Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/100

 And the Blessed One proclaimed this verse: "Commit no wrong but good deeds do And let thy heart be pure. All Buddhas teach -this doctrine true Which will for aye endure."

XXIII.

ANÂTHAPINDIKA.

At this time there was Anāthapindika, a man of unmeasured wealth, visiting Rajagaha. Being of a charitable disposition, he was called "the supporter of orphans and the friend of the poor."

Hearing that the Buddha had .come into the world and was stopping in the bamboo grove near the city, he set out in the very night to meet the Blessed One.

And the Blessed One saw at once the sterling quality of Anthapindika's heart and greeted him with words of religious comfort. And they sat down together, and Anāthapindika listened to the sweetness of the truth preached by the Blessed One. And the Buddha said:

"The restless, busy nature of the world, this, I declare, is at the root of pain. Attain that composure of mind which is resting in the peace of immortality. Self is but a heap of composite qualities, and its world is empty like a fantasy.

"Who is it that shapes our lives? Is it Īśvara, a personal creator? If Īśvara be the maker, all living things should have silently to submit to their maker's power. They would be like vessels formed by the potter's hand; and if it were so, how would it be possible to practise virtue? If the world had been made by Īśvara there should be no such thing as sorrow, or calamity, or evil; for both 72