As glorious fire, ablaze thro' some morass
With wreathing spire, insatiate, eats the grass
Leaving a blackened path, where'er it pass,

Or as a ghee-fed flame in darkest night
On choicest wood doth whet its appetite,
Shining conspicuous on some distant height,

E'en so the stripling &c.

An ox by strength, a horse by speed,
Displays his excellence of breed,
A cow by milk in copious flow,
A sage by his wise words we know.

E'en so the stripling &c.

[64] While Sanjaya was singing the praises of Sambhava, Sucirata thought, "I will find out by putting the question to him," so he asked, "Where is your young brother?" Then he opened the window and

stretching forth his hand, he said, "You see yonder boy with a complexion like gold, playing with other youths in the street before the door of the mansion: that is my young brother. Go up to him and ask him; he will answer your question with all the charm of a Buddha." Sucirata, on hearing his words, descended from the mansion, and drew nigh to the boy at the very moment that he was standing with his garment loose and thrown over his shoulder, [65] and picking up some dirt with both hands.

The Master, to explain the matter, repeated a stanza:

Then Bharadvaja hastily
To home of Sambhava did hie,
And there out in the public way
The little boy was found at play.

The Great Being, when he saw the brahmin come and stand before him, asked, "Friend, what brings you here?" He replied, "Dear youth, I am wandering through all India, and not finding any one competent to answer the question I put to him, I have come to you." The boy thought, "There is a question, they say, that has not been decided in all India. He has come to me. I am old in knowledge." And becoming ashamed he dropped the dirt that he held in his hand, readjusted his garment and said, "Brahmin, ask on, and I will tell you with the fluent mastery of a Buddha," and in his omniscience he invited him to choose what he would ask. Then the brahmin asked his question in the form of a stanza:

I come at far-famed Kuru king's behest,
Sprung from Yudhitthila, and this his quest,
To ask thee, Sambhava, to show to me
Goodness and Truth, what they may surely be.

What he wanted became clear to Sambhava, as it were the full moon in the middle of the sky. "Then listen to me," he said, and answering the question as to the Service of Truth he uttered this stanza:

I'll tell thee, Sir, and tell aright,
E'en as a man of wisdom might,
The king shall know the Good and True,
But who knows what the king will do?