Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 628

134
MAHÂVAGGA.
VI, 35, 8.
Keniya the ascetic, with his own hand, offered to the company of the Bhikkhus with the Buddha at their head, and satisfied them with the sweet food, both hard and soft. And when the Blessed One had finished his meal and had washed his hands and his bowl, he (Keniya) took his seat on one side.
8. And when he was so seated the Blessed One pronounced the benediction on Keniya the ascetic in these verses :
Of the offerings the fire sacrifice is the chief, of sacred verses the chief is the Såvitthia ;
‘Among men the king is chief, and of waters the ocean,
Of constellations the moon is chief, and of heatgivers the sun,
But of them, the conquering ones, who long after good, the Samgha, verily, is chief.'
And when the Blessed One had, in these verses, pronounced the benedictions on Keniya the ascetic, he rose from his seat, and departed thence".
36. 1. Now when the Blessed One had stayed at Åpana as long as he thought fit, he went on, on his pilgrimage, to Kusinârâ, with a great company
1 Yañña. Compare above, I, 22, 4, and our note there (p. 138).
• This is of course the well-known verse Rig-veda III, 62, 10. The argumentum ad hominem here is a fresh confirmation of the view already expressed above in our note on I, 15, 1, that by the Gatilas are to be understood the orthodox Brâhman ascetics.
• Compare the Book of the Great Decease I, 31, and Gâtaka I, 119.
$$ 7, 8 recur in the Sela Sutta (Sutta Nipata, III, 7, 21, 22), where they stand in a much more appropriate context.
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