ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 34.17

34.17

No sooner had the brahmin heard this than he went senseless with despair and fell to the ground. The bodhisattva threw water on his face to wake him. When he awoke, the brahmin thought, ‘What’s the use of such a life? I will walk into the thick of the forest and die.’ He took up a rope and walked into the thick of the forest, intending to hang himself with the rope from a tree.

“When he halted there, the bodhisattva saw him, and seeing him so, immediately welled up with compassion and thought, ‘If this brahmin takes me to my enemy, he will be rewarded with a mountain of riches.’ So he said to the brahmin, ‘Brahmin, don’t be rash. I will put an end to your poverty. Come, brahmin—bind me tightly²¹² and take me before King So-and-So, and he will give you a mountain of riches.’

“ ‘I could never tie up someone like you,’ the brahmin said.

“ ‘Don’t hesitate,’ said the bodhisattva. ‘Bind me and take me away.’ For he saw no other way.

“ ‘As you wish,’ the brahmin replied. The brahmin bound him tightly and took him to Vārāṇasī, where many people saw and recognized him, but when the people approached the king and informed him, he didn’t believe them. As he was being handed over, the king emerged from the royal palace. He approached the bodhisattva and saw that the brahmin had tightly bound the bodhisattva and brought him there. He asked him, ‘This man—whence did you bring him?’

“ ‘This man,’ he replied, ‘is your enemy, Deva. I overpowered him while he was living in the forest devoted to austerities and brought him here.’

“The king thought, ‘This king’s body is large and powerful, and the brahmin’s body is very weak—how would he have been able to catch him?