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IV, 7, 4.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
93
2. “They who do all these things, O king, are working towards attainment of freedom from the Papañkas, (that is of Arahatship?). For whereas, O king, all those of the brethren who are pure by nature, those upon whose hearts an impression has been left by good deeds done in a former birth ?, can (get rid of the Papañkas, can) become Arahats, in a moment—those on the other hand whose minds are much darkened by evil can only become Arahats by such means as these.
3. 'Just, О king, as while one man who has sown a field and got the seed to grow can, by the exertion of his own power, and without any rampart or fence, reap the crop—whereas another man when he has got the seed to grow must go into the woods, and cut down sticks and branches and make a fence of them, and thus only reap the crop-in the same way those who are pure by nature, upon whose hearts an impression has been left by good deeds done in a former birth, can, in a moment, become Arahats, like the man who gathers the crop without a fence. But those, on the other hand, whose minds are darkened by the evil they have done can only become Arahats by such means as these-like the man who can only reap his crop if he builds the fence.
4. Or just, О king, as there might be a bunch of fruits on the summit of a lofty mango tree. Then
1 This is (very properly added in the Simhalese, for the two are practically identical. Hereafter it throughout renders nippa panko hoti by become an Arahat.'
i Vâsita-vâsana. See above, vol. I, p. 18.
3 Mahârâgakkhâ, evil done both in this and in former births' is here to be understood.
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