Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/419

Rh in company with the greatest Being in earth or heaven — to call out, 'Let us make a counter fire,' and to take no notice of the supreme, the Buddha! You know not the power of the Buddhas! Come, let us go to the Master!"

And they all crowded together from in front, and from behind, and went up in a body near to the Mighty by Wisdom.

There the Master stopped, surrounded by the whole body of disciples.

The jungle fire came on roaring as if to overwhelm them. It came right up to the place where the Great Mortal stood, and then — as it came within about sixteen rods of that spot — it went out, like a torch thrust down into water, leaving a space of about thirty-two rods in breadth over which it could not pass!

Then the monks began to magnify the Teacher, saying; "Oh! how marvellous are the qualities of the Buddhas! The very fire, unconscious though it be, cannot pass over the place where the Buddhas stand. Oh! how great is the might of the Buddhas!"

On hearing this the Teacher said —

"It is not, monks, through any power I have now that the fire goes out on reaching this plot of ground. It is through the power of a former act of mine. And in all this spot no fire will burn through the whole kalpa, for that was a miracle enduring through a kalpa."

Then the venerable Ānanda folded a robe in four, and spread it as a seat for the Teacher. The Teacher seated himself; and when he had settled himself cross-legged, the body of disciples seated themselves reverently round him, and requested him, saying —

"What has now occurred, O Lord, is known to us. The past is hidden from us. Make it known to us."

And the Teacher told the tale.