ABSTRACT
1. This section consisting of twenty-nine verses, 2 is designed to excite listless mendicants to renewed exertion in the path of Duty. The first four gâthas were spoken by Buddha in the Jetavana at Śrâvastî. On this occasion a careless disciple had left the company of his hearers, whilst he was preaching on the necessity of exertion in casting off the hindrances and trammels that prevent advance in a religious life. Having retired to the interior of his cell, he indulged himself in sleep and effeminacy —not knowing that after seven days he would die. Whereupon Buddha addressed him thus:
“Alas! arise thou! 3 why sleeping there? a companion of the spider, and the creeping insect. Hidden from sight, practising impurity, miserably deceived with regard to the character of the body (or Life), even as one who dreads the amputation of a diseased limb, his heart heavy, and his affliction great, seeks forgetfulness in sleep, but nevertheless cannot escape the recollection of his coming calamity—such is your case. But the man who strives after true wisdom, 4 feels no such sorrow, always reflecting on religion, he forgets himself—possessed of right apprehension of Truth he increases in wisdom daily, he becomes a light in the world; however born, 1 his happiness is a thousand fold greater, and in the end he shall escape every evil mode of existence.”
