Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Mahāyānasūtras – 85
delighted and happy. Now who would accuse the father of falsehood
in that he promised the children three kinds of ordinary play carts
and gave them in reality carts of a most splendid description?
Similarly the Buddha treats the children that are men, inducing them
to come out by promise of the three “vehicles” from the burning and
dilapidated house of this world, saves them and bestows upon them a
unique vehicle, the costliest of all, the “Vehicle of the Buddha.”
The Buddha is also represented in the Buddhists parable of the lost
son as the good affluent father kindly disposed towards his sons, the
human children: [68]
Reclaimed son: a parable.
A rich man had an only son. He roamed about in foreign countries
for fifty years while the father was growing continually more
wealthy and had become a great man. But the son lived in foreign
lands impoverished and in straitened circumstances. At last he comes
home as a beggar where his father was all this while longingly
expecting him. The beggar son comes to the house of his father but
he does not recognise his parent in the great man who, surrounded
by a large retinue like a king, sits in the front of his mansion. As he
sees the pomp and circumstance, he flies from the house in fear lest
the beggar in tattered rags be maltreated. The father, however,
immediately recognises him and sends out his servants to fetch the
mendicant. Trembling and shaking with terror he is dragged along
and falls down powerless. The father then gives orders to release
him. The beggar stands up joyful and repairs towards the poor
quarters of the city. Now the wealthy man bethinks himself of a plan
to win the confidence of his son. He gets him oppressed with the