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IV, 3, 34.
EXULTATION.
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(THE BUDDHA'S EXULTATION.] 33. 'Venerable Nâgasena, the Blessed One said : "If, O Bhikkhus, any one should speak in praise of me, or of our religion (Dhamma), or of the Order, you should not thereupon indulge in joy, or delight, or exultation of mind ?”. And on the other hand the Tathagata was so delighted, and pleased, and exultant at the deserved praise bestowed on him by Sela the Brahman, that he still further magnified his own goodness in that he said: “A king am I, Sela, the king supreme Of righteousness. The royal chariot wheel In righteousness do I set rolling on
That wheel that no one can turn back again 2!". Now if the passage first quoted be right then must the second be wrong, but if that be right then must the first be wrong. This too is a double-edged problem now put to you, and you have to solve it.'
34. [184] 'Both your quotations, o king, are correct. But the first passage was spoken by the Blessed One with the intention of setting forth truthfully, exactly, in accordance with reality, and fact, and
· From the Brahma-gala Sutta in the Digha Nikâya (I, 1, 5).
. From the Sela Sutta in the Sutta Nipata (III, 7, 7). Professor Fausböll in his translation of this stanza (at vol. X, p. 102 of th
Sacred Books of the East) draws attention to the parallel at John xviii. 37. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth'—where 'truth,' if one translated the verse into Pâli, would be correctly rendered by Dhamma, righteousness, religion, truth, essential quality.' Professor Fausböll's version of the stanza runs: 'I am a king, O Sela, an incomparable religious (Dhamma-râga) king, with justice (Dhamma). I turn the wheel, a wheel that is irresistible.'
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