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
and irrigating, and fencing, and watching, and reaping, and grinding, will become the owner of much flour, and so the lord of whosoever are poor and needy, reduced to beggary and misery-just so, O king, it is he who in former births has undertaken and practised, followed and carried out, observed, framed his conduct according to, and fulfilled these thirteen vows, who acquires all the results of the life of a recluse, and all its ecstacy of peace and bliss becomes his very own.
VI, 23.
(
23. And again, O king, just as an anointed monarch is master over the treatment of outlaws, is an independent ruler and lord, and does whatsoever he desires, and all the broad earth is subject to him -just so, O king, is he who has undertaken, practised, and fulfilled in former births these vows, master, ruler, and lord in the religion of the Conquerors, and all the virtues of the Samanas are his.
24. 'And was not Upasena, the Elder, he of the sons of the Vangantas1, from his having thoroughly practised all the purifying merits of the vows, able to neglect the agreement arrived at by the members of the Order resident at Sâvatthi, and to visit with his attendant brethren the Subduer of men, then retired into solitude, and when he had bowed down before him, to take his seat respectfully aside? And when the Blessed One saw how well trained his retinue was, then, delighted and glad and exalted in heart, he greeted them with courteous words, and said in his unbroken beautiful voice:
"Most pleasant, Upasena, is the deportment of
1 According to the Simhalese this was a Brahman clan. But the derivation suggests the borders of Bengal, where it is some what strange to find Brahmans so early.
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