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IV, 8, 30.
OF MILINDA THE KING..
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153
*This is really not a question you should ask, O king. Ask me no foolish question, O king, in the idea that an answer will be forthcoming. You will be asking me next why space is boundless, why the Ganges does not flow up stream, why men and birds are bipeds, and the animals quadrupeds !
'It is not to annoy you that I ask this question, Någasena, but for the sake of resolving a doubt. There are many people in the world who are lefthanded or squint?. I put that question to you, thinking: "Why should not also these unlucky ones have a chance 2 of bettering themselves ?”
"An evil deed, O king, cannot be shared with one who has not done it, and has not consented to it. People convey water long distances by an aqueduct. But could they in the same way remove a great mountain of solid rock ?'
Certainly not, Sir.'
Well, just in that way can a good deed be shared, but a bad one cannot. And one can light a lamp with oil, but could one in the same way, O king, light it with water?' [296] Certainly not, Sir.'
Well, so is it that a good deed can be shared, but not an evil one. And husbandmen take water from a reservoir to bring their crops to maturity, but could they for the same purpose, o king, take water from the sea ?'
i Vama gâhino vikakkhuka. Neither of these words are in the dictionaries. Hinafi-kumbure, p. 436, says, 'who spoil what they take hold of, and whose eyes have lost their cunning.'
Otâra, which the Simhalese renders a wakâsaya; and in that sense the word is used at Magghima Nikaya I, 334.
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| 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 |