the abode of man, thinking, "I will enter into Nirvana in the king of Benares' park: his servants will bury me, and hold sacred festival and venerate my relics and so attain heaven:" he was coming by his supernatural power and just as he reached your palace-roof, he threw off the burden of life and sung in ecstasy the song that lights up the entrance into the city of Nirvana:" and so he spoke the stanza uttered by the paccekabuddha:

[434] Surely I see the end of birth,
I ne'er again the womb shall see:
My last existence on the earth
Is o'er, and all its misery.

"With these words of ecstasy he reached your park and passed into Nirvana at the foot of a sal-tree in full flower: come, great king, and perform his funeral rites." So the Great Being took the king to the place where the paccekabuddha entered into Nirvana and shewed him the body. Seeing the body, the king with a great army paid honour with perfumes and flowers and the like. By the Bodhisatta's advice he stopped the sacrifice, gave all the creatures their lives, made proclamation by drum through the city that there should be no slaughter, caused sacred festival to be held for seven days, had the paccekabuddha's body burnt with great honour on a pyre heaped with perfumes and made a stupa where four high roads meet. The Bodhisatta preached righteousness to the king and exhorted him to diligence: then he went to the Himalaya and there did works in the Perfect States, and without a break in his meditations became destined for the Brahma Heaven.

After the lesson, the Master said, "Great king, there is no danger at all to you from that sound, stop the sacrifice and give all these creatures their lives": and having caused proclamation to be made by drum that their lives were spared, he identified the Birth: "At that time the king was Ananda, the pupil was Sariputta, and the ascetic was myself."

Footnotes

^256:1 See supra, p. 29.

^257:1 As an emblem of pride, as in the Bible.