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 XX.

THE SERMON AT RĀJAGAHA.

And the Blessed One having dwelt some time in Uruvelā went forth to Rajagaha, accompanied by a great number of bhikkhus, many of whom had been Jatilas before; and the great Kassapa, chief of the Jatilas and formerly a fireworshipper, went with him.

When the Magadha king, Seniya Bimbisara, heard of the arrival of Gotama Sakyamuni, of whom the people said, "He is the Holy One, the blessed Buddha, guiding men as a driver curbs bullocks, the teacher of high and Jow," he went out surrounded with his counsellors and generals and came to the grove where the Blessed One was.

There they saw the Blessed One in the company of Kassapa, the great religious teacher of the Jatilas, and they were astonished and thought: "Has the great Sakyamuni placed himself under the spiritual direction of Kassapa, or has Kassapa become a disciple of Gotama?"

And the Tathāgata, reading the thpughts of the people, said to Kassapa: "What knowledge hast thou gained, O Kassapa, and what has induced thee to renounce the sacred fire and give up thine austere penances?"

Kassapa said: "The profit I derived from adoring the fire was continuance in the wheel of individuality with all its sorrows and vanities. This service I have cast away, and instead of continuing penances and sacrifices I have gone in quest of the highest Nirvāna. Since I have seen the light of truth, I have abandoned worshipping the fire."

The Buddha, perceiving that the whole assembly was ready as a vessel to receive the doctrine, spoke thus to Bimbisārā" the king:

"He who knows the nature of self and understands how the senses act, finds no room for selfishness, and thus he 65