Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

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THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 8, 20. regions under the earth'-would that water, after it had once entered that opening, turn back and flow again into the great ocean, and from the great ocean into the Ganges river, and from the Ganges river into the Anottata lake?'
[287] Certainly not, Sir.'
'In the same way, O king, it was for the sake of that last existence of his that the Bodisat had matured merit through the immeasurable æons of the past. He had now reached that last birth, the knowledge of the Buddhas had grown mature in him, in six years he would become a Buddha, all-knowing, the highest being in the world. Would then the Bodisat, for the sake of the Wheeltreasure, turn back?'
'Certainly not, Sir.'
'No! Though the great earth, O king, with all its peaks and mountain ranges, should turn back, yet the Bodisat would not before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the water of the Ganges should flow backwards up the stream, yet the Bodisat would not turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though the mighty ocean with its immeasurable waters should dry up like the water in the footprint of a cow3, yet would not the Bodisat turn back before he had attained to Buddhahood. Though Sineru, the king of the moun
1 Pâtâla-mukham, which the Simhalese repeats. There is a similar sequence in the Samyutta I, 5, 4.
Aparimita-gala-dharo.
Hîna/i-kumburê, p. 424, has dhârî, which may either be the same in meaning as dharo, or refer to the dhârâ, the streams of water.
Gopade; not in Childers, but compare Gopadaka, 'puddle,' in a similar connection at Sumangala Vilâsinî I, 147 (where one MS. reads Gopade).
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