Mālunkiyaputta threatened to disrobe and leave the Sangha if
the Buddha would not answer his list of ten philosophical
questions (see above, Chapter 18, note §3). The Buddha refuses
to answer these, seeing that these questions are all missing the
essential point of spiritual life. (See also Chapter 20, note §1).
A passage of a similar spirit occurs in the discourse
known as ‘The Seven Causes of Welfare,’ at §21 in ‘The Book of
the Sevens’: “So long, bhikkhus, as you appoint no new rules
and do not abolish the existing ones, but proceed according to
the code of training laid down, so long may the Sangha be
expected to prosper, not to decline” (A 7.21).
5. Page 280, They are heirs of Truth, not heirs of material
things… This sentence comes from the Dhamma‐dāyāda Sutta
(The Discourse on Heirs of Truth) at M 3.2 and is the main
theme of that discourse. There is another well‐known passage
related to this principle, at Iti. §100, where the Buddha states
— “There are these two kinds of offerings: the offering of material
things and the offering of the Dhamma. Of these two kinds of
offering, this is the foremost, namely, the offering of the
Dhamma.”
6. Page 280, “For, if people knew the fruits of giving as I
know them… This sentence comes from §26 in the Itivuttaka.
7. Page 280, I call ‘a pure offering’ that with which the
giver is purified and the receiver also… This sentence, and
those that make up the rest of this paragraph, comes directly
from the Dakkhinā‐vibhanga Sutta (‘The Discourse on the
Exposition of Offerings’) at M 142.13.
8. Page 281, yet an all but absolute silence reigned in the
circle… A similar quietude is described in the Sāmaññaphala
Sutta, when King Ajātasattu is brought to meet the Buddha in
the Ambavana, Jīvaka’s Mango Grove. Alarmed and intimidated
by the profound silence of the meditating assembly, the King
asks his companion: “How is it that from this great number of
one‐thousand‐two‐hundred‐and‐fifty monks not a sneeze, a cough
or a shout is to be heard?” The passage is to be found at D 2.10.
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CHAPTER 36: THE BUDDHA AND KRISHNA
1. Page 284, He, the truly living… amid this restless and
delusory life of the lifeless… This last sentence of the
paragraph echoes the famous passage from the Dhammapada,
Dhp. 21, quoted at Chapter 1, note §8.
2. Page 284, He spoke of the temple on the steps of
which he sat… This Dharma talk by the Buddha, on the
theme of Krishna and his life, is entirely the creation of K.G. It’s
debatable whether the legends of Krishna’s life existed in the
time of the Buddha, at least in the form in which they exist
now; there is, however, an interesting reference to some one
called Kanha (which is the Pāli equivalent of the Sanskrit word
‘Krishna,’ both words having the meaning ‘black’) whom the
Buddha praises as “a mighty sage of ages past,” who went to
the south country, learnt the mantras of the brahmins and
acquired great psychic powers. This reference to him is found
in the Ambattha Sutta, at D 3.1.23.
3. Page 285, “Some who wished harm to the Tathāgata…
once set loose a savage elephant… This story comes directly
from the Vināya, the books of monastic discipline, and recounts
one of the attempts by the Buddha’s ambitious cousin, Devadatta,
to kill him and then take over leadership of the Sangha. Devadatta
was in league with King Ajātasattu and persuaded him to allow
his great bull war elephant, Nālāgiri, to be made drunk and enraged,
and then to have him released onto the street where the Buddha
was walking on his almsround. The story occurs at CV 7.3.
Perhaps it should also be mentioned that another reason
why the Buddha might not be afraid, is that it is said to be
impossible for a Buddha to be killed by a violent act — they
only die when they voluntarily renounce the life‐principle —
although he could have sustained severe injury and pain.
4. Page 288, ‘For me alone has the Samana Gotama
declared this teaching… This phrase is taken verbatim from
The Greater Discourse to Saccaka, M 36.45; in the original text,
440
however, the Buddha qualifies it in a somewhat less explicit
way than is done here in our story. He says: “But it should not
be regarded so; the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma to others
only to give them knowledge.”
5. Page 289, Lord Krishna — although he himself was
the Supreme God… It is doubtful that the Hindu scriptures
actually present the career of Krishna in quite such an obviously
Christian way. K.G. had himself been a Christian theologian
and, during the years that he wrote ‘Kāmanīta’, he had become
somewhat disaffected from that tradition. It seems clear that here
he is trying to make a distinct contrast between Jesus Christ
and the Buddha — with the latter being accorded spiritual
superiority — without saying it in so many words.
Having said that, however, it should be noted that
similar statements are found in the Bhagavad Gītā (e.g. at Book 4,
verses 6‐7) where Krishna goes so far as to proclaim:
Although I am unborn, everlasting, and I am the Lord
of all, I come to my realm of nature and through my
wondrous power I am born.
When righteousness is weak and faints, and
unrighteousness exults in pride, then my spirit arises
on earth.
6. Page 289, “I reasoned thus — ‘This Truth that I have
realised is profound and hard to see…’” In these paragraphs
we have the Buddha’s own account of the beginning of his
teaching career. It is verbatim from the Vināya texts, at MV 1.5.
7. Page 290, the Master told us of those heroic deeds of
Krishna… The stories mentioned in this paragraph, together
with many others that have already been quoted, are to be found
in the Hindu scriptures; Particularly in Book 10 of the Bhagavata
Purāna, and in the Harivamsa.
8. Page 292, neither ‘existence’ nor ‘non‐existence’ could
be said to describe the reality of Life… This sentence is a
useful and profound teaching, if somewhat abstruse; K.G.
probably derived it from the Inspired Utterances, Ud. 3.10:
This world is anguished, being exposed to contact,
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