A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.87

v2.c19.s3.t2.87

These poets find ever new methods of singing the same old song, that it is only the monk, removed from the world, who knows nothing and desires to know nothing of wife and child, of the joys and sorrows of this world, who is truly happy. What is said in the Dhaniya-Sutta in the form of a lively dialogue, we find again in the Khaggavisāṇa-Sutta (I, 3), the “rhinoceros-poem,” in 41 vigorous stanzas with the refrain “He shall wander lonely as the rhinoceros,” expressed with an earnestness and pathos, the impression of which cannot fail to affect even him who is far removed from this monkish conception of life.