Eschew foul ways, e'en as thou would'st keep clear
Of angry serpent, or as charioteer
[526] Avoids a rugged road. Sorrows abound
Whene'er a man in Folly's train is found:
Consort not thou with fools--my voice obey--
The fool's companion is to grief a prey.

Being thus admonished by his father, the youth said, "If I should go to the haunts of men, I should not find sages like you. I dread going thither. I will dwell here in your presence." Then his father admonished him still further and taught him the preparatory rites to induce mystic meditation. And before long, the son developed the Faculties and Attainments, and with his father became destined to birth in the Brahma World.

The Master, his lesson ended, proclaimed the Truths and identified the Birth:--At the conclusion of the Truths the Brother who longed for the world attained to fruition of the First Path:--" In those days the young ascetic was the worldly-minded Brother, the maiden then is the maiden now, but the father was myself."

Footnotes

^311:1 No. 477, Vol. iv.

^312:1 This stanza and the first seven of the following verses are to be found in No. 348 supra.