ABSTRACT
1. In days of old, when Buddha was residing in the Gridhrakûta Mount, near Râjagriha, then Devadatta, in concert with Ajâtaśatru Râja, contrived a plan for the destruction of the Teacher and his followers. The plan was this:—That the King should prohibit the people of the town from giving anything in charity to the community, and so, when they had found their begging excursion through the streets ineffective, that then the King should ask them all to an entertainment at the palace. Meantime Devadatta, having intoxicated 500 elephants, was to let them loose on the Teacher and his followers, and so destroy them all. Accordingly, the invitation was given and accepted by Buddha, and so on the morrow they entered the city as agreed upon. On this the elephants, having been let loose, with upraised trunks, came bellowing down on the crowd, on which the 500 Rahats who followed Buddha rose into the air (and flew away), but Buddha, with Ânanda by his side, checked the fury of the beasts, who now came and bowed down, and went before the Teacher perfectly subdued. On this Buddha, raising the five fingers of his hand, caused the appearance of five lions, who uttered their roar, whilst the earth shook, and the elephants lay down affrighted on the ground. Hereupon Buddha and his followers proceeded to the King’s palace, and after listening to the confession of the King, Buddha uttered these stanzas:—
“Amongst men there is no one who is not blamed, from old time till now. 1 Since they blame the man of many words, they blame the patient and quiet man; they also blame the man who seeks the happy medium; there is always blame in the world. Those who desire to find fault with the righteous (holy) man are never able to discriminate with impartiality (take a middle course); they blame him entirely or they praise him entirely, but it is all done from some false idea of profit or fame. 2 But he whom the enlightened and wise praise, and whom they consider and call upright and good, a man of true wisdom and innocent life, without any ground for censure in himself, as a Rahat for purity, there is no blame for him—such an one the gods themselves must admire, even Brahma and Śakra must praise such an one.”
