The Sanskrit Epics, page 939
25. Indifferent to sensual pleasures, he studied many sciences and, abiding by the law of righteousness of the golden age, he did not swerve from it even in extremities.
26. He ever grew in virtue and rejoiced over the good fortune of his friends; he placed his reliance on the aged and did not enter on low paths of conduct.
27. With his arrows he kept his enemies quiet, with his virtues he rejoiced his kinsfolk: he did not spur his servants on by their weak points or distress his subjects with taxes.
28. The entire earth was cultivated through his maintenance of order and was conquered through his heroism; and he put down nocturnal malefactors by his enlightened administration of justice.
29. By his conduct as a royal seer he made his family fragrant with the odour of fame and dispersed his foes with his courage, as the sun disperses the darkness with its brilliance.
30. He spread abroad his ancestors’ renown by the virtues suitable to a good son and he gladdened his subjects by his conduct, like a cloud gladdening them with rain.
31. With gifts continuous and great he caused the Brahmans to press soma and by holding fast to the golden rule of kingship he caused the crops to grow in due season.
32. He was not full of questionings and he did not hold discourses against the Law of Righteousness, and (justifying the title of Cakravartin) he caused others to be drawn to the Law, as though he were turning the Wheel (of the Law).
33. He did not make the land pay anything beyond the legal revenue, and it was only his soldiers whose efforts he needed to cut down the insolence of his enemies.
34. He caused his virtues ever more and more to purify his race and by his delimitation of the duties of all classes he did not let his subjects come to harm.
35. An unwearied worshipper in due season, he caused the sacrificial ground to be laid out and by his protection he enabled the Brahmans to meditate without impediment on the Absolute.
36. Benignly at the due time with the due ceremony he caused his priests to measure out the soma; by his holiness he put down the army of internal foes, and by his courage his external foes.
37. He who knew the supreme Law impregnated his subjects with the subtle Law and caused them by perception of the Law to dwell in Paradise in due course.
38. He did not give appointments to any unrighteous man, however skilful he might be in emergencies, nor did partiality cause him to advance an incapable man just because he was a friend.
39. With the heat of his courage be reduced proud foes to ashes and with his personal splendour he abashed them; and he illumined the earth with the blazing light of his fame.
40. That he was ever charitable to the needy was due to generosity, not to a desire for renown, and, however great the substance of his gifts, he did not blazon them abroad.
41. He did not refuse help to anyone who was in trouble and came to him for refuge, not even if he was his enemy, nor did he become arrogant on conquering his foes, however insolent they might be.
42. He never offended against the rules of propriety from passion, hatred or fear, and did not indulge his senses, though possessed of the objects of enjoyment.
43. No unfitting action was observed in him on any occasion, nor did he stoop to any baseness in the affairs of either adversary or friend.
“. — He drank soma according to the ritual and guarded his fame as was fitting; and he continually repeated the Vedas and observed the law laid down in them.
45. This invincible king of the Sâkyas, to whom the vassal princes were submissive, was endowed like Sakra with these and other rare virtues.
46. Now at that time the inhabitants of Heaven, being lovers of righteousness and desirous of seeing its practice, passed over the regions of the world.
47. As they whose very natures were informed with righteousness wandered over the world to enquire about its righteousness, they saw that king whose nature was righteous in such a high degree.
48. Then the Bodhisattva, descending to earth from among the Tusita gods, decided to become incarnate in the family of that monarch.
49. That godlike king had at that time a queen named Maya, who like the goddess Mâyâ in Heaven was devoid of the vices of anger, ignorance and deceit.
50. Then at the due season she saw in a dream a white six-tusked elephant, mighty as Airâvata, enter her womb.
51. The Brahmans, skilled in the interpretation of dreams, hearing of this dream, explained it as foreshadowing the birth of the prince who would be possessed of the glory of majesty and righteousness.
52. At the birth of the Supreme Being, Whose aim it was to put an end to rebirth, the earth with its mountains quivered like a ship struck by the waves.
53. A shower of flowers, which faded not in the sun’s rays, fell from the sky, as if the elephants of the Quarters were shaking the trees of the grove of Citraratha with their trunks.
54. Drums thundered in the heavens as if the storm gods were at play, the sun shone with extreme brilliance and an auspicious breeze blew.
55. The Tusita and the Suddhâvàsa deities rejoiced in reverence for the holy Law and in sympathy with creation.
56. The Supreme One, the banner-bearer of the highest good, attained the pinnacle of fame and shone with the majesty of holy calm like the Law of Righteousness in bodily form.
57. As the fire-sticks give birth to fire, so too the younger queen gave birth to a son, Nanda by name, the cause of everlasting joy to his family.
58. Long in the arm he was, deep-chested, with the shoulders of a lion and the eyes of a bull, and because of his wondrous form he was styled ‘the Fair’.
59. He was resplendent with gracious beauty like the month of Madhu at its setting in, like the new moon rising or like the disembodied god reincarnate.
60. The king brought up the twain with the greatest joy, just as great Wealth in the hands of a good man redounds to the increase of Religion and Pleasure.
61. Those two good sons in time grew up for his wellbeing, just as Religion and Wealth increase for the prosperity of a noble man great in his undertakings.
62. The king of the Sâkyas shone between those two good sons of his, like the Middle Country displayed between the Himalayas and the Pâriyâtra.
63. Then in due course the two princes were initiated and learned all sciences; Nanda indulged himself perpetually in pleasure but Sarvârthasiddha did not give way to passion.
64. For, on seeing an aged man, a sick man and a corpse, He reflected in His distress how ignorant the world is, and with His heart filled with deep distaste He did not find any satisfaction in sensory objects; for He longed to destroy straightway the dangers of birth and death.
65. Fixing His mind in His agitation on escape from rebirth and unmoved by desire for even the best of women as He saw them lying asleep, He determined to go to the forest, and departed at night from the king’s palace, like a swan from a lake whose lotuses have been rent in pieces.
CANTO III. THE TATHÀGATA
1. THEN QUITTING the majestic and secure city of Kapilavâstu, whose population was devoted to Him and which was thronged with masses of horses, elephants and chariots, He started resolutely for the forest to practise austerities.
2. But finding that the sages were practising austerities according to varying scriptures and under varying rules and were still made wretched by desire for sensory objects, He concluded that there was no certainty in asceticism and turned away.
3. Then, with His mind fixed on the ultimate truth, He sat at the feet of Arâda who preached emancipation and of Udraka who held the doctrine of quietude, but left them, deciding in His discrimination of Paths that theirs were not the right paths.
4. After considering which of the various sacred traditions in the world was the highest, and failing to obtain exact knowledge from others, He entered after all on austerities of extreme difficulty.
5. Then seeing this to be a false path, He gave up that extended course of austerity too and, realizing that the sphere of trance was the highest, He ate choice food to prepare His mind for the understanding of immortality.
6. With wide-stretching eyes, the gait of a bull, and stout, golden arms as long as a yoke, He betook himself to a pipal tree in His desire to grasp the supreme method of reaching conviction.
7. Seating Himself determinedly there and as immovable in His steadfastness as the king of mountains, He overcame the fearsome hosts of Mara. Then He came to an understanding of the holy stage, which can neither pass away nor be lost.
8. The dwellers in Heaven, whose minds were set on immortality, learning that He had fulfilled His task, rejoiced with an exceeding great joy, but the court of Mara was downcast and trembled.
9. The earth with its mountains shook, an auspicious breeze blew, the drums of the gods sounded and rain fell from a cloudless sky.
10. And having reached comprehension of the supreme, unaging truth, He took His way in His all-pervading mercy to the city girdled by the Varanasi to expound the everlasting victory over death.
11. Then for the benefit of the world the Seer turned in the assembly 3 there the Wheel of the Law, whose hub is the truth, whose felloes are steadfastness, right views and mental concentration and whose spokes are the ordinances of the Rule.
12 — 13. And explaining in detail with its three divisions and twelve separate statements the supreme fourfold truth, which is unequalled, pre-eminent and incontrovertible, namely, ‘This is suffering, this is its origin which consists in the persistence of active being, this is its suppression and this the means’, He converted first of all him of the Kaundinya gotra.
14. For not only did He himself pass over the flood of evil, which cannot be forded, whose waters are the determinants of existence with the fish of mental troubles and which is agitated by the waves of anger, intoxication and fear, but He also ferried the world across.
15. Then, after converting multitudes in Kâsi, Gaya and Girivraja, He went in the depth of His pity to His ancestral town to bring favour on it.
16. For Gautama, appearing with wondrous form like that of the rising sun, just as the sun dispels the darkness, dispelled the darkness of ignorance of the people, who were devoted to the objects of the senses and followed many and varied paths.
17. Then He saw all around Him Kapilavâstu, celebrated for the exceeding loveliness of its dwellings, pure in wealth and thought and surrounded by auspicious groves, and yet was no more affected by longing for it than if He were looking at a forest.
18. For He had become free of all trammels by being controlled in mind and master of Himself, and that too, though kinsfolk, fellow-countrymen, friends and possessions are full of dangers of many kinds (for the religious life).
19. If received with honour He did not feel joy, or if with contempt grief; resolute in mind, He was unmoved equally by threats of violence or by luxury, by pleasure or by pain.
20. Then the lord of the earth, hearing that his Son had returned as a Tathâgata, went forth with such haste in his yearning to see Him that but few horses followed him.
21. The Blessed One, seeing the king arriving thus tremulous with hope and the rest of the people with tearstained faces, flew up into the air in order to convert them.
22. He walked in the air as if on the earth, then He stopped and sat down, then He lay down unhesitatingly; He divided Himself into many forms and then became one again.
23. He walked on the water as if on dry land, He penetrated the earth as if it were water, then He shed rain like a cloud in the sky and then He blazed like the newly-risen sun.
24. Simultaneously blazing like a fire and shedding water like a cloud and shining with the brilliance of refined gold, He resembled a cloud glorious with the hues of sunset.
25. Looking up at Him, as at an uplifted banner girdled with clusters of gold and jewels, the king felt unequalled ecstasy and the prostrate crowd adored Him.
26. So seeing that through the greatness of His supernatural powers the ruler of men was ready for conversion and that the townspeople were favourably disposed to Him, the Teacher instructed them in the Law and the Rule.
27. Then the king obtained the First Fruit for the fulfilment of the immortal Law and accordingly, on entering into possession of the unequalled Law of the Sage, he prostrated himself before Him as before his spiritual guide.
28. Then many pious young Sàkya nobles, with minds full of faith and fearful of the afflictions of birth and death like bulls frightened of a forest fire, adopted the wandering life.
29. Those who out of regard for their children or parents were unable to leave their homes took on themselves to observe the restrictions till death and kept them with all their hearts.
30. Even those, who were accustomed to live by killing others, desisted from hurting any living creature at all, even the most insignificant one; how much more then did the man of good family, great virtue and pity ever do so? Still more so he who served the Sage.
31. The hardworking man, however poor, however impatient of the contempt of others, similarly did not steal the goods of others; for he shrank from others’ wealth as from a snake.
32. And however rich a man might be, however young, however stirred in his senses by passion, he never touched the wives of others; for he deemed them more dangerous than fire.
33. No one said what was untrue or, if true, was unpleasant. No one spoke smooth things which were to the disadvantage of others. They spoke only to the advantage of others, avoiding backbiting.
34. And no one at all was covetous in mind or let his thoughts lust after others’ goods. The good man, deeming the pleasures of the world to be but sorrow, behaved there as if already fully satisfied (without resorting to them).
35. Everyone too was compassionate and never even thought of hurting others. For they regarded each other mutually as they would their parents or children or friends.
36. And they grasped the sound doctrine that the Act will bear its predestined fruit in the future, that it does so in the present and that it has done so in the past and that the place of rebirth in the world is determined thereby.
37. Thus from reliance on the Sage they followed the tenfold conduct which is powerful and good in the highest degree, though from the decadence of the age the people were little inclined to virtue.
38. And no one there desired to obtain by these virtues a return to existence in however happy a state; for, understanding all existence to be evil, they acted so as to bring about the cessation of existence, not rebirth.
39. The householders even were free from questionings and held the highest and purest views; for many entered the Stream and some reduced passion to a minimum.
40. Whoever even had been occupied there solely with the objects of the senses, which are equivalent to destruction, now lived taking a delight in almsgiving, the Rule and abstinence, and never swerved from the right path.
41. No one too experienced any danger from himself, from others or from fate; the people rejoiced there as in the golden age of Manu, in happiness, plenty and virtue.
42. Thus the city was joyful and free from epidemic or disaster, like the city of Kuru, of Raghu or of Püru, with the great passion-free Seer dwelling there for their happiness as their guide to safety.
CANTO IV. THE WIFE’S BARGAIN
BUT NANDA REMAINED in his palace with his mistress, absorbed in love, though the Sage was expounding the Law there and his kinsfolk were proving their reverence for the Law.
2. For worthy of love, he lived with his mistress like a sheldrake with its mate and because of her presence he paid no heed to (the worship of) Vaisravana and Sakra, still less therefore to the Law.
3. Three were the names she bore, Sundari for her majesty and beauty, Mâninï for her obstinancy and pride and Bhâminï for her extreme beauty in love and her spirit.
4. A very lotus-pond in the shape of a woman with her laughter for the swans, her eyes for the bees and her swelling breasts for the uprising lotusbuds, she shone all the more by association with Nanda who, being born in the solar dynasty, represented the sun rising from the Eastern Mountain.
5. For in the world of mankind then Sundari had no peer among women or Nanda among men for their entrancing beauty and, corresponding to it, for their bearing.
6. They seemed as if produced by the Creator to surpass mortals without attaining to the appearance of the gods; for she was like a divinity wandering in the garden of Nandana, while Nanda was the cause of joy to his family.
7. Had Nanda not gained Sundari or had she of the arched eyebrows not been united to him, the two of them would certainly have failed to reach the perfection of beauty, like the night and the moon if deprived of each other.
8. The twain dallied blindly together, as if they were a target for the God of Love and Rati, or a nest to hold Delight and Joy or vessels for Pleasure and Satisfaction.
9. The pair attracted each other mutually, with their eyes engaged solely in gazing at each other, with their minds intent solely on each other’s conversation and with their body-paint rubbed off by their mutual embraces.
10. They sported and shone together as if challenging each other with the glory of their beauty, like a Kimpurusa and a Kinnarï standing by a mountain torrent in loving devotion.
11. The pair brought ecstasy to each other with the increase of their mutual passion and in the intervals of exhaustion they sportively intoxicated each other by way of mutual refreshment.
12. Once he covered her with ornaments, not that she should be decorated, but simply in order to serve her; for she was so adorned by her beauty that she was rather the ornament of her ornaments.
13. Then she put her mirror into her lover’s hand, saying, ‘Just hold this up in front of me, while I paint myself’ and he held it up.
14. Then looking at her husband’s moustache she painted her own face similarly, on which Nanda breathed intentionally on the mirror.
15. She laughed inwardly in her mind at the playful trick and naughtiness of her lord, but, pretending to be angry with him, she crinkled up her forehead and frowned at him.
