The eighth and ninth stanzas are those of the Buddha in his perfect wisdom:

"The Elephant from prison freed, the beast set free from chain,
With words of consolation went back to the hills again.

[94]"Then from the cool and limpid pool, where Elephants frequent,
He with his trunk drew water, and his mother all besprent."

But the mother of the Bodhisatta thought it had begun to rain, and repeated the tenth stanza, rebuking the rain:

"Who brings unseasonable rain--what evil deity?
For he is gone, my own, my son, who used to care for me."

Then the Bodhisatta repeated the eleventh stanza, to reassure her:

"Rise mother! why should you there lie? your own, your son has come!
Vedeha, Kasi's glorious king, has sent me safely home."

And she returned thanks to the king by repeating the last stanza:

"Long live that king! long may he bring his realms prosperity,
Who freed that son who ever hath done so great respect to me!"

The king was pleased with the Bodhisatta's goodness; and he built a town not far from the lake, and did continual service to the Bodhisatta and to his mother. Afterwards, when his mother died, and the Bodhisatta had performed her obsequies, [95] he went away to a monastery called Karandaka. In this place five hundred sages came and dwelt, and the king did the like service for them. The king had a stone image made in the figure of the Bodhisatta, and great honour he paid to this. There the inhabitants of all India year by year gathered together, to perform what was called the Elephant Festival.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths, and identified the Birth: (now at the conclusion of the Truths the Brother who supported his mother was established in the fruit of the First Path:) "At that time, Ananda was the king, the lady Mahamaya was the she-elephant, and I was myself the elephant that fed his mother."

Footnotes

^58:1 No. 540, vol. vi. 68 (Pali).

^59:1 A medicinal plant.

^60:1 The Scholiast explains that the elephant discoursed on virtue to the king, then told him to be careful, and departed, amid the plaudits of the multitude, who threw flowers upon him. He then went home, and fed and washed his mother. To explain this, the Master repeated the two stanzas.