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100
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
BOOK III.
VIMATI-KKHEDANA-PANHO.
THE REMOVAL OF DIFFICULTIES.
III, 4, I.
CHAPTER 41.
1. [65] The king said: Are the five Âyatanas, Nâgasena, (eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body,) produced by various actions, or by one action?' (that is, the result of various Karmas, or of one Karma.) 'By various actions, not by one.' 'Give me an illustration.'
'Now, what do you think, O king? If I were to sow in one field five kinds of seed, would the produce of those various seeds be of different kinds?'
'Yes, certainly.'
'Well, just so with respect to the production of Âyatanas.'
'Very good, Nagasena"!'
2. The king said: 'Why is it, Nâgasena, that all men are not alike, but some are short-lived and some long-lived, some sickly and some healthy, some ugly and some beautiful, some without influence and some of great power, some poor and some wealthy, some low born and some high born, some stupid and some wise?'
1 The chapters go straight on because Books II and III are really only parts of one Book. See above, p. 4. The meaning here is not easy to follow, as the word Ayatana is used either for the organs of sense, or for the objects of sense; and there is nothing in the context to show which is meant. Probably the idea is that good sight, hearing, &c. in one birth are each the result of a separate Karma in the last birth. But I am by no means sure of this, and the Simhalese (p. 76) is just as ambiguous as the Pâli.
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