經律異相 11.47

11.47

Thus replying to one another, they spoke five hundred verses. Minister Soma remained silent at the time. King Brahmadatta said, 'Why are you silent?' The minister replied, 'You are a king of men, lord of a realm; this goose king is a lord of the realm of marshes and pools. When two kings converse together, how would I dare interject?' The king said, 'I have a fine park; can you live there?' He replied, 'We cannot.' The king asked, 'Why?' The goose said, 'The king may wake from sleep and forget to exempt us, ordering goose meat to be prepared as food. If the cooks cannot obtain other geese, they might kill us to supply the king's kitchen.' When the goose king Zhiguo entered the royal palace, the flock of geese emerged from the Rain-Formed Pond and hovered mournfully above the palace. Their wings were wet with water, which splattered and soiled the palace halls. The king asked, 'What is this?' The goose king replied, 'These are my kin.' The king said, 'Do you wish to leave?' He replied, 'We wish to leave.' The king asked, 'What do you need?' He replied, 'We were captured by the hunter. He did a rare thing for us, granting us our lives. Had he killed one first and then the other, who could have stopped him?' The king asked, 'With what should he be rewarded?' The two geese replied, 'Give him gold and silver, musāragalva, agate, clothing, and food and drink.' Having spoken these words, they flew up into the void. The Buddha said: 'The goose king was my own person. The five hundred geese were the five hundred monks. The hunter was the elephant Dhanapāla. King Brahmadatta was King Śuddhodana. Minister Soma was Ānanda. (Extracted from the first fascicle of the Miscellaneous Section of the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya.)'