"Made of fine gold, and shining brilliantly
My chariot is, wherein I use to lie:
For this a pair of wheels I cannot find;
Therefore I grieve so sore that I must die!"

The brahmin listened, and repeated the third stanza:

"Golden, or set with jewels, any kind,
Brazen or silvern, that thou hast in mind,
Speak but the word, a chariot shall be made,
And I thereto a pair of wheels will find!"

Now the Master himself, in his perfect wisdom, having heard the stanza repeated by the young man, repeated the first line of another--

"The brahmin youth replied, when he had done";

while the young man repeats the remainder:

[61] "Brothers up yonder are the moon and sun!
By such a pair of wheels as yonder twain
My golden car new radiance hath won!"

[paragraph continues] And immediately after:

"Thou art a fool for this that thou hast done,
To pray for that which should be craved by none;
Methinks, young sir, thou needs must perish soon,
For thou wilt never get or moon or sun!"

Then--

"Before our eyes they set and rise, colour and course unfailing:
None sees a ghost: then which is now more foolish in his wailing?"

So said the youth; and the brahmin, comprehending, repeated a stanza:

"Of us two mourners, O most sapient youth,
I am the greater fool--thou sayest truth,
In craving for a spirit from the dead,
Like a child crying for the moon, in sooth!"

Then the brahmin, consoled by the youth's words, rendered thanks to him by reciting the remaining stanzas:

"Blazing was I, as when a man pours oil upon a fire:
Thou didst bring water, and didst quench the pain of my desire.

[62] "Grief for my son--a cruel shaft was lodged within my heart;
Thou hast consoled me for my grief, and taken out the dart.

"That dart extracted, free from pain, tranquil and calm I keep;
Hearing, O youth, thy words of truth no more I grieve, nor weep ."

Then said the youth, "I am that son, brahmin, for whom you weep; I have been born in the world of gods. Henceforward grieve not for me, but give alms and observe virtue, and keep the holy fast-day." With this admonition, he departed to his own place. And the brahmin abode by his advice; and after much almsgiving and other good deeds, he died, and was born in the world of gods.

The Master, having ended this discourse, declared the Truths and identified the Birth: (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the landowner was established in the fruit of the First Path:) "At that time, I was myself the son of the gods who uttered this admonition."

Footnotes

^37:1 The story is given in Dhammapada, p. 93, where the name is Maddhakundali.