Sambodhi 1990 Vol 17

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 74

69
The doctrine of nairātmya, has been very cleverly brought out in the following dialogue between the king Milinda and the Sage Nagasena.?
"Sir, are the hairs Nāgasena ?” "No, great king." "Are nails or teeth, skin or flesh or bone Nagasena ?” “No, great king." "Is the bodily form Nägasena, O Sir ?" "No, great king." "Are the sensations Nāgasena?" "No, great King." "Are the perceptions, the conformations, the consciousness Nagasena?” "No, great King." "Or, Sir, the combination of corporeal form, sensations, perceptions,
conformations and consciousness, is this Nāgasena ?" "No, great King." "Wherever I look then, Sir, I nowhere find a Nāgasena. A merc
word, Sir, is Nägasena. What is Nagasena then? Though speakest False then Sir, and thou liest, there is no Nägasena."
........"Hast thou come on foot or on a chariot ?” "I do not travel on foot, Sir: I have come on a chariot." "If thou hast come on a chariot, great King, then define the chariot.
Is the pole the chariot, great King ?"
And now the saint turns the same course of reasoning against the king which the king himself had used against him. Neither the pole, nor the wheel, nor the body, nor the yoke is the chariot. The chariot, moreover, is not the combination of all these component parts, or anything else beyond them.
King Milinda said to the venerable Nāgasena: "I do not speak untruly, venerable Nāgasena. In reference to pole, axle, wheels, body and bar, the name, the appellation, the designation, the epithet, the word 'chariot is used”.
"Good indeed, great king, thou knowest the chariot. And in the same way, 0 King, in reference to my hair, iny skin and bones, to corporeal form, sensations, perceptions, conformations and consciousness, the word Nāgasena is used: but here subject, in the strict sense of word, there is none. Thus also, great King, has the Buddhist nun Vajirā explained in the presence of the Exalted One (Buddha):