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EMANCIPATION OF AJITA SVĀMIN AND SAGARA
195
absurd thing? Because the master is firm as Sumeru, and endures all things like the earth, such a thing is said openly by wicked men at their pleasure. Such a thing can not be said even before ordinary people, to say nothing of the master powerful in anger and favor. Is he, who utters a speech hard to speak, courageous, or is the hearer courageous who does not become angry after hearing it? If the master believes such a thing, let him believe it, and it must be acknowledged without contradiction. Mountains fiy aloft, flowers are in the sky, fire has a cool glow, sons are born of barren women, asses have horns, stones float in water, hell-inhabitants are free from pain--if that is not true, his speech is not true.'
Then the king, knowing what was proper and improper, looked at the astrologer with curiosity. The astrologer, spurred on by that ridiculing speech like a goad, said with resoluteness :
O king, why are these ministers of pleasure in your council ? Why these clowns, or these village pundits ? If such subjects are suitable even for your council, then learning has been burned, a helpless sati. How can association-think of it !-with these stupid men be suitable for you who are clever in all things, like that of a lion with jackals? If they have come merely by the custom of hereditary appointments, they, of little wit, are entitled only to sustenance, like women. They are not suitable from qualifications to sit in the council, like a piece of glass in a tiara made of gold and jewels. For they do not know at all the inner meaning of the śāstras' words, but they are proud of reciting merely like a parrot always. The ones who know the inner meaning speak with contempt for the words of men with superficial knowledge and puffedout cheeks.
A trader's oil-bottle, fastened on a camel's back, goes from country to country. Does it know the road, however ? With gourds fastened under his arms a man who can not swim floats in a river or lake, but does he know how to
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