A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.138

v2.c19.s3.t1.138

No less apt are the parables of the Tevijja-Sutta (Dīghanikāya XIII, 15 ff.), in which Buddha wishes to show how foolish it is of the Brahmans to seek the way to salvation in union with Brahman, in spite of the fact that they are compelled to admit that neither they themselves, nor their teachers, nor the teachers of their teachers, nor the ancient ṛṣis of primeval times have ever seen this Brahman. It seems to him, says Buddha, just like a chain of blind people, of whom neither the first one nor the middle one, nor the last one can see. And this yearning for the unknown God appears to him as if a man were to say he loves a most beautiful maiden, but, in reply to the question as to who the fair one is, were unable to say to which caste, to which race she belongs, what her name is, whether she is tall or short, her complexion dark or fair, and where she lives; or as if a man wanted to erect a staircase to the balcony of a palace at a cross-road, without knowing whether this balcony is situated in the east or in the south, in the west or in the north, whether it is high or low or of medium height. In the Sāmaññaphala-Sutta (Dīghanikāya II, 69 ff., 78 ff.), in a series of beautiful similes Buddha compares the happiness of the monk who is freed from earthly fetters with the comfortable feeling of the debtor who has succeeded not only in discharging his debt, but also in earning a surplus for the maintenance of his family; of the invalid who, after severe suffering, recovers his health; of him who, having pined in captivity, at length regains his freedom; of the slave who is set free by his master; of the traveller who, on a dangerous road, wanders through a wilderness and at last reaches a village inhabited by human beings. And like a lake which receives its water from a spring, into which no water flows from any direction, on which the rain never falls, so that all its water is received only from the cool spring and it is filled throughout only with cool water, the monk is thoroughly impregnated and permeated with blissful calm.