Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
III, 7, 4.
'No, Sir.'
'So you are mighty clever people, O king, [82] to take all that trouble to prevent the future thirst which all the time does not exist!'
'Give me a further illustration.'
[Then the Elder referred, as before, to the means people always took of warding against future hunger, and the king expressed his pleasure at the way in which the puzzle had been solved.]
4. The king said: 'How far is it, Nâgasena, from here to the Brahma world 1?'
'Very far is it, O king. If a rock, the size of an upper chamber, were to fall from there, it would take four months to reach the earth, though it came down eight-and-forty thousand leagues each day and night.'
2
'Good, Nâgasena! Now do not your people say that a Bhikkhu, who has the power of Iddhi and the mastery over his mind, can vanish from Gambu-dipa, and appear in the Brahma world, as quickly as a strong man could stretch forth his bent up arm, or bend it in again if it were stretched out? That is a saying I cannot believe. How is it possible that he could traverse so quickly so many hundreds of leagues?'
The Elder replied: 'In what district, O king, were you born?'
1 One of the highest heavens.
9 Yogana, a league of seven miles.
3 Ketovasippatto, which Hina/i-kumburê renders mano vasi prâpta wû. I know of no passage in the Pitakas where the phrase occurs in connection with Iddhi; but it is often used by our author. See, for instance, just below, III, 7, 9.
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