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IV, 8, 29.
151
The problem put by me in worldly sense have you in transcendental sense made clear.'
OF MILINDA THE KING.
[Here ends the dilemma as to virtue and vice.]
[DILEMMA THE SEVENTY-FOURTH. OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD.]
29. 'Venerable Nâgasena, these givers when they bestow their offerings, devote them specifically to former (relatives) now departed', saying: “May this gift benefit such and such." Now do they (the dead) derive any benefit therefrom?'
'Some do, O king, and some do not.'
'Which then are they that do, and which do not?'
'Those who have been reborn in purgatory, O king, do not; nor those reborn in heaven; nor those reborn as animals. And of those reborn as Pretas three kinds do not-the Vantâsikâ (who feed on vomit), the Khuppipâsino (who hunger and thirst), the Nigghâma-tanhikâ (who are consumed by thirst). But the Paradattûpagivino (who live on the gifts of others) they do derive profit, and those who bear them in remembrance do so too.'
'Then, Nagasena, offerings given by the givers have run to waste, and are fruitless, since those
1 Petâ; which are not ghosts, disembodied 'souls,' but new beings whose link of connection with the departed is, 'not soul,' but Karma.
Vissotam, from sru. The Simhalese, p. 434, has âsthâna gata wanneya (for asthâna).
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