'Tis the same one I have scanned
(Eighty, ninety, years have passed),
Quivering, palsied, staff in hand,
Bent like rafter-tree at last.

In this stanza the Great Being showed the misery of beauty, and now declared his discontent with the householder's life:--

[396] Such the thoughts I ponder o'er;
Lonely nights the thoughts allow:
Layman's life I love no more:
Time for religion now!

Delight in layman's life is a weak stay:
The wise man cuts it off and goes his way,
Renouncing joys of sense and all their sway.

Thus declaring both the delight and misery of desires, he showed the truth with all a Buddha's charm, he sent for his friend and made him take the kingdom again: he left his majesty and power amid the loud lamentations of kinsmen and friends; he became an ascetic sage in the Himalaya, and entering on the ecstasy of meditation, became destined for the world of Brahma.

[397] After the lesson, the Master declared the Truths, and giving the drink of ambrosia to many, he identified the Birth: "At that time the chief queen was the mother of Rahula, the king was Ananda, and king Susima was I myself."

Footnotes

^237:1 Sakka's elephant.