A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.92

v2.c19.s3.t2.92

The gods in heaven are in a state of pleasurable excitement. The divine seer Asita hears their outbursts of joy, and in answer to his question, receives the reply that in the Lumbinī-grove in the town of the Sakyas the Buddha has just been born for the salvation of the world. Then the sage descends from heaven to the palace of Suddhodana and desires to see the newly born boy. When he sees the boy, who is "radiant as fire, as the brightest of the stars, as the autumnal sun in the cloudless sky," being fanned by divine beings, he takes the child in his arms, and cries: "This is the incomparable one, the highest of men." At the same instant, however, he thinks of his own imminent end, and bursts into tears. In consternation the Sakyas ask whether any evil threatens the boy. The sage reassures them, and tells them that the boy will attain to the summit of complete enlightenment, but that he is sorrowful because he himself will not live to hear the preaching of the Lord. Before he departs, he exhorts his nephew Nālaka to follow the Buddha as soon as his call is heard.¹)