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 567

110
. THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.
CH.
ch.
into the higher grade of the order under the Blessed One; and from immediately after his ordination the venerable Subhadda remained alone and separate, earnest, zealous, and resolved. And e'er long he attained to that supreme goal of the higher life 1 for the sake of which men go out from all and every household gain and comfort to become houseless wanderers-yea, that supreme goal did he, by himself, and while yet in this visible world, bring himself to the knowledge of, and continue to realise, and to see face to face! And he became conscious that birth was at an end, that the higher life had been fulfilled, that all that should be done had been accomplished, and that after this present life there would be no beyond!
69. So the venerable Subhadda became yet another among the Arahats; and he was the last disciple whom the Blessed One himself converted?.
End of the Hiraññavatiya portion, being the
Fifth Portion for Recitation.
1 That is, Nirvana. Compare Mangala Sutta V, 11, and the Dhammapada, verses 180, 354, and above Chap. I, § 7.
2 Buddhaghosa says that the last five words in the text (the last twelve words in my translation) were added by the Theras who held the Council. On Subhadda's ordination he has the following interesting note: 'The Thero (that is, Ananda), they say, took him on one side, poured water over his head from a water vessel, made him repeat the formula of meditation on the impermanency of the body (Taka-pañkaka-kammatthânam; see my “Buddhist Birth Stories," p. 161), shaved off his hair and beard, clad him in the yellow robes, made him repeat the “Three Refuges," and led him back to the Blessed One. The Blessed One himself admitted him then into the higher rank of the brotherhood, and pointed out to him a subject for meditation (kammatthânam; see “Buddhist
Digitized by
Digitized by Google