And as he stood in the street and taught the Truth with a voice sweet as honey, the sound spread over the whole of the city of Benares, to twelve leagues on every side Then the king and all his viceroys and other rulers assembled together, and the Great Being in the midst of the multitude set forth his exposition of the Truth.

[66] Having thus promised in this stanza to answer the question, he now gave the answer as to the Service of Truth:

In answer to the king, Sucirata, proclaim,
"To-morrow and To-day are never quite the same;
I bid thee then, O king Yudhitthila, be wise
And prompt to seize whate'er occasion may arise."

I fain would have thee too, Sucirata, suggest
A thought in which his mind may profitably rest,
"A king all wicked ways should carefully eschew,
Nor, like bewildered fool, an evil course pursue."

To loss of his own soul he never should transgress,
Nor e'er be guilty of deeds of unrighteousness,
Himself ne'er be engaged in any evil way,
Nor ever in wrong path a brother lead astray.

These points to carry out whoso doth rightly know,
Like waxing moon, as king in fame doth ever grow.
A shining light to friends and dear unto his kin,
And, when his body fails, the sage to heaven will win.

[67] The Great Being thus, like to one making the moon to rise in the sky, answered the brahmin's question with all the mastery of a Buddha. The people roared and shouted and clapped their hands. And there arose a thousand cries of applause with great wavings of cloths and snapping of fingers. And they cast off the trinkets on their hands. And the value of what they threw down amounted to about a crore. And the king of Benares in his joy paid him great honour. And Sucirata, after offering him a thousand weight of gold, wrote down the answer to the question with vermilion on a golden tablet, and on coming to the city of Indapatta he told the king the answer as to the Service of Truth. And the king abiding steadfast in righteousness attained to heaven.

At the end of the lesson the Master said, "Not merely now, Brethren, but formerly too, the Tathagata was great in answering questions," and he identified the Birth: "At that time Ananda was king Dhananjaya, Anuruddha was Sucirata, Kassapa Vidhura, Moggallana Bhadrakara, Sariputta the youth Sanjaya, and I myself was the wise Sambhava."

Footnotes

^31:1 Vol. vi. p. 329. Jataka, No. 546.

^32:1 Vidhura, the commentary explains, was the chaplain of the king of Benares.

^32:2 Bharadvaja is the family name of Sucirata.

^33:1 The Kurus were descended from Yudhishthira.