By selfish hopes men regulate the honours that they pay:
As you the elephant, they throw the outworn slave away.

Good deeds and services received whenever men forget,
Ruin pursues the business still on which their hearts are set.

Good deeds and services received if men do not forget,
Success attends the business still on which their hearts are set.

To all the multitude around this blessed truth I tell:
Be grateful all, and for reward you long in heaven shall dwell.

[388] With this beginning the Bodhisatta gave instruction to all gathered there. Hearing this the king gave the old elephant her former honour, and established in the Bodhisatta's instruction gave alms and did works of merit and became destined for heaven.

After the lesson, the Master identified the Birth:--"At that time the she-elephant was Bhaddavatika, the king Ananda, the minister was I myself."

Footnotes

^233:1 No. 497, vol. iv.

^233:2 Morris, Journ. Pali Text Soc. for 1887, p. 150: but possibly the word means she-camel.