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Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha by Ven. Aśvaghoṣa

An English translation of this famous life of the Buddha, one of the great pieces of Sanskrit literature, with additions to help complete the text.

An English translation of this famous life of the Buddha, one of the great pieces of Sanskrit literature, with additions to help complete the text.

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<strong>Buddha</strong>-<strong>carita</strong>, <strong>or</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Buddha</strong> - 79<br />

39. ‘Or even if I ventured to speak it with a heart ashamed and a<br />

tongue cleaving to my mouth, who would think <strong>of</strong> believing it?<br />

40. ‘He who would tell <strong>of</strong> <strong>or</strong> believe the fierceness <strong>of</strong> the moon, might<br />

tell <strong>of</strong> <strong>or</strong> believe thy faults, O physician <strong>of</strong> faults.<br />

41. ‘Him who is always compassionate and who never fails to feel<br />

pity, it ill befits to abandon one who loves, – turn back and have<br />

mercy on me.’<br />

42. Having heard these w<strong>or</strong>ds <strong>of</strong> Chaṁda overcome with s<strong>or</strong>row, –<br />

self-possessed with the utmost firmness the best <strong>of</strong> speakers answered:<br />

43. ‘Abandon this distress, Chaṁda, regarding thy separation from<br />

me, – change is inevitable in c<strong>or</strong>p<strong>or</strong>eal beings who are subject to<br />

different births.<br />

44. ‘Even if I through affection were not to abandon my kindred in<br />

my desire f<strong>or</strong> liberation, death would still make us helplessly abandon<br />

one another.<br />

45. ‘She, my mother, <strong>by</strong> whom I was b<strong>or</strong>ne in the womb with great<br />

thirst and pains, – where am I now with regard to her, all her eff<strong>or</strong>ts<br />

fruitless, and where is she with regard to me?<br />

46. ‘As birds go to their roosting-tree and then depart, so the meeting<br />

<strong>of</strong> beings inevitably ends in separation.

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