________________
IV, 5, 23.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
23
[DILEMMA THE FORTY-SEVENTII.
THE HELPLESSNESS OF A BUDDHA.] 22. 'Venerable Nâgasena, this too has been said by the Blessed One :
"Ghatikâra the potter's dwelling-place remained, the whole of it, for three months open to the sky, and no rain fell upon it."
But on the other hand it is said : “Rain fell on the hut of Kassapa the Tatha
gatal.”
How was it, venerable Nâgasena, that the hut of a Tathagata, the roots of whose merits were so widely spread, got wet? One would think that a Tathāgata should have the power to prevent that. If, Nâgasena, Ghatikâra the potter's dwelling was kept dry when it was open to the sky, it cannot be true that a Tathagata's hut got wet. But if it did, then it must be false that the potter's dwelling was kept dry. This too is a double-edged problem, now put to you, which you have to solve.'
23. Both the quotations you have made, O king, are correct. [224] Ghatikára the potter was a good man, beautiful in character, deeply rooted in merit, who supported his old and blind mother and father. And when he was absent, the people, without so much as asking his leave, took away the thatch from his dwelling to roof in with it the hut of the Tathagata. Then, unmoved and unshaken at his thatch being thus removed, but filled rather
· Both these quotations are from the Magghima Nikâya, No. 31 (the Ghafikara Suttanta).
. Ussanna-kusala-mala. See Gâtaka I, 145.
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