Page:Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol 1.djvu/301

 engaged in keeping your vow of restraint, for what reason then do you, under the pretext of exhorting me to forbearance, beg safety from my side ?'

The Bodhisattva answered : 'Hear then, great prince, for what reason I urged you.

49. 'I spoke so that your good renown might not break down under the blame you would incur because of me, if it were to be said of you “ the king has killed a guiltless ascetic, a Brâhman."

50. 'Death is an invariable necessity for all creatures. For this reason I am not afraid of it, nor have I anything to fear, when I recollect my own behaviour.

51. 'But it was for your sake, that you should not suffer by injuring Righteousness, the source of happiness, that I praised forbearance to you as the fit instrument for attaining salvation.

52. 'Since it is a mine of virtues and an armour against vices, I gladly praise Forbearance, for it is an excellent boon, I offer you.'

But the king disdained these gentle flowers of speech which the Muni offered him. Scornfully he said to that foremost of Rishis: ‘Let us now see your attachment to forbearance,' and so speaking, he directed his sharp sword to the right hand of the Muni, which was a little extended towards him, with a prohibitive gesture, having its very fine and long fingers upward, and severed it from his arm like a lotus from its stalk.

53. Yet the Bodhisattva did not feel so much pain, even after his hand had been cut off—so steadfast was he in keeping his vow of forbearance—as sorrow concerning the cutter, whose future misfortune he saw, which was to fall terrible and irremediable upon that person hitherto accustomed to pleasures.

And thinking within himself: 'Alas! he has transgressed the boundary of his good, he has ceased to be a person worth admonishing ,' and commiserating him, as he would do a sick man given up by the