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RENUNCIATION FOR EVER
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tance,—they take breath like men who have escaped safe through a forest.
“Let, therefore, this fickle time of youth first pass by, reckless and giddy,—our early years are earmarked for pleasure, they cannot be kept from the power of the senses.
“Or, if religion is really thy one aim, then offer sacrifices,—this is thy family’s immemorial custom, climbing to highest heaven by sacrifices.
“With their arms pressed by golden bracelets, and their variegated diadems resplendent with the light of gems, royal sages have reached the same goal by sacrifice which great sages reached by selfmortification.”
§ 3. Gautama Answers Bimbisara
Thus spoke the monarch of the Magadhas, who spoke well and strongly like Indra ; but having heard it, the prince did not falter. He was firm like a mountain.
Being thus addressed by the monarch of the Magadhas, Gautama, in a strong speech with a friendly face,—self-possessed, unchanged, thus made answer :
“What you have said is not to be called a strange thing for thee. O King ! born as thou art in the great family whose ensign is the lion, and lover as thou art of thy friends, that ye should adopt this line of approach towards him who stands as one of thy friends is only natural.
“Amongst the evil-minded, a friendship worthy of their family, ceases to continue and fades; it is only the good who keep increasing the old friendship of their ancestors by a new succession of friendly acts.
“But those men who act unchangingly towards their friends in reverses of fortune, I esteem in my heart as true friends. Who is not the friend of the prosperous man, in his times of abundance ?
“So those who, having obtained riches in the world, employ them for the sake of their friends
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