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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 12.
still applicable to that wind, when it had so died away?'
Certainly not, Sir. But fans and punkahs are means for the production of wind. Any men who are oppressed by heat, or tormented by fever, can by means of fans and punkahs, and by the exertion of their own strength and power, such as resides in individual men, produce a breeze, and by that wind allay their heat, or assuage their fever.'
Then that saying of the sectarians that "an act done to him who accepts it not is empty and vain " turns out to be false. As the great and mighty wind which blew, even so, great king, has the Blessed One blown over the ten thousand world systems with the wind of his love, so cool, so sweet, so calm, so delicate. As it first blew, and then died away, so has the Blessed One, who once blew with the wind so cool, so sweet, so calm, so delicate, of his love, now passed away with that kind of passing away in which no root remains. As those men were oppressed by heat and tormented with fever, even so are gods and men tormented and oppressed with threefold fire and heat? As fans and punkahs are means of producing wind, so the relics and the jewel treasure of the wisdom of a Tathagata are means of producing the threefold attainment. [98] And as men oppressed by heat and tormented by fever can by fans and punkahs produce a breeze, and thus allay the heat and assuage the fever, so can gods and men by offering reverence to the relics, and the
1 That is, the three fires of lust, ill-will, and delusion, the going out of which is the state called, par excellence, 'the going out' (Nirvana).
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