IV
336 [DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES]
“That also, maharajah, is not revealed by me.”
He then asks the other questions and gets the same reply.
“How then, Lord ? When I ask the question, ‘Does the Tathagata exist ? . . . does he not exist after death ?’ you reply, ‘It is not revealed by me.’ Pray, Lord, what is the reason, what is the cause why this thing is not revealed by the Exalted One ?”
“Now, maharajah, I will question you. Do you reply as you think fit. Now what say you, maharajah ? Have you some accountant . . . (the rest is exactly as before).’
“Wonderful, Lord ! Strange it is, Lord, how the explanation both of Master and disciple, both in spirit and in letter, will agree, will harmonize, will not be inconsistent, that is, in any word about the highest.
“On a certain occasion, Lord, I went to visit the sister Khema, and asked her the meaning of this matter, and she gave me the meaning in the very words, in the very syllables used by the Exalted One. Wonderful, Lord ! Strange it is, Lord, how the explanation both of Master and disciple will agree, will harmonize, in spirit and in letter, how they will not be inconsistent,—that is, in any word about the highest.
“Well, Lord, now we must be going. We are busy folk. We have many things to do.
“Do now what you think it is time for, maharajah.”
Thereupon the Rajah Pasenadi of Kosala was delighted with the words of the Exalted One and welcomed them. And he rose from his seat, saluted the Exalted One by the right and went away.