z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 05.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 381
HIS SERMONS
381
Just then the Exalted One left the road and sat down at the foot of a tree cross-legged. Then Dona the Brahman, following the footsteps of the Exalted One, saw Him seated at the foot of that tree resplendent and of a comely appearance, with sense controlled, with mind appeased, supremely tamed, restrained and powerful. So seeing he approached where the Exalted One was.
Having come he said thus to Him :
“Is not the Venerable One a Deva ?”
“Brahman, I am indeed not a Deva.”
“Is not the Venerable One then a Gandhabba?”
“Brahman, I am indeed not a Gandhabba.”
“Is not the Venerable One then a Yakkha ?”
“Brahman, I am indeed not a Yakkha.”
“Is not the Venerable One then a man ?”
“Brahman, I am indeed not a man.”
- Having heard the Blessed One reply thus, the Brahman Dona said :
“When Thou art asked : Are ye a Deva ?
Thou sayest : No.
When Thou art questioned : Are ye a Gandhabba? Thou sayest: No.
When Thou art asked : Are ye a Yakkha ? Thou sayest : No.
When Thou art questioned : Are ye then a man? Thou sayest : No.
Who then can the Venerable One be ?”
“Brahman, verily I was a Deva, a Gandhabba, Yakkha, a man, so long as I had not purged myself of the intoxicants. These very intoxicants have I now given up with roots cut out like unto a palm-tree, with its base destroyed and rendered unable to sprout again, so that in future they do not come into existence.
“Just as a lotus or a water-lily born of the water, grown in the water, risen out of the water, stands unstained by the water even so, Brahman, being born of the world, grown in the world, having overcome the world I abide unstained by the world.
“Therefore, O Brahman, consider me as the Enlightened One.”
IV