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

Page 38

THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
IV, 5, 8.
[DILEMMA THE FORTY-THIRD. BAKKULA'S SUPERIORITY TO THE BUDDHA.] 8. 'Venerable Nâgasena, it was said by the Blessed One:
"A Brahman am I, O brethren, devoted to selfsacrifice1, pure-handed at every time; this body that I bear with me is my last, I am the supreme Healer and Physician "."
"
But on the other hand the Blessed One said: "The chief, O brethren, among those who are disciples of mine, in the matter of bodily health, is Bakkula 3.
Now it is well known that diseases arose several times in the body of the Blessed One. So that if, Nâgasena, the Tathagata was supreme, then the statement he made about Bakkula's bodily health must be wrong. But if the Elder named Bakkula was really chief among those who were healthy, then that statement which I first quoted must be
1 Yâkayogo. See Sutta Nipâta III, 5, 1; Anguttara Nikâya III, 79, 2; and below, p. 225 (of the Pâli text).
2 This passage has not yet been traced in the Pitakas, and the context is therefore unknown. But the word Brahman must of course be applied to the Buddha here in the sense, not of one belonging to the Brahman caste, but of Arahat. Hînafi-kumburê adds, as a gloss, bâhita-pâpa-brâhmanayek, 'brahman because he has suppressed evil in himself.' On this explanation see my note to the forty-eighth dilemma, which is devoted to the discussion of this difficulty.
On the Buddha as the Great Physician see Sutta Nipâta III, 7, 13; Magghima Nikâya I, 429; Sumangala Vilâsinî, 67, 255; and Milinda, pp. 110, 169 (of the Pâli text).
Anguttara Nikâya I, 14, 4. The reading adopted by our author agrees with that of the Simhalese MSS. put by Dr. Morris into the text.
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