Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.164

c8.164

Buddha still tarries thrice seven days in various places in the neighbourhood of the tree of knowledge “enjoying the happiness of deliverance.” A sort of overture is here played to the great drama of which he is to be the hero: significant typical occurrences foreshadow the future. The meeting with a “Brahman of haughty air,” causes us to think of a struggle with and conquest of Brahmanism. We hear nothing of the taunt with which that Brahman may have accosted Buddha: it is only reported that he puts this question to him: “wherein, O Gotama, consists the nature of the Brahman, and what are the qualities which make a man a Brahman?” Buddha had, thinking of himself, spoken in that speech under the tree of knowledge of the Brahman, to whose ardent mind the procession of destiny reveals itself: a Brahman now disputes with him, the heir of worldly rank, the right to claim the title of a Brahman. Buddha tells him: he is a true Brahman who has put away all evil from himself, who knows nothing of contempt, nothing of impurity, a conqueror of self.