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HIS END
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filled with joy on beholding him; they are happy to hear him. They are ill at ease when Ananda is silent.”
After this Ananda again returned to the subject of the passing away of the Tathagata. Addressing the Blessed One, he said: “Let not the Blessed One die in this wattled and daub town in the midst of the jungle. For Lord there are great cities, such as Champa, Rajagraha, Savathi, Saketa, Kosambi and Benares. Let the Blessed One die in one of them.”
“Say not so, Ananda! Say not so, Ananda. This Kushinara, Ananda, was the capital of king MahaSudassana under the name of Keshavati.”
Thereafter the Blessed One gave Ananda two errands.
He told Ananda to see that belief does not spread that the Blessed One died as a result of the food given to Him by Chunda. He feared that Chunda might suffer. He asked Ananda to disabuse the mind of the public on this score.
The second thing he told Ananda was to inform the Mallas of Kushinara that the Blessed One had arrived there and would pass away in the last watch of the night.
“Give no occasion to reproach yourself. The Mallas may say : ‘ In our own village the death of our Tathagata took place and we did not know and had no opportunity of seeing him in his last hours.’ ”
Thereafter the venerable Anurudha and the venerable Ananda spent the rest of the night in religious discourse.
And in the third part of the night, as previously announced, the Blessed One breathed his last.
When the Blessed One died, the brethren and Ananda stretched out their arms and wept, and some even fell headlong on the ground, rolling to and fro in anguish, saying: “Too soon has the Blessed One died! Too soon has the Happy One passed away from existence ! Too soon has the Light gone out of the world ! ”
It was at midnight on Vaishakha Paurnima
VII