Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 696

INTRODUCTION.
239
not the Blessed One die in this little township’, in this little town in the jungle, in this branch township. Let the Blessed One die in one of the other great cities, such as Rågagaha, and the rest l'
But the Master answered, “Say not, Ananda, that this is a little township, a little town in the jungle, a branch township. I was dwelling formerly in this town at the time when I was Sudassana, the king of kings; and then it was a great city, surrounded by a jewelled rampart, twelve leagues in length!'
And at the request of the Thera, he, telling the tale, uttered the Maha-Sudassana Sutta.]
Now on that occasion when Queen Subhadda saw Maha Sudassana, when he had come down out of the Palace of Righteousness, and was lying down, not far off, on the appropriate couch, spread out in the grove of the seven kinds of gems, and when she said: “Thine, O king, are these four and eighty thousand cities, of which the chief is the royal city of Kusavâtî. Quicken thy desire after these!'
Then replied Maha Sudassana, Speak not thus, O queen! but exhort me rather, saying, “Cast away desire for these, long not after them?!”
And when she asked, 'Why so, O king?' To-day my time is come, and I shall die!' was his reply.
Then the weeping queen, wiping her eyes, brought herself with difficulty and distress to address him accordingly. And having spoken, she wept, and lamented; and the other four and eighty thousand women wept too, and lamented; and of the attendant courtiers not one could restrain himself, but all also wept.
But the Bodisat stopped them all, saying, 'Enough my friends! Be still!' And he exhorted the queen, saying, 'Neither do thou, O queen, weep: neither do thou lament. For even unto a grain of sesamum fruit there is no such
1 Khuddaka-nagarake. See the note on Mahâparinibbâna Sutta, ver. 6o.
. Both these speeches are different from those given on the same occasion in the Sutta below.
* This question and answer are not in the Sutta.
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