The princess drew a deep breath, and said, "You are King Udayabhadda, my lord!" then burst into a flood of tears, and added, "Without you I cannot live! Instruct me, that I may live with you always!" So saying she repeated another stanza:

"If thou'rt Udaya, come hither for thy promise--truly he--,
Then instruct me, that together we, O prince, again may be!"

Then he repeated four stanzas by way of instruction:

"Youth passes soon: a moment--'tis gone by;
No standing-place is firm: all creatures die
To new life born: this fragile frame decays:
Then be not careless, walk in piety.

"If the whole earth with all her wealth could be
The realm of one sole king to hold in fee,
A holy saint would leave him in the race:
Then be not careless, walk in piety.

[112] "Mother and father, brother-kin, and she
(The wife) who with a price can purchased be,
They go, and each the other leave behind:
Then be not careless, walk in piety.

"Remember that this body food shall be
For others; joy alike and misery,
A passing hour, as life succeeds to life:
Then be not careless, walk in piety."

In this manner discoursed the Great Being. The lady being pleased with the discoursing, rendered thanks in the words of the last stanza:

[113] "Sweet the saying of this Goblin: brief the life that mortals know,
Sad it is, and short, and with it comes inseparable woe.
I renounce the world: from Kasi, from Surundhana, I go."

Having thus discoursed to her, the Bodhisatta went back to his own place.

The princess next day entrusted her courtiers with the government; and in that very city of hers, in a delightsome park, she became a recluse. There she lived righteously, until at the end of her days she was born again in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, as the Bodhisatta's handmaiden.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths and identified the Birth: (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the backsliding Brother was established in the fruit of the First Path:)--"At that time Rahula's mother was the Princess, and Sakka was I myself."

Footnotes

^66:1 Cf. Ananusociya-jataka, No. 328 in vol. iii.

^66:2 No. 531.

^67:1 In the text, the King's words should begin at the word puttam, as the context shows.

^67:2 Does this mean that Sakka's day equals 100 of our years?