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IV, 3, 8.
PREACHING.
235
were closed up, and the snake were to die in consequence from want of air. Would not the serpent have been killed by that man's action ?'
Yes, O king.'
Just so, Nâgasena, was the Tathậgata the prime cause of their destruction.'
7. When the Tathagata delivered a discourse, O king, he never did so either in flattery or in malice. In freedom both from the one and from the other did he speak. And they who received it aright were made wise ?, but they who received it wrongly, fell. Just, О king, as when a man shakes a mango tree or a jambu tree or a mee tree ?, such of the fruits on it as are full of sap and strongly fastened to it remain undisturbed, but such as have rotten stalks, and are loosely attached, fall to the ground-[166] so was it with his preaching. It was, O king, as when a husbandman, wanting to grow a crop of wheat, ploughs the field, but by that ploughing many hundreds and thousands of blades of grass are killed-or it was as when men, for the sake of sweetness, crush sugarcane in a mill, and by their doing so such small creatures as pass into the mouth of the mill are crushed also—so was it that the Tathagata making wise those whose minds were prepared, preached the Dhamma without flattery and without malice. And they who received it aright were made wise, but they who received it wrongly, fell.'
8. Then did not those Bhikkhus fall, Nâgasena, just because of that discourse ?''
* Bugghanti: unto Arahatship adds Hînati-kumburê.
* Madhuka. See Gâtaka IV, 434. The Simhalese (p. 208) has migahak (Bassia Latifolia).
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