So spake the Great Being, by his omniscience compressing all into these stanzas. Then Narada again said to him, "Take the rule of the kingdom upon you;" and he replied, "My dear son, I want no kingdom; but for seven days I wish to distribute again the alms given during these seven hundred years." Narada was willing, and doing as he was

requested, prepared a vast largess for distribution. For seven days the king gave alms; and on the seventh day he died, and was born in the heaven of the Thirty-three.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, "Such is the performance of the holy-day vows which it is duty to keep," and declared the Truths: (now at the conclusion of the Truths, some of the lay Brethren entered on the fruition of the First Path, and some of the Second:) and he identified the Birth: "At that time Ananda was King Narada, Anuruddha was Sakka, and I myself was the King Sadhina."

Footnotes

^225:1 Another name of Indra.

^225:2 The scholiast explains:"I will give you the half of my merit, so remain here by my power."

^226:1 Erythrina indica.