Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

133 DHAMMAPADA.
repelled the embrace of the Brahman, and upbraided him
for using such foolish terms as father and child, who perish
as the grass. "In my present state," he. added, " I know no
such words, and I am free from such delusive thoughts^"
On this the Brahman, with many tears, departed ; and as
he went he bethought himself of the Shaman Gotama, and
he resolved to go to him and lay bare his grief, and seek
for some consolation. Accordingly he arrived at the Jeta-
vana, and having paid the usual homage, he explained his
circumstances, and how his child had refused to come back
with him. To him replied the World-honoured— " Truly
you are self-deluded and foolish, for when the spirit of a
dead man departs, know you not that it forthwith receives
another bodily form, and then all the relative terms of
father, son, wife, mother, are at an end, just as a guest who
leaves his lodging has done with it as though it were a
thing of the past? Sad is your case, and much to be
pitied, not to know that such changes will ever go on till
you reach a condition of true wisdom, and give up, once
for all, every thought about such worldly things as these.
In this way alone can you make an end of future birth
and death, and become. for ever free." And then. he added
these stanzas :
—
" Men concern themselves about the matters of
wife Eind child ; they perceive not the inevitable
law of disease (and death), and the end of life which
quickly comes, as a bursting torrent (sweeping all
before it) in a moment.^ Then neither father or
mother can save one; what hope, then, can be
placed in all one's relatives (kinsfolk) ? At the end
of life parent and kinsman are as a blind man set to
look after (keep) a burning lamp. A wise man un-
derstanding this should carefully practise himself in
1 Compare ver. 287 of the P41i.