Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/278

 Then the Mallas of Kusinārā gave orders to their attendants, saying, "Gather together perfumes and garlands, and all the music in Kusinārā!" And the Mallas of Kusinārā took the perfumes and garlands, and all the musical instruments, and five hundred garments, and went to the sāla grove where the body of the Blessed One lay. There they passed the day in paying honor and reverence to the remains of the Blessed One, with hymns, and music, and with garlands and perfumes, and in making canopies of their garments, and preparing decorative wreaths, to hang thereon. And they burned tie remains of the Blessed One as they would do to the body of a king of kings. When the funeral pyre was lit, the sun and moon withdrew their shining, the peaceful streams on every side were torrent-swollen, the earth quaked, and the sturdy forests shook like aspen leaves, whilst flowers and leaves fell untimely to the ground, like scattered rain, so that all Kusinārā became strewn knee-deep with mandara flowers raining down from heaven. When the burning ceremonies were over, Devaputta said to the multitudes that were assembled round the pyre:

"Behold, O brethren, the earthly remains of the Blessed One have been dissolved, but the truth wlych he has taught us lives in our minds and cleanses us from all error.

"Let us, then, go out into die world, as compassionate and merciful as our great master, and preach to all" living beings the four noble truths and the eightfold path of righteousness, so that all mankind may attain to a final salvation, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha."

And when the Blessed One had entered into Nirvāna, and the Mallas had burned the body with such ceremonies as would indicate that he was the great king of kings, ambassadors came from all the empires that at the time had 250