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26
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.
CH.
tion! The devout Kakudha, Ânanda, by the complete destruction of the five bonds that bind people to these lower worlds of lust, has become an inheritor of the highest heavens, there to pass entirely away, thence never to return. So also is the case with Kalinga, Nikata, Katissabha, Tuttha, Santuttha, Bhadda, and Subhadda, and with more than fifty devout men of Nâdika. More than ninety devout men of Nâdika, who have died, Ânanda, have by the complete destruction of the three bonds, and by the reduction of lust, hatred, and delusion, become Sakadâgâmins, who on their first return to this world will make an end of sorrow. More than five hundred devout men of Nâdika who have died, Ânanda, have by the complete destruction of the three bonds become converted, are no longer liable · to be reborn in a state of suffering, and are assured of final salvation.
8. Now there is nothing strange in this, Ananda, that a human being should die, but that as each one does so you should come to the Buddha, and enquire about them in this manner, that is wearisome to the Buddha. I will, therefore, teach you a way of truth, called the Mirror of Truth, which if an elect disciple possess he may himself predict of himself, “Hell is destroyed for me, and rebirth as an animal, or a ghost, or in any place of woe. I am converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state of suffering, and am assured of final salvation.”
9. What then, Ânanda, is this mirror of truth? It is the consciousness that the elect disciple is in this world possessed of faith in the Buddha
See · Buddhism,' pp. 108-110, and below, VI, 9.
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| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Max Muller |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1881 |
| Total Pages | 2540 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |