Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/178

62 such a one, she shall be my mother." And further considering how long her life should last, he foresaw that it would still last ten months and seven days.

Having thus reflected on these five important points, he favoured the deities by granting their prayer, saying, "The time has arrived, O Blessed Ones, for me to become a Buddha." He then dismissed them with the words, "You may depart;" and attended by the angels of the heaven of Joy, he entered the grove of Gladness in the City of Delight.

Now in each of the angel-heavens (Devalokas) there is such a grove of Gladness ; and there the angels are wont to remind any one of them who is about to depart of the opportunities he has gained by good deeds done in a former birth, saying to him, "When fallen hence, mayest thou be reborn in bliss." And thus He also, when walking about there, surrounded by angels reminding him of his acquired merit, departed thence; and was conceived in the womb of the Lady Mahā Māyā.

In order to explain this better, the following is the account in fuller detail. At that time, it is said, the Midsummer festival was proclaimed in the City of Kapilavastu, and the people were enjoying the feast. During the seven days before the full moon the Lady Mahā Māyā had taken part in the festivity, as free from intoxication as it was brilliant with garlands and perfumes. On the seventh day she rose early and bathed in perfumed water: and she distributed four hundred thousand pieces in giving great largesse. Decked in her richest attire she partook of the purest food: and vowing to observe the Eight Commandments, she entered her beautiful chamber, and lying on her royal couch she fell asleep and dreamt this dream.

The four archangels, the Guardians of the world, lifting her up in her couch, carried her to the Himālaya mountains, and placing her under the Great Sāla-tree, seven