________________
IV, 4, 45.
ARAHATS.
299
Blessed One said as to the Arahats being devoid of fear be true, then this story must be false. But if the story be true, then the statement that the Arahats have put away fear and trembling must be false. This too is a double-edged problem now put to you, and you have to solve it.'
45. •The Blessed One did say, Oking, that Arahats have put away all fear and trembling, and five hundred Arahats, save only Ananda, did, as you say, run away when the elephant Dhana-pâlaka bore down upon the Tathagata that day in Râgagaha. But that was neither out of fear, nor from willingness to let the Blessed One be destroyed. For the cause by which Arahats could be made to fear or tremble has been destroyed in them, and therefore are they free from fear or trembling. Is the broad earth, O king, afraid at people digging into it, or breaking it up, or at having to bear the weight of the mighty oceans and the peaked mountain ranges?'
Certainly not, Sir.' But why not?'
Because there is no cause in the broad earth which could produce fear or trembling.'
'Just so, O king. And neither is there any such cause in Arahats. And would a mountain peak be afraid of being split up, or broken down, or made to fall, or burnt with fire ?'
Certainly not, Sir.' But why not?' [209]
The cause of fear or trembling does not exist within it.'
And just so, O king, with Arahats. If all the creatures of various outward form in the whole
Diglized by Google
