he arose and picking up a huge stone, flung it into the cave, and again and again repeated the action. Then the disciples stood up and said, "Sir, what are you doing?" Karandiya said not a word. And they went in haste and told their master. The master. came and in conversing with Karandiya repeated the first stanza:--

Why in forest all alone
Seizing oft a mighty stone,
Didst thou hurl it with a will,
Mountain cave as 'twere to fill?

On hearing his words, Karandiya to rouse his master uttered the second stanza:--

I would make this sea-girt land
Smooth as palm of human hand:
Thus I level knoll and hill
And with stones each hollow fill.

The brahmin, on hearing this, repeated the third stanza:--

Ne'er a one of mortal birth
Has the power to level earth.
Scarce Karandiya can hope
With a single cave to cope.

[173] The disciple, on hearing this, spoke the fourth stanza:--

If a man of mortal birth
Has no power to level earth,
Heretics may well refuse,
Brahmin, to adopt thy views.

On hearing this the teacher made an appropriate reply. For he now recognized that other men might differ from him, and thinking, "I will no longer act thus," he uttered the fifth stanza:-

Friend Karandiya, in short
For my good thou dost exhort:
Earth can never levelled be,
Neither can all men agree.

Thus did the teacher sing the praises of his disciple. And he, after he had thus admonished his teacher, conducted him home.

[174] The Master, having ended this lesson, identified the Birth: "At that time Sariputta was the brahmin, and I myself was the disciple Karandiya."