Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.t1.28

c10.t1.28

The care of Buddha's relics and the institution of festivals in their honour are committed exclusively to the piety of believing laity. "What are we to do," Ânanda asks of the Master, when his end is drawing near,† "with the body of the Perfect One?" "Let not the honours due to the body of the Perfect One trouble you, O Ânanda. Seek ye rather holiness, O Ânanda; be intent on holiness : live in holiness without blemish, in holy haste, seeking after perfection. There are, Ânanda, wise men among the nobles, the Brahmans, and the citizens, who believe in the Perfect One; they will do the honours to the body of the Perfect One.” So then after Buddha’s death his relics are divided out to a number of princes and nobles, each of whom “builds a stûpa (monument for relics) and institutes a festival”—festivals at which offerings of flowers, ablutions and illuminations on a grand scale usually play the chief part. The Order of monks as such has nothing to do with this pompous show of veneration; the old rules of the Order have not a word to say about it.