Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
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

Page 546

MAHA-PARINIBBÂNA-SUTTA.
front of the Tathagata, concealing him, and in his last hour we are prevented from beholding the Tathagata ;” thus, Ânanda, do the spirits murmur.'
II. · But of what kind of spirits is the Blessed One thinking ?
12. There are spirits, Ananda, in the sky, but of worldly mind, who dishevel their hair and weep, who stretch forth their arms and weep, who fall prostrate on the ground, and roll to and fro in anguish at the thought: “Too soon will the Blessed One die! Too soon will the Happy One pass away! Full soon will the Light of the world vanish away?!".
13. "There are spirits, too, Ânanda, on the earth, and of worldly mind, who tear their hair and weep, who stretch forth their arms and weep, who fall prostrate on the ground, and roll to and fro in anguish at the thought: “Too soon will the Blessed One die! Too soon will the Happy One pass away! Full soon will the Eye of the world disappear from sight!"
14. 'But the spirits who are free from passion bear it, calm and self-possessed, mindful of the saying which begins, “Impermanent indeed are all component things. How then is it possible (whereas anything whatever, when born, brought into being, and
Kakkum loke antaradhâyissati, on which there is no comment. It is literally, the Eye in the world will vanish away,' where Eye is of course used figuratively of that by the aid of which spiritual truths can be perceived, corresponding exactly to the similar use in Europe of the word Light. The Master is often called Kakkhuma, 'He with the Eye,' He of the spiritual Eye' (see, for instance, the last verses in this Sutta), and here by a bold figure of speech he is called the Eye itself, which was shortly about to vanish away from the world, the means of spiritual insight which was no longer to be available for the common use of all men. But this is, it will be noticed, only the lament of the foolish and ignorant.
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