Candahar and all its province, all its wealth, you threw away,
Giving no more royal orders: and you're ordering me to-day!

Hearing him the Bodhisatta spoke the third stanza:--

It is righteousness I'm speaking, for I hate unrighteousness:
Righteousness when I am speaking, sin on me leaves no impress.

The ascetic of Videha, hearing the Bodhisatta's words, said, "Master, it is not meet for one to speak after annoying and angering another, even though he speaks to the point: [368] you are speaking very harshly to me, as if shaving me with blunt steel," and so he spoke the fourth stanza:--

Whatsoever words, if spoken, would to others cause offence,
Wise men leave those words unspoken, though of mighty consequence.

Then the Bodhisatta spoke the fifth stanza:--

Let my hearer scatter chaff, or let him take offence or not,
Righteousness when I am speaking, sin on me can leave no spot.

Having so said, he went on, "I will not work with you, O Ananda , as a potter with raw clay only: I will speak chiding again and again; what is truth, that will abide." And so being steadfast in conduct suitable to that admonition of the Blessed One, as a potter among his vessels, after beating them often, takes not the raw clay, but takes the baked vessel only, so preaching and chiding again and again he takes a man like a good vessel, and preaching to show him this, he spoke this pair of stanzas:--

Were not wisdom and good conduct trained in some men's lives to grow,
Many would go wandering idly like the blinded buffalo.

But since some are wisely trained in moral conduct fair to grow,
Thus it is that disciplined in paths of virtue others go.

[369] Hearing this, the Videha ascetic said, "Master, from this time admonish me; I spoke to you with peevish natural temper, pardon me," and so paying respect he gained the Bodhisatta's pardon. So they dwelt together in peace and went again to Himalaya. Then the Bodhisatta told the Videha ascetic how to attain to mystic meditation. He did so and reached the higher Faculties and Attainments. So both, never leaving off meditation, became destined for the Brahma world.

After the lesson, the Master identified the Birth: "At that time the Videha ascetic was Ananda, the Gandhara king was myself."

Footnotes

^221:1 Mahavagga vi. 15. 10.

^221:2 See Mahavagga vi. 15. 1--

^222:1 A vow to keep the five moral precepts.

^224:1 The ascetic is addressed by this name, as if his future re-birth as Ananda was foreseen.