Book .

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[235]...And when the Tathagata had gone to the monastery, the Brother asked, "How, Sir, did the love begin? "and repeated the first stanza:--

Why are hearts cold to one--O Buddha, tell!--
And love another so exceeding well?"

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The Master explained the nature of love by the second stanza:

"Those love they who in other lives were dear,
As sure as grows the lotus in the mere."

After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth:--"These two people were the brahmin and his wife in the story; and I was their son."

Footnotes

^162:3 No. 68.

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