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VI, 4, 3.
ON DWELLINGS AND FURNITURE.
181
[And thrice the same question was put, and the same reply was given.]
'Hard is it, О householder, to meet even with the mere expression in the world—the news, that is, of “a Buddha, a Buddha ?." Would it be possible for us, at this very time, to go and visit that Blessed One, the Arahat, the very Buddha ??'
It is not now, O householder, the proper time to pay a visit to the Blessed One; but early on the morrow you shall go and visit him.'
Then Anâtha Pindika, pondering of the visit he was about to pay, lay down to sleep with his thoughts so bent upon the Buddha that thrice in the night he arose, thinking the daylight had appeared.
3. And Anâtha Pindika the householder went up to the gate leading to the Sitavana, and celestial beings opened the gate. And as he emerged from the city, the light disappeared and a thick darkness arose, and fear and trembling and consternation sprang up within him, so that a longing came upon him to turn back again from that spot. But Sivaka the Yakkha, himself the while invisible, caused a sound to be heard, saying :
"A hundred elephants, a hundred steeds, a hundred chariots with mules,
'A hundred thousand virgins with their jewelled earrings on,
1 Much more so with the reality' is to be understood. Compare Maha-parinibbâna Sutta VI, 63 (at the end).
. On this rendering of Samma-sambuddham, see Rh. D.'s Hibbert Lectures,' pp. 145-147.
• Assatari. Compare vakkhatari at Mahavagga V, 9, 1, 3. The word recurs below at VII, 2, 5.
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