166

ACTS OF THE BUDDHA

CANTO XII
Visir TO ARADA
1. Then the moon of the Iksvaku race proceeded to t
hermitage of Arada, the sage who dwelt in holy peace ; and
filled it, as it were, with his beauty.
2. As soon as the sage of the Klma potra saw him fro
afar, he called out aloud " Welcome " ; and the prince carril
up to him.
3. In accordance with propriety each enquired after th
other's health, and then they sat down on pure wooden seats
4. The best of sages, drinking in, as it were, the seated
prince with eyes opened wide in reverence, said to him :5. " It is known to me, fair sir, how you have come forth
from the palace, riving asunder the bonds of family affection,
as a savage elephant rives his hobbles.
6. In every way your mind is steadfast and wise, in that
you have abandoned sovereignty, as if it were a creeper with
poisonous fruit, and have come here.
7. No cause for wonder is it that kings, grown old in
years, have gone to the forest, giving their children the sovereignty, like a garland that has been worn and is left lying as
useless.
8. But this I deem a wonder that you, who are in the
flush of youth and are placed in the pasture-ground of sensory
pleasures, should have come here without even enjoying sovereignty.
9. Therefore you are a fit vessel to grasp this, the highest
dharma. Go up into the boat of knowledge and quickly pass
over the otean of suffering.
9. Cp. MBh., viii. 3551.

17]

VISIT TO ARADA

167

10. Although the doctrine is only taught after an interval

of time, when the student has been well tested, your depth of
Character and your resolution are such that I need not put
you to an examination."
11. The bull of men, on hearing this speech of Arada,
was highly gratified and said to him in reply :12. " The extreme graciousness, which you show me in
spite of your freedom from passion, makes me feel as if I had
already reached the goal, though it is yet unattained by me.
13. For I look on your system, as one who wants to see
looks on a light, one who wants to travel on a guide or one who
wants to cross a river on a boat.
14. Therefore you should explain it to me, if you think it
right to do so, that this person may be released from old age,
death and disease."
15. Arada, spurred on through the prince's loftiness of
soul, described briefly the conclusions of his doctrine thus :16. " Listen, best of listeners, to our tenets, as to how the
cycl of life develops and how it ceases to be.
17. Do you, whose being is steadfast, grasp this : primary
matter, secondary matter, birth, death and old age, there, and
no more, are called " the being ".
10. Though the equivalence is not perfect, W is almost certainly right
in holding that T read na pariksyo ; the context makes the reading imperative.
For vijikite cp. avijfidte in S., xiv.. 10, where the sense given in the note should
be adopted in preferente to that in the translation in view of this passage.
13. Darana, primarily ' system ' here, as is shown by tat in the next
verse, means also that the prince looks on the sight of Arada as lucky ; for the
sight of a holy man or of a king (cp. S., ii. 8, and the epithet piyadassana given
to cakravartin kings in the Pali canon) is deemed to bring good luck in India.
15. Query mc7hitmyiid iva coditab ? Cp. v. 71, 87.
16. A's reading in d is faulty and vai is suspicious ; for the Salilkhya use
of parivartate cp. MBh., xii. 7667 (saniparivartate) and Bhag. Git, ix. 10
(viparivartate). The corruption is easily explained palaaographically.
17. This use of paria with i is not recorded outside this poem ; cp. iv. 99,
vii. 31, ix. 14, and xi. 4, which make T's tat more probable here. For the

168

ACTS OF THE BUDDHA

[xii. 18

18. But in that group know,0 0 knower of the nature of

things, that primary matter consists of the five elements, the
ego-principie, intellect and the unseen power.
19. Understand that by secondary matter is meant the
objects of the senses, the senses, the hands and feet, the voice,
the organs of generation and exeretion, and also the mind.

following exposition of the Srakhya doctrines see the discussion in the

Introduction. Sattva here means the individual corporeal being as opposed to
the ksetraja, and this usage is common enough in early expositions, MBh.,
xii. 7103 (=9020 and 10517), and 10518. Similarly xii. 8678 (a passage with
several paralleis to this description), runs, Sattva ksetraFiam ity etad dvayam
apy anudaritam 1 Dvdv dtmeinau ca vedesu siddh"ntesv apy udc7h,rtau, the two
dtmans being the ctrirdtman and antarcItman of Mahcibhdsya, I, 292, 14, and II,
68, 20. Similarly MBh., xiv. 1372ff. ; and that we are dealing with a regular
early Snakhya term appears from its use by Pafcaikha (quoted by Vysa
on YS., ii. 5), vyaktam avyaktaM va sattvam eitmatvendbhipratitya, and by Vysa
frequently in the bhasya on the YS. (e.g. on ii. 26, sagtvapurusdnyateipratyayo
vivekakhydtib). The three constituents of the sattva, birth, old age and death,
are properly the characteristics of the corporeal aspect of the individual which
keep him in a perpetual state of change ; they are described as four (adding
disease) at MBh., xii. 8677, and we may compare in Buddhist dogmatice the
three laksanas of the saMskrta dharmas, which equally account for the perpetual
flux of the saMkina (full discussion A K , 1, 222, the Vaibhsikas dividing them
into four). Note also the application of sthiti, utpatti and pralaya to the three
guitas at Tattvasarhgraha, p. 59, verses 97-100. This verse perhaps explains
the mysterious paficeiadbhedeim of Ave& Up., i. 5 (inconclusively diseussed
JRAS, 1930, 873-4), where I would now read the paiwographically sound
palcasadbhedelm, understanding sat as equivalent to sattva and interpreting on
the linos of this definition.
18. It is not olear if T read prakrtiM or prakrtir. For the early Srhichya
division of the 24 material tattvas into a group of eight called prakrti and a
group of sixteen called vikdra, see the Introduction and JRAS, 1930, 863-872.
The five elements here are not the tanmatras, and C rightly has mahdbhiltas.
For prakrtikovida cp. S., xvii. 73, prakrtigunajam, where ja also has $econdarily
a Sriakb.ya sense as a synonym of the soul ksetrajna.
19. Can vdda really mean voice ' ? C and T's translations would go
better with vdcam, but I have left A's reading, as certainty l$ not
possible.

VISIT TO ABADA

169

20. And that which is conscious is called the knower of

the field, because it knows this field. And those who meditate
eld.
on the &man say that the c.-aman is the knower
Kapila and his
21. And awareness is intellection, that
this world. But that which is wit . e - lritellect is
pupil
calledtrajpiii with his sons in this world.
20. Co. transiates the first line, there is also a something which bears
the name ksetraja etc.', and T corroborates this ; but the aboye version gives
the standard doctrine better. Cp. MBh., xii. 6921, Atmd ksetraja ity uktah,
saMyuktah, prdkrtair gunaih.i Tair eva tu vinirmuktatt paramdtmety uddhrtah,.

C regularly transiates ksetraja knower of the cause', i.e. hetujila ; cp. MBh.,
xii. 7667.
21. As this enigmatic verse precedes a verse, defining two opposed
principies, it too should presumably define two such principies. Further, verses
29 and 40 couple as opposed pratibuddha and aprabuddha. The meaning of
the,se is apparent from the MBh.'s parallel to 40 at xii. 8677, CaturlaksanajaM
tv cidyarh, caturvargaM pracaksate t Vyaktam avyaktarh, caiva tathd buddham
acetanam. Despite C and T's readings the conclusion seems to me unescapable
that this verse refers to pratibuddha and apratibuddha (=aprabuddha), and A
in my opinion preserves relics of the original verse in pratibuddhi in b and in
tu in c, which implies an opposition between the two lines ; if T's da were a
corruption for yall, it too would read tu. If we read pratibuddha with Co.,
then probably smrtib should be corrected to smrtak but the Mdtharavrtti on.
Seimkhyakdrikci, 22, gives among the synonyms of buddhi the following, smrtir
dsuri harih haralt hiranyagarbhah, ; Kapila further is dentified with Visnu
several times in the MBh. and Asuri is a pupil of his. Similarly MBh., xiv.
1085, names smrti, Visnu and ambhu among the synonyms for buddhi.
Therefore I take it that A's reading in b stands for an original pratibuddhir
and that Kapila and Asuri are "lames for the buddhi in the sphere of the 24
tattvas (iha) ; iha is not easy to explain in the two linos except by my version.
There is a remarkable parallel in Svet. Up., v. 2, where, as pointed out by
Keith, Schhkhya System, 9, Kapila stands for buddhi ; note also the association
of pradheina and Kapila at Lakdvatdra, 192.
If then the second line refers to apratibuddha, one can only amend
against C, T and A to my text, taking A's tu to justify the conjecture in part.
Prajpati is a name for the-Uf/laman, here taken as equivalent to aharhketra,
for which I cite MBh., xii. 11601, Mano grasati bhi-adtmci so 'haMkeirah,
Prajetpatik and 11234, AhanikdraM . . Prajdpatim ahaMkrtam ; cp. also 11578,
Paramesthi tv ahaMkdrah, srjan bhiltdni pancadhd I Prthiv7, etc., as well as ib.,

29]
170

ACTS OF THE BUDDHA

[xii. 2
22. The " seen " is to be recognised as that which is borra,
grows old, suffers from disease and dies, and the unseen is to
be recognised by the contrary.
23. Wrong knowledge, the power of the act and desire are
to be known as the causes of the cycle of existente. The
individual person, which abides in these three, does not pass
beyond that " being ",
24. By reason of misunderstanding, of wrong attribution
of personality, of confusion of thought, of wrong conjunction, of
6781, and xiv. 1445. The sons of Prajpati are the five elements, an idea that
can be traced back to the Brahmanas. This nomenclature shows parallelism
of idea with the four forms of Vasudeva in the Pafcar,tra system at MBh.,
xii. 12899ff., where Aniruddha is aharh,kdra ; this becomes more apparent at
ib., 13037, where Aniruddha produces ah,a9hkira as pitdmaha, the Creator, and
at 13469 Brahma is ah,a9iiketra.
In support of C and T's text I can only quote MBh., xii. 7889, where Kapila
and Prajpati are joined as names of Pafcaikha. This seems to be the
only occurrence of the identification and hardly justifies giving the verse in a
form which is in discord with the context.
22. Hopkins and Strauss compare this verse with MBh., xii. 8675-6,
Proktak tad vyaktam ity eva Mate vardhate ca yat I Jiryate mriyate caiva caturbhir
laksavair yutam IJ Viparitam ato yat tu tad avyaktam uddhrtam.
23. These three causes of the saMsdra recur at MBh., xii. 7695 read with
7698, and again at iii. 117 ; the CarakaSakhitd, Aarirasthdna, which expounds

a Saiiikhya system closely allied to that known to Avaghosa, gives the causes
as moha, jaita- , dveffl and karman (Jibananda Vidyasagar's edition, pp. 330 and
360 ; note the parallel at the latter place, yair abhibhilto na sattdm ativartate).
Paricaikha's system, MBh., xii. 7913-4, controverts these causes, substituting
avidyd for *lana or moha, but the explanation is so different from what
follows here that Hopkins, Great Epic of India, p. 147, may have been right
in thinking the passage to be anti-Buddhist.
24. This group of eight reasons, for which the soul fails to free itself, is
found elsewhere only in the CarakasaMhitd, Sarirasthdna, v. p. 360, but there
is some similarity of idea at MBh., xii. 7505-6. The first five apparently cause
ayfidna, the sixth karman, and the last two trend. Co. conjectured viparyaya
for the first word, and apparently T read so ; but C clearly has vipratyaya, as
has the Carakasa9h,hitd , and the group known to classical Sarilkhya as viparyaya
is described in 33ff. AhaMka,ra as part of the eightfold prakrti should presumably be understood differently from this aha?hlaira as defined in 26 ;

VISIT TO ARADA

171

Jack of diserimination, of wrong means, of attachment, of

falling away.
25. Now of these misunderstanding acts topsy-turvily.
It does wrongly what has to be done, it thinks wrongly what it.
has to think.
26. But, O prince free from all egoism, wrong attribution
of personality shows itself in this world thus, by thinking, " It
is I who speak, I who know, I who go, 1 who stand ".
27. But, O prince free from doubt, that is called in this
world confusion of thought which sees as one, like a lump of
clay, things which are not mixed up together.
28. Wrong conjunction means thinking that the ego is
identical with this, namely mirad, intellect and act, and that
this group is identical with the ego.
29. That is said to be lack of discrimination, which does
not know, O knower of the distinctions, the distinction between
the intelligent and the unintelligent or between the primary
constituents.
Caraka explains it as the idea that " I am endowed with birth, beauty, wealth
etc. that is, the quality for which Avaghosa uses the term mada. Abhisoh,playa is only known to me from the bhd;va on Nydyasit tra, i. i, 3, pramdtuh
pramdzdind,M, sarizbhavo
asaMbhavo vyavasthd, where saMbhava
means cooperation ' mixture ' (Randle, Indian Logic in the Early Schools,
164, n. 3). A's abhisaM,bhavdt is therefore not impossible, with abhi giving as
often the sense of wrongness to the rest of the word ; but C, T and verse 28
all support Co.'s correction. C translates excess ' here and excess-grasping '
in 28. Caraka defines it, sarvdvastham ananyo 'ham alzaria srastd svabhdvasaMsiddho 'haik garirenciriyabuddhiviesardir iti grah,av,am. The last word,
abhyavapdta, is difficult ; C has here being inextricably bound up with what is
' (Le., as always in C, with the idea of mama, that the corporeal person
belongs te the self), and in 32 union-receiving ' (i.e., wrongly uniting things
together). T's translation is mechanical and no help.
26. Iha here and in 27 better perhaps ' in this group
27. The use of asaMdigdha coupled with mrtpi,v,cia recalls seahdegh,a, ' a
mere lump of bodily matter at Aatapathabrahmaya iii. 1, 3, 3.
28. Idain, in a suggests that A's reading in c derives from esa.
29. See note en verse 21.

172

ACTS OF THE BUDDHA

[xii. 30

30. Wrong means, O knower of the right means, are

declared by the wise to be the use of the invocations ramas
and vasat, the various kinds of ritual sprin.kling, etc.
31. 0 prince free from attachment, attachment is recorded

as that through which the fool is attached to the objects of sense

by mind, voice, intellect and action.
32. Falling away is to be understood as wrong imagination about suffering that " this is mine ", " I belong to this ",
and thereby a man is caused to fall away in the cycle of transmigration.
33. For thus that wise teacher declares ignorance to be
five-jointed, namely torpor, delusion, great delusion and the
two kinds of darkness.
34. Of these know torpor to be indolente, and delusion
to be birth and death, but great delusion, O prince free from
delusion, is to be understood as passion.
30. Co. translates b, sprinkling water upon the sacrifices etc. with or
without the recital of Vedic hymns ', and C, cleansing by fire and water '.
Strauss compares MBh., xii. 11290 ; note also ib., xiv. 1032.
31. Or in b, ' by the actions of the mind, voice and intellect
32. The construction and sense are uncertain ; Co. has, Falling away is
to be understood as the suffering which etc. ', not quite as good sense.
Abhimanyate evidently has the significance of abhimeina as applied in Srhkhya
to aharkkara.
pratiyate ? The teacher referred to is
33. Did T read vidvdksah
Vrsaganya according to Vcaspati MiSra on Sa-Mkhyakeirika, 47 ; the stra
is Tattvasamasa, 14, and is alluded to in the Y ogasfttrabhcisya and the Purnas,
but not specifically in the MBh. (for discussion, see JRAS, 1930, 861-2).
Samihate, desire
wish is equivalent to is as used in philosophical works of
asserting a principie.
34. The explanations in these three verses equate the five:fold ignorance
to the five doms, which appear in varying forro in the MBh. and later became
the five kles'as (for referentes JRAS, 1930, 862 and 873). The explanation of
the last three agrees with that of rcaspati Milra in his commentaries on the
Sdrilkhyakcirikds and the YS. ; the first two differ. The passage mentioning
the five at MBh., xiv. 1018-9, appears to be corrupt, but explains malbamoha
and timisra as here. The first verse suggests a common origin with 35, runrzing,

xii. 40]

VISIT TO ARADA

173

35. And because even mighty beings become deluded over

this passion, therefore, O hero, it is recorded as great delusion.
36. And darkness they refer to, O angerless one, as anger,
and blind darkness they proclaim, O undesponding one, to
be despondency.
37. The fool, conjoined with this five-jointed ignorance,
passes on from birth to birth through the cycle of transmigration
which for the greatest part is suffering.
38. Thus believing that he is the seer and the hearer and
the thinker and the instrument of the effect, he wanders in
the cycle of transmigration.
39. Through the action of these causes, O wise one, the
stream of birth flows in this world. You should recognise that,
when the cause does not come into being, the Isult does not
come into being.
40. In that matter, O prince desiring alvation, the man
of right knowledge should, know the group f four.',)the intelligent,
that which lacks intelligence, the seen and the unseen.

Abhisvarigas tu kcimesu mahamoha iti smrtah 1 &sayo munayo devil muhyanty

ara sukhepsavah.
36. T's ajatdmisram is contrary to all the Sanskrit authorities.
37. For abhinisicyate cp. Mlamadhyamakakdrikcis, xxvi. 2, sarhniviste
'tha vijlane ncimarrcpaM, nisicyate, the commentary having nisicyate ksarati
prdclurbhavatity arth,ah. Cp. also .MBh., xii. 10706-7, Daardhapravibhakkindrit
bhtdndrit bahudhd gatih I Sauvarlarii, rajatarit cdpi yathd bhckclaM nisicyate jj
Tathd nisicyate jantuh pitirvakarmavalnugah. T's abhinipcityate is good paixographically and agrees with 32 aboye ; for abhinipata, activity see AK.,
II, 65, n. 4.

38. The reading in b is uncertain, but C seems to support A which gives

the best sense. In c for Cigamya cp. S., xvi. 42, where it can only mean understand ; the use is unusual but recurs at 116 below. 135htlingk's ity evvagamya
is against the metre.
'39. Co.'s hetvabhdve is as good as T's hetvabhc-tvdt and it is not clear which
C read.
40. See note on verse 21.

174

ACTS OF THE BUDDHA

. 54]

VISIT TO ARADA

175

41. For when the knower of the field properly discriminates

these four, it abandons the rushing torrent of birth and death,
and obtains the everlasting sphere.
42. For this purpose the Brahmans in the world, who
follow the doctrine of the supreme Absolute, practise here
the brahman-course and instruct the Brahmans in it."
43. The king's son, on hearing this speech of the sage,
questioned him both about the means to be adopted and about
the sphere of final beatitude :44. " Deign to explain to me how this brah,man-course
is to be practised, for how long and where, and also where this
dharma ends."
45. Arada explained to him concisely by another method
the same dharma in olear language and according to the dstra, :
46. " The aspirant, after first leaving his family and
assuming the mendicant's badges, takes on himself a rule of
discipline which covers all proper behaviour.
47. Displaying entire contentment with whatever he gets
from whatever source, he favours a lonely dwelling and, free
from the pairs of worldly life, he studies the 'tstra diligently.
48. Then, seeing the danger that arises from passion and

be supreme happiness derived from passionlessness, he arrests

is senses and exerts himself in the matter of mental quietu de.
49. Then he wins the first trance, which is dissociated from
the loves, malevolence and the like, which is born of discrimination and which includes thought.
50. And when the fool obtains that transic bliss and reflects
on it repeatedly, he is carried away by the gain of previously
unexperienced bliss.
51. Deceived by the feeling of content, he wins to the
world of Brahma by means of quietude of this kind, which
rejects love and hatred.
52. But the wise man, knowing that the thoughts cause
agitation of mind, obtains the trance, which is disjoined from it
and which possesses ectasy and bliss.
53. He, who is carried away by that ecstasy and does not
see any stage superior to it, obtains a station of light among
the Abhsvara deities.
54. But he, who dissociates his mind from the joy of that
ecstasy, gains the third trance which is blissful but void of
ecstasy.

41. For javakjavatd, see JRAS, 1931, 569-70, and add to the referentes
there LV., ch. xv, 205. The second line is equivalent to MBh., xii. 8767, Tad

49. Vitarka here includes vic4ra, and T renders it by the equivalent for
the latter.
50. Tat tat should mean various matters which is not good sense, and
the addition of eva seems to justify the aboye translation.
51. T's vcrwitab may be the correct reading, C giVing no help ; it means
both caused to dwell there ' and impregnated with '. The canonical
accounts' of the Brahm deities emphasise their feeling of self-satisfaction
(AK., I, 169).
52. Cp. S., xvii. 45, and AK., V, 158. T translates possessed of the
bliss of ecstasy ' in accordance with its faulty version of 54, but priti and
sukh,a are always treated as separate qualities in these trances.
53. This use of vis?a, is common in the AK. ; and the same sense is
probably to be inferred at MBh., xii. 11874, where Janaka talks of the vaieisika
jil-na in COUlleXi0131, with moksa and the doctrine of Paileaikka, the Sarilkhya
seer.

vida-in abarcan prdpya jah,iiti prclnajanmani.

42. This use of vcisaya goes back to the old phrase brahmacarywh, vas
with the locative of the person ander whom the study takes place ; cp. Brh.
71r. Up., vi. 2, 4, and Ch,andogya Up., iv. 4, 3, and 10, 1 with Majjhima, I, 147.
Later use prefers car, e.g. Digha, I, 155, and III, 57.
46. For liffiga, see note on ix. 18.
47. Nirdvandva refers to the eight lokadh,armas (xi. 43, note). For the
Brahmanical use see referentes in PW under nirdvandva, 1); nirdvandvatd,
MBh., xii. 11882, seems to mean the state of being soul alone, disjoined from
prakrti. The sense of krtin is not certain ; I take C's transltion, T's being

purely mechanical.
48. See the mention of the Yoga system in the Introduction for the
significante of c.