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Just at the time a certain naked ascetic was coming along the high road to Pava.
And the venerable Maha Kassapa saw the naked ascetic coming in the distance; and when he had seen him he said to the naked ascetic: “O friend! Surely thou knowest our Master?”
“Yes, friend ! I know him.” “This day the Samana Gotama has been dead a week!”
Immediately on hearing the news the brethren were overcome with grief and started weeping.
Now at that time a brother named Subhadda, who had been received into the Sangh in his old age, was seated in their company.
And this Subhadda addressed the brethren and said: “Enough brethren! Weep not, neither lament! We are well rid of the great Samana. We used to be annoyed by being told, ‘This beseems you, this beseems you not.’ But now we shall be able to do whatever we like: and what we do not like, that we shall not have to do ! Isn’t it good he is dead? Why weep, why lament? It is a matter of joy.”
So great and harsh a disciplinarian the Blessed One was.
§ 6. The Last Rites
Then the Mallas of Kushinara said to the venerable Ananda: “What should be done with the remains of the Tathagata ? ”
“ As men treat the remains of a king of kings, so should you treat the remains of the Tathagata” replied Ananda.
“And how do they treat the remains of a king of kings?”
Ananda told them: “ They wrap the body of a king of kings in a new cloth. When that is done they wrap it in cotton-wool. When that is done they wrap it in a new cloth and so on till they have wrapped the body in five hundred successive layers of both kinds. Then they place the body in an oil vessel of iron and cover that close up with another oil vessel of iron.
VII