His End - Page 575

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556 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

that the Blessed Lord breathed his last. The year of his death was 483 B . C .

VII

  1. As the Pali text truly says:

Diva tapati addicco

Ratin abhati candima;

Sannaddho khathio tapati

Jhayi tapati brahamano;

Atha Sabbain ahorattain

Buddho tapati tejasa.

  1. “The sun shines only in the day and the moon makes bright the night. The warrior shines when he is in his armour. And the Brahmin when he is meditating. But the Buddha shines over all by day as well as by night by his own glory.

  2. “He was beyond question the light of the world.”

§ 5. The Lament of the Mallas and the Joy of a Bhikkhu

  1. As desired by the Blessed One, Ananda went and informed the Mallas of the event.

  2. And when they heard of this the Mallas, their wives, their young men and maidens were grieved and sad and afflicted at heart.

  3. Some of them wept, dishevelling their hair, and stretched forth their arms and fell prostrate on the ground.

  4. Then the Mallas, with their young men and maidens and their wives, went to the Sala grove in the Upavaana to have the last look of the Blessed One.

  5. Then the venerable Ananda thought: “If I allow the Mallas of Kushinara one by one it will take a long time for them to pay homage to the dead body of the Blessed One.”

  6. So he decided to arrange them in groups, family by family. Each family then bowed humbly at the feet of the Blessed One and parted.

  7. Now at the time the venerable Maha Kassapa was journeying along the high road from Pava to Kushinara with a great company of the brethren.

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