________________
III, 15.
TURNING THE LAW-WHEEL.
169
deportment of the Bhikshu, he stood with reverent mien on the road side; 1201
Joyously he gazed at such an unprecedented sight, and then, with closed hands, he spake? as follows: “The crowds who live around are stained with sin, without a pleasing feature, void of grace, 1202
'And the great world's heart is everywhere disturbed; but you alone, your senses all composed, with visage shining as the moon when full, seem to have quaffed the water of the immortals' stream; 1203
The marks of beauty yours, as the great man's (Mahåpurusha); the strength of wisdom, as an allsufficient (independent) king's (samråg); what you have done must have been wisely done, what then your noble tribe and who your master ?' 1204
Answering he said, 'I have no master; no honourable tribe; no point of excellence ?; selftaught in this profoundest doctrine, I have arrived at superhuman wisdom. 1205
*That which behoves the world to learn, but through the world no learner found, I now myself
the demeanour of the mendicant (Bhikshu). This incident is introduced as the first instance of Buddha's mendicant life and its influence on others. i Or, 'he questioned thus.'
Nothing that has been conquered.' . I have attained to that which man has not attained. That is, I have arrived at superhuman wisdom. It appears to me that this point in Buddha's history is a key to the whole system of his religion. He professes to have grasped absolute truth (the word
absolute corresponds with 'unfettered'); and by letting go the finite, with its limitations and defilements, to have passed into the free, boundless, unattached infinite.
Digitized by Google
