Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/239

 thought came to me, "I wonder whether this ascetic is not the Sakya son whom men call the Buddha."

In his hand he bore a few Sinsapa leaves, and, turning to the monks of whom I have made mention, he said—

"What think ye, O ye disciples, which are the more numerous, these Sinsapa leaves which I hold in my hand, or the other leaves yonder in the Sinsapa wood?"

And the monks answered—

"The leaves, Lord, which thou dost hold in thy hand are few, and far more numerous are those yonder in the Sinsapa wood."

"So also," said he, who, as I now knew, was the Buddha, "so also, O ye disciples, is that which I have discerned and not declared to you far greater than that which I have declared. And why, O ye disciples, have I not declared all things to you? Because it would in no wise profit you, because it would not minister to the holiness of your walk, would not lead to your turning away from earthly things, not to the destruction of all lust, not to the change which is the end of all change, not to peace, not to Nirvana."

"So that foolish old man was right after all!" exclaimed Kamanita.

"What old man?" asked Vasitthi.

"That ascetic with whom, as I related to thee, I spent the night, the last of my earthly life, in the suburb of Rajagriha, in the hall of the potter. He would insist on expounding the doctrine of the Master to me, and, as I readily perceived, did not especially succeed. But he manifestly quoted many genuine sayings, and among these, even to the very words, what thou hast just told me—he even gave the name of the place correctly, and moved