Page Text
________________
IV, 6, 15.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
55
any being whatever more worthy of gifts, greater or more exalted or better, than the Tathagata. It is the Tathagata who was greatest and highest and best. As it was said, O king, by Mânava-gâmika the god, in the most excellent Samyutta Nikâya, as he stood before the Blessed One in the midst of the assembly of gods and men: “Of all the Ragagaha hills Mount Vipula's acknow
ledged chief, Of the Himalayas Mount White, of planetary orbs
the sun, The ocean of all waters, of constellations bright
the moon_ In all the world of gods and men the Buddha's
the acknowledged Lord ?!”.
And those verses of Manava the god, O king, were well sung, not wrongly sung, well spoken, not wrongly spoken, and approved by the Blessed One S. And was it not said by Sâriputta, the Commander of the faith : “There is but one Confession, one true Faith, One Adoration of clasped hands stretched forth _That paid to Him who routs the Evil One, And helps us cross the ocean of our ills 4!"
1 This must have been composed after the moon god had become established in belief as the husband, or lord, of the Nakshatras, or lunar mansions. For it cannot, of course, be intended that the moon is itself a constellation.
Samyutta Nikâya III, 2, 10 (vol. i, p. 67 of the Páli Text Society's edition).
These phrases of approval are commonly used in the Pitakas of words uttered by any one whose sayings would not, of themselves, carry weight. So in the Digha III, 1, 28 and in the Magghima I, 385.
* This verse has not yet been traced in the Pitakas. In
Digitized by Google
| 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 |