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II, 1, 1.
SIMILE OF THE CHARIOT.
43
*Then is it all these Skandhas combined that are Nâgasena ?' "No! great king.'
But is there anything outside the five Skandhas that is Nagasena ?'
And still he answered no.
*Then thus, ask as I may, I can discover no Nagasena. Nâgasena is a mere empty sound. Who then is the Nâgasena that we see before us? It is a falsehood that your reverence has spoken, an untruth!'
And the venerable Nâgasena said to Milinda the king : You, Sire, have been brought up in great luxury, as beseems your noble birth. If you were to walk this dry weather on the hot and sandy ground, trampling under foot the gritty, gravelly grains of the hard sand, your feet would hurt you. And as your body would be in pain, your mind would be disturbed, and you would experience a sense of bodily suffering. How then did you come, on foot, or in a chariot ?'
'I did not come, Sir, on foot [27). I came in a carriage.
'Then if you came, Sire, in a carriage, explain to me what that is. Is it the pole that is the chariot ?' 'I did not say that.' Is it the axle that is the chariot ?' Certainly not.' * Is it the wheels, or the framework, or the ropes, or the yoke, or the spokes of the wheels, or the goad, that are the chariot ?'
And to all these he still answered no.
*Then is it all these parts of it that are the chariot ?'
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