Of all the sweets this world can yield to me
None sweeter than the joys of Truth I see:
Brahmins and priests that in the Truth abide,
Birth, death, escaping, reach the further side.

Thus did the Great Being discourse to him of the blessing of Truth. Then the man-eater, regarding his face, glorious as a lotus in bloom or as the full moon, thought, "This Sutasoma sees me preparing a pile of embers and sharpening a spit and yet does not show an atom of fear. Can this be the magic power in these verses that are worth a hundred pieces or does it arise from some other truth? I will ask him." And in the form of a question he repeated this stanza:

Escaped from fierce man-eater didst thou come
Full of sweet longings to thy royal home,
And then once more return to meet thy foe?
Thou, surely, prince, no fear of death canst know,
To keep thy plighted word and worldly lusts forego.

The Great Being in answer to him said:

As mine I countless acts of virtue claim,
My bounteous offerings are known to fame,
To the next world a path I have kept clear:
Who that abides in Faith holds death in fear?

As mine I countless acts of virtue claim,
My bounteous offerings are known to fame,
[492] With no regrets to heaven I'll take my way,
So sacrifice and then devour thy prey.

My parents have I cherished with fond care,
My rule wins praise as eminently fair,
To the next world a path I have kept clear:
Who that abides in Faith holds death in fear?

My parents have I cherished with fond care,
My rule wins praise as eminently fair,
With no regrets to heaven I'll take my way,
So sacrifice and then devour thy prey.

To friends and kin due service I have done,
My rule was just and praise from all has won,
With no regrets to heaven I'll take my way,
So sacrifice and then devour thy prey.

Gifts manifold to many I supplied,
Yea, priests and brahmins fully satisfied,
To the next world a path I have kept clear:
Who that abides in Faith holds death in fear?

Gifts manifold to many I supplied,
Yea priests and brahmins fully satisfied,
With no regrets to heaven I'll take my way,
So sacrifice and then devour thy prey.

[493] On hearing this the man-eater thought, "This king Sutasoma is a good and wise man: supposing I were to eat him, my skull would split into seven pieces, or the earth would open her mouth and swallow me up," and being terrified he said, "My friend, you are not the sort of man that I ought to eat," and he repeated this stanza:

He knowingly would quaff a poison cup
Or fiery snake, so fell and fierce, take up,
Yea into fragments seven his head would fly
That dares to eat a man that cannot lie.