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II, 2, 3.
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
each hut with the object of putting out at once any spark of fire that may be kindled. Suppose now the house had caught fire, and they had thrown those five potfulls of water over the hut, and the fire had gone out, would those peasants then think of still going on using the water-pots?'
'No, Sir, the water-pots would be done with. What would be the use of them (on that occasion) any more?'
'The five water-pots are the five organs of moral sense-faith, to wit, and perseverance in effort, and mindfulness, and meditation, and the reasoning wisdom. The peasantry are the recluse, who is devoted in effort'; the fire is sinfulness. As the fire is put out by the water in the five pots, so is sinfulness extinguished by the five organs of moral sense, and when once extinguished it does not again arise.'
'Give me a further illustration.'
'It is like a physician who goes to the sick man with the five kinds of drugs made from medicinal
1 Yogâvakaro; one of the technical terms in constant use by our author, but not found in the Pâli Pitakas. Hardy renders it, 'who is seeking Nirvâna;' but though this may be suggested by the term, it is not its meaning. Literally it is 'he whose sphere, whose constant resort, is Yoga.' Now yoga is 'diligence, devotion, mental concentration;' and there is nothing to show that our author is using the word as an epithet of Arahatship. It seems to me, therefore, that the whole compound merely means one of those ' religious,' in the technical sense, who were also religious in the higher, more usual sense. It would thus be analogous to the phrase sam gâmâvakaro, 'at home in war,' used of a war elephant in the Samgâmâvakara Gâtaka (Fausböll, II, 95), and of a soldier below, Mil. 44.
This must, I think, be understood in a modified sense, for the first of the four Great Exertions (Sammappadhânas) is the effort to prevent sinful conditions arising.
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