________________
IV, 5, 25.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
25
their dexterity befool and lord it over the world.” That is the reason why such action would have been better left undone. The Tathậgatas, o king, do not ask for any advantage; and it is because they ask for nothing that they are held blameless.
Very good, Nagasena! That is so, and I accept as you say.' [Here ends the dilemma about Ghatikâra the
potter.]
DILEMMA THE FORTY-EIGHTH. WHY GOTAMA CLAIMED TO BE A BRAHMAN.] [225] 25. 'Venerable Nâgasena, this too was said by the Blessed One:
“A Brahman am I, O brethren, devoted to selfsacrifice 2"
But on the other hand he declared : “A king am I, Sela 8."
If, Nagasena, the Blessed One were a Brahman, then he must have spoken falsely when he said he was a king. But if he were a king, then he must have spoken falsely when he said he was a Brahman. He must have been either a Khattiya or a Brahman. For he could not have belonged, in the same birth, to two castes. This too is a double-edged problem, now put to you, which you have to solve.'
1 Vibhasam katva. Daksha-kriya kota says Hînati-kumbure. The expression has not been found elsewhere.
? This passage has already been quoted above (IV, 4, 55). It has not been traced in the Pitakas.
These words from the Sela Sutta (Sutta Nipâta III, 7, 7) have also been already discussed above (IV, 3, 33, 34).
Digitized by Google
