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Round Rajagriha five fair hills arose,

Guarding King Bimbasara's sylvan town;

Baibhara, green with lemon-grass and palms;

Bipulla, at whose foot thin Sarsuti

Steals with warm ripple; shadowy Tapovan,

Whose steaming pools mirror black rocks, which ooze

Sovereign earth-butter from their rugged roofs;

South-east the vulture-peak Sailagiri;

And eastward Ratnagiri, hill of gems.

A winding track, paven with footworn slabs,

Leads thee by safflower fields and bamboo tufts

Under dark mangoes and the jujube-trees,

Past milk-white veins of rock and jasper crags,

Low cliff and flats of jungle-flowers, to where

The shoulder of that mountain, sloping west,

O'erhangs a cave with wild figs canopied.

Lo! thou who comest thither, bare thy feet

And bow thy head! for all this spacious earth

Hath not a spot more dear and hallowed.

Here Lord Buddha sate the scorching summers through,

The driving rains, the chilly dawns and eves;

Wearing for all men's sakes the yellow robe,

Eating in beggar's guise the scanty meal

Chance-gathered from the charitable; at night

Crouched on the grass, homeless, alone; while yelped

The sleepless jackals round his cave, or coughs

Of famished tiger from the thicket broke.

By day and night here dwelt the World-honoured,

Subduing that fair body born for bliss

With fast and frequent watch and search intense

Of silent meditation, so prolonged

That ofttimes while he mused—as motionless

As the fixed rock his seat—the squirrel leaped

Upon his knee, the timid quail led forth

Her brood between his feet, and blue doves pecked

The rice-grains from the bowl beside his hand.

Thus would he muse from noontide—when the land

Shimmered with heat, and walls and temples danced

In the reeking air—till sunset, noting not

The blazing globe roll down, nor evening glide,

Purple and swift, across the softened fields;

Nor the still coming of the stars, nor throb

Of drum-skins in the busy town, nor screech

Of owl and night jar; wholly wrapt from self

In keen unraveling of the threads of thought

And steadfast pacing of life's labyrinths.

Thus would he sit till midnight hushed the world,

Save where the beasts of darkness in the brake

Crept and cried out, as fear and hatred cry,

As lust and avarice and anger creep

In the black jungles of man's ignorance.

Then slept he for what space the fleet moon asks

To swim a tenth part of her cloudy sea;

But rose ere the false-dawn, and stood again

Wistful on some dark platform of his hill,

Watching the sleeping earth with ardent eyes

And thoughts embracing all its living things,

While o'er the waving fields that murmur moved

Which is the kiss of Morn waking the lands,

And in the east that miracle of Day

Gathered and grew: at first a dusk so dim

Night seems still unaware of whispered dawn,

But soon—before the jungle-cock crows twice—

A white verge clear, a widening, brightening white,

High as the herald-star, which fades in floods

Of silver, warming into pale gold, caught

By topmost clouds, and flaming on their rims

To fervent golden glow, flushed from the brink

With saffron, scarlet, crimson, amethyst;

Whereat the sky burns splendid to the blue,

And, robed in raiment of glad light, the

Song Of Life and Glory cometh!

Then our Lord,

After the manner of a Rishi, hailed

The rising orb, and went—ablutions made—

Down by the winding path unto the town;

And in the fashion of a Rishi passed

From street to street, with begging-bowl in hand,

Gathering the little pittance of his needs.

Soon was it filled, for all the townsmen cried,

"Take of our store, great sir!" and "Take of ours!"

Marking his godlike face and eyes enwrapt;

And mothers, when they saw our Lord go by,

Would bid their children fall to kiss his feet,

And lift his robe's hem to their brows, or run

To fill his jar, and fetch him milk and cakes.

And ofttimes as he paced, gentle and slow,

Radiant with heavenly pity, lost in care

For those he knew not, save as fellow lives,

The dark surprised eyes of some Indian maid

Would dwell in sudden love and worship deep

On that majestic form, as if she saw

Her dreams of tenderest thought made true, and grace

Fairer than mortal fire her breast. But he

Passed onward with the bowl and yellow robe,

By mild speech paying all those gifts of hearts,

Wending his way back to the solitudes

To sit upon his hill with holy men,

And hear and ask of wisdom and its roads.

Midway on Ratnagiri's groves of calm,

Beyond the city, but below the caves,

Lodged such as hold the body foe to soul,

And flesh a beast which men must chain and tame

With bitter pains, till sense of pain is killed,

And tortured nerves vex torturer no more—

Yogis and Brahmacharis, Bhikshus, all—

A gaunt and mournful band, dwelling apart.

Some day and night had stood with lifted arms,

Till—drained of blood and withered by disease

Their slowly-wasting joints and stiffened limbs

Jutted from sapless shoulders like dead forks from forest trunks.

Others had clenched their hands

So long and with so fierce a fortitude,

The claw-like nails grew through the festered palm.

Some walked on sandals spiked; some with sharp flints

Gashed breast and brow and thigh, scarred these with fire,

Threaded their flesh with jungle thorns and spits,

Besmeared with mud and ashes, crouching foul

In rags of dead men wrapped about their loins.

Certain there were inhabited the spots

Where death pyres smouldered, cowering defiled

With corpses for their company, and kites

Screaming around them o'er the funeral-spoils;

Certain who cried five hundred times a day

The names of Shiva, wound with darting snakes

About their sun-tanned necks and hollow flanks,

One palsied foot drawn up against the ham.

So gathered they, a grievous company;

Crowns blistered by the blazing heat, eyes bleared,

Sinews and muscles shrivelled, visages

Haggard and wan as slain men's, five days dead;

Here crouched one in the dust who noon by noon

Meted a thousand grains of millet out,

Ate it with famished patience, seed by seed,

And so starved on; there one who bruised his pulse

With bitter leaves lest palate should be pleased;

And next, a miserable saint self-maimed,

Eyeless and tongueless, sexless, crippled, deaf;

The body by the mind being thus stripped

For glory of much suffering, and the bliss

Which they shall win—say holy books—whose woe

Shames gods that send us woe, and makes men gods

Stronger to suffer than hell is to harm.

Whom sadly eyeing spake our Lord to one,

Chief of the woe-begones: "Much-suffering sir

These many moons I dwell upon the hill—

Who am a seeker of the Truth—and see

My brothers here, and thee, so piteously

Self-anguished; wherefore add ye ills to life

Which is so evil?"

Answer made the sage

"'T is written if a man shall mortify

His flesh, till pain be grown the life he lives

And death voluptuous rest, such woes shall purge

Sin's dross away, and the soul, purified,

Soar from the furnace of its sorrow, winged

For glorious spheres and splendour past all thought."

"Yon cloud which floats in heaven," the Prince replied,

"Wreathed like gold cloth around your Indra's throne,

Rose thither from the tempest-driven sea;

But it must fall again in tearful drops,

Trickling through rough and painful water-ways

By cleft and nullah and the muddy flood,

To Gunga and the sea, wherefrom it sprang.

Know'st thou, my brother, if it be not thus,

After their many pains, with saints in bliss?

Since that which rises falls, and that which buys

Is spent; and if ye buy heaven with your blood

In hell's hard market, when the bargain's through

The toil begins again!"

"It may begin,"

The hermit moaned. "Alas! we know not this,

Nor surely anything; yet after night

Day comes, and after turmoil peace, and we

Hate this accursed flesh which clogs the soul

That fain would rise; so, for the sake of soul,

We stake brief agonies in game with Gods

To gain the larger joys."

"Yet if they last

A myriad years," he said, "they fade at length,

Those joys; or if not, is there then some life

Below, above, beyond, so unlike life it will not change?

Speak! do your Gods endure

For ever, brothers?"

"Nay," the Yogis said,

"Only great Brahm endures: the Gods but live."

Then spake Lord Buddha: "Will ye, being wise,

As ye seem holy and strong-hearted ones,

Throw these sore dice, which are your groans and moans,

For gains which may be dreams, and must have end?

Will ye, for love of soul, so loathe your flesh,

So scourge and maim it, that it shall not serve

To bear the spirit on, searching for home,

But founder on the track before nightfall,

Like willing steed o'er-spurred? Will ye, sad sirs,

Dismantle and dismember this fair house,

Where we have come to dwell by painful pasts;

Whose windows give us light—the little light

Whereby we gaze abroad to know if dawn

Will break, and whither winds the better road?"

Then cried they, "We have chosen this for road

And tread it, Rajaputra, till the close—

Though all its stones were fire—in trust of death.

Speak, if thou know'st a way more excellent;

If not, peace go with thee!"

Onward he passed,

Exceeding sorrowful, seeing how men

Fear so to die they are afraid to fear,

Lust so to live they dare not love their life,

But plague it with fierce penances, belike

To please the Gods who grudge pleasure to man;

Belike to balk hell by self-kindled hells;

Belike in holy madness, hoping soul

May break the better through their wasted flesh.

"Oh, flowerets of the field!" Siddartha said,

"Who turn your tender faces to the sun—

Glad of the light, and grateful with sweet breath

Of fragrance and these robes of reverence donned

Silver and gold and purple—none of ye

Miss perfect living, none of ye despoil

Your happy beauty. O, ye palms, which rise

Eager to pierce the sky and drink the wind

Blown from Malaya and the cool blue seas,

What secret know ye that ye grow content,

From time of tender shoot to time of fruit,

Murmuring such sun-songs from your feathered crowns?

Ye, too, who dwell so merry in the trees—

Quick-darting parrots, bee-birds, bulbuls, doves—

None of ye hate your life, none of ye deem

To strain to better by foregoing needs!

But man, who slays ye—being lord—is wise,

And wisdom, nursed on blood, cometh thus forth

In self-tormentings!"

While the Master spake

Blew down the mount the dust of pattering feet,

White goats and black sheep winding slow their way,

With many a lingering nibble at the tufts,

And wanderings from the path, where water gleamed

Or wild figs hung. But always as they strayed

The herdsman cried, or slung his sling, and kept

The silly crowd still moving to the plain.

A ewe with couplets in the flock there was.

Some hurt had lamed one lamb, which toiled behind

Bleeding, while in the front its fellow skipped,

And the vexed dam hither and thither ran,

Fearful to lose this little one or that;

Which when our Lord did mark, full tenderly

He took the limping lamb upon his neck,

Saying: "Poor woolly mother, be at peace!

Whither thou goest I will bear thy care;

'T were all as good to ease one beast of grief

As sit and watch the sorrows of the world

In yonder caverns with the priests who pray."

"But," spake he to the herdsmen, "wherefore, friends,

Drive ye the flocks adown under high noon,

Since 't is at evening that men fold their sheep?"

And answer gave the peasants: "We are sent

To fetch a sacrifice of goats five score,

And five score sheep, the which our Lord the King

Slayeth this night in worship of his gods."

Then said the Master, "I will also go."

So paced he patiently, bearing the lamb

Beside the herdsmen in the dust and sun,

The wistful ewe low-bleating at his feet.

Whom, when they came unto the river-side,

A woman—dove-eyed, young, with tearful face

And lifted hands—saluted, bending low

"Lord! thou art he," she said, "who yesterday

Had pity on me in the fig-grove here,

Where I live lone and reared my child; but he

Straying amid the blossoms found a snake,

Which twined about his wrist, while he did laugh

And tease the quick forked tongue and opened mouth

Of that cold playmate. But, alas! ere long

He turned so pale and still, I could not think

Why he should cease to play, and let my breast

Fall from his lips. And one said, 'He is sick

Of poison'; and another, 'He will die.'

But I, who could not lose my precious boy,

Prayed of them physic, which might bring the light

Back to his eyes; it was so very small

That kiss-mark of the serpent, and I think

It could not hate him, gracious as he was,

Nor hurt him in his sport. And some one said,

'There is a holy man upon the hill

Lo! now he passeth in the yellow robe

Ask of the Rishi if there be a cure

For that which ails thy son.' Whereon I came

Trembling to thee, whose brow is like a god's,

And wept and drew the face cloth from my babe,

Praying thee tell what simples might be good.

And thou, great sir, did'st spurn me not, but gaze

With gentle eyes and touch with patient hand;

Then draw the face cloth back, saying to me,

'Yea, little sister, there is that might heal

Thee first, and him, if thou couldst fetch the thing;

For they who seek physicians bring to them

What is ordained. Therefore, I pray thee, find

Black mustard-seed, a tola; only mark

Thou take it not from any hand or house

Where father, mother, child, or slave hath died;

It shall be well if thou canst find such seed.'

Thus didst thou speak, my Lord!"

The Master smiled

Exceeding tenderly. "Yea, I spake thus,

Dear Kisagotami! But didst thou find The seed?"

"I went, Lord, clasping to my breast

The babe, grown colder, asking at each hut—

Here in the jungle and towards the town—

'I pray you, give me mustard, of your grace,

A tola-black'; and each who had it gave,

For all the poor are piteous to the poor;

But when I asked, 'In my friend's household here

Hath any peradventure ever died

Husband or wife, or child, or slave?' they said:

'O sister! what is this you ask? the dead

Are very many, and the living few!'

So with sad thanks I gave the mustard back,

And prayed of others; but the others said,

Here is the seed, but we have lost our slave.'

'Here is the seed, but our good man is dead!'

'Here is some seed, but he that sowed it died

Between the rain-time and the harvesting!'

Ah, sir! I could not find a single house

Where there was mustard-seed and none had died!

Therefore I left my child—who would not suck

Nor smile—beneath the wild vines by the stream,

To seek thy face and kiss thy feet, and pray

Where I might find this seed and find no death,

If now, indeed, my baby be not dead,

As I do fear, and as they said to me."

"My sister! thou hast found," the Master said,

"Searching for what none finds—that bitter balm

I had to give thee. He thou lovest slept

Dead on thy bosom yesterday: today

Thou know'st the whole wide world weeps with thy woe

The grief which all hearts share grows less for one.

Lo! I would pour my blood if it could stay

Thy tears and win the secret of that curse

Which makes sweet love our anguish, and which drives

O'er flowers and pastures to the sacrifice

As these dumb beasts are driven—men their lords.

I seek that secret: bury thou thy child!"

So entered they the city side by side,

The herdsmen and the Prince, what time the sun

Gilded slow Sona's distant stream, and threw

Long shadows down the street and through the gate

Where the King's men kept watch. But when they saw

Our Lord bearing the lamb, the guards stood back,

The market-people drew their wains aside,

In the bazaar buyers and sellers stayed

The war of tongues to gaze on that mild face;

The smith, with lifted hammer in his hand,

Forgot to strike; the weaver left his web,

The scribe his scroll, the money-changer lost

His count of cowries; from the unwatched rice

Shiva's white bull fed free; the wasted milk

Ran o'er the lota while the milkers watched

The passage of our Lord moving so meek,

With yet so beautiful a majesty.

But most the women gathering in the doors

Asked: "Who is this that brings the sacrifice,

So graceful and peace-giving as he goes?

What is his caste? whence hath he eyes so sweet?

Can he be Sakra or the Devaraj?"

And others said, "It is the holy man

Who dwelleth with the Rishis on the hill."

But the Lord paced, in meditation lost,

Thinking, "Alas! for all my sheep which have

No shepherd; wandering in the night with none

To guide them; bleating blindly towards the knife

Of Death, as these dumb beasts which are their kin."

Then some one told the King, "There cometh here

A holy hermit, bringing down the flock

Which thou didst bid to crown the sacrifice."

The King stood in his hall of offering.

On either hand, the white-robed Brahmans ranged

Muttered their mantras, feeding still the fire

Which roared upon the midmost altar. There

From scented woods flickered bright tongues of flame,

Hissing and curling as they licked the gifts

Of ghee and spices and the soma juice,

The joy of Iudra. Round about the pile

A slow, thick, scarlet streamlet smoked and ran,

Sucked by the sand, but ever rolling down,

The blood of bleating victims. One such lay,

A spotted goat, long-horned, its head bound back

With munja grass; at its stretched throat the knife

Pressed by a priest, who murmured: "This, dread gods,

Of many yajnas cometh as the crown

From Bimbasara: take ye joy to see

The spirted blood, and pleasure in the scent

Of rich flesh roasting 'mid the fragrant flames;

Let the King's sins be laid upon this goat,

And let the fire consume them burning it,

For now I strike."

But Buddha softly said,

"Let him not strike, great King!" and therewith loosed

The victim's bonds, none staying him, so great

His presence was. Then, craving leave, he spake

Of life, which all can take but none can give,

Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep,

Wonderful, dear and pleasant unto each,

Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all

Where pity is, for pity makes the world

Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.

Unto the dumb lips of his flock he lent

Sad pleading words, showing how man, who prays

For mercy to the gods, is merciless,

Being as god to those; albeit all life

Is linked and kin, and what we slay have given

Meek tribute of the milk and wool, and set

Fast trust upon the hands which murder them.

Also he spake of what the holy books

Do surely teach, how that at death some sink

To bird and beast, and these rise up to man

In wanderings of the spark which grows purged flame.

So were the sacrifice new sin, if so

The fated passage of a soul be stayed.

Nor, spake he, shall one wash his spirit clean

By blood; nor gladden gods, being good, with blood;

Nor bribe them, being evil; nay, nor lay

Upon the brow of innocent bound beasts

One hair's weight of that answer all must give

For all things done amiss or wrongfully,

Alone, each for himself, reckoning with that

The fixed arithmic of the universe,

Which meteth good for good and ill for ill,

Measure for measure, unto deeds, words, thoughts;

Watchful, aware, implacable, unmoved;

Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.

Thus spake he, breathing words so piteous

With such high lordliness of ruth and right,

The priests drew back their garments o'er the hands

Crimsoned with slaughter, and the King came near,

Standing with clasped palms reverencing Buddh;

While still our Lord went on, teaching how fair

This earth were if all living things be linked

In friendliness, and common use of foods

Bloodless and pure; the golden grain, bright fruits,

Sweet herbs which grow for all, the waters wan,

Sufficient drinks and meats. Which when these heard,

The might of gentleness so conquered them,

The priests themselves scattered their altar-flames

And flung away the steel of sacrifice;

And through the land next day passed a decree

Proclaimed by criers, and in this wise graved

On rock and column: "Thus the King's will is:

There hath been slaughter for the sacrifice,

And slaying for the meat, but henceforth none

Shall spill the blood of life nor taste of flesh,

Seeing that knowledge grows, and life is one,

And mercy cometh to the merciful."

So ran the edict, and from those days forth

Sweet peace hath spread between all living kind,

Man and the beasts which serve him, and the birds,

On all those banks of Gunga where our Lord

Taught with his saintly pity and soft speech.

For aye so piteous was the Master's heart

To all that breathe this breath of fleeting life,

Yoked in one fellowship of joys and pains,

That it is written in the holy books

How, in an ancient age—when Buddha wore

A Brahman's form, dwelling upon the rock

Named Munda, by the village of Dalidd—

Drought withered all the land: the young rice died

Ere it could hide a quail; in forest glades

A fierce sun sucked the pools; grasses and herbs

Sickened, and all the woodland creatures fled

Scattering for sustenance. At such a time,

Between the hot walls of a nullah, stretched

On naked stones, our Lord spied, as he passed,

A starving tigress. Hunger in her orbs

Glared with green flame; her dry tongue lolled a span

Beyond the gasping jaws and shrivelled jowl;

Her painted hide hung wrinkled on her ribs,

As when between the rafters sinks a thatch

Rotten with rains; and at the poor lean dugs

Two cubs, whining with famine, tugged and sucked,

Mumbling those milkless teats which rendered nought,

While she, their gaunt dam, licked full motherly

The clamorous twins, yielding her flank to them

With moaning throat, and love stronger than want,

Softening the first of that wild cry wherewith

She laid her famished muzzle to the sand

And roared a savage thunder-peal of woe.

Seeing which bitter strait, and heeding nought

Save the immense compassion of a Buddh,

Our Lord bethought, "There is no other way

To help this murdress of the woods but one.

By sunset these will die, having no meat:

There is no living heart will pity her,

Bloody with ravin, lean for lack of blood.

Lo! if I feed her, who shall lose but I,

And how can love lose doing of its kind

Even to the uttermost?" So saying, Buddh

Silently laid aside sandals and staff,

His sacred thread, turban, and cloth, and came

Forth from behind the milk-bush on the sand,

Saying, "Ho! mother, here is meat for thee!"

Whereat the perishing beast yelped hoarse and shrill,

Sprang from her cubs, and, hurling to the earth

That willing victim, had her feast of him

With all the crooked daggers of her claws

Rending his flesh, and all her yellow fangs

Bathed in his blood: the great cat's burning breath

Mixed with the last sigh of such fearless love.

Thus large the Master's heart was long ago,

Not only now, when with his gracious ruth

He bade cease cruel worship of the gods.

And much King Bimbasara prayed our Lord—

Learning his royal birth and holy search—

To tarry in that city, saying oft

"Thy princely state may not abide such fasts;

Thy hands were made for sceptres, not for alms.

Sojourn with me, who have no son to rule,

And teach my kingdom wisdom, till I die,

Lodged in my palace with a beauteous bride."

But ever spake Siddartha, of set mind

"These things I had, most noble King, and left,

Seeking the Truth; which still I seek, and shall;

Not to be stayed though Sakra's palace ope'd

Its doors of pearl and Devis wooed me in.

I go to build the Kingdom of the Law, journeying to

Gaya and the forest shades,

Where, as I think, the light will come to me;

For nowise here among the Rishis comes

That light, nor from the Shasters, nor from fasts

Borne till the body faints, starved by the soul.

Yet there is light to reach and truth to win;

And surely, O true Friend, if I attain

I will return and quit thy love."

Thereat

Thrice round the Prince King Bimbasara paced,

Reverently bending to the Master's feet,

And bade him speed. So passed our Lord away

Towards Uravilva, not yet comforted,

And wan of face, and weak with six years' quest.

But they upon the hill and in the grove—

Alara, Udra, and the ascetics five—

Had stayed him, saying all was written clear

In holy Shasters, and that none might win

Higher than Sruti and than Smriti—nay,

Not the chief saints!—for how should mortal man

Be wiser than the Jnana-Kand, which tells

How Brahm is bodiless and actionless,

Passionless, calm, unqualified, unchanged,

Pure life, pure thought, pure joy? Or how should man

Its better than the Karmma-Kand, which shows

How he may strip passion and action off,

Break from the bond of self, and so, unsphered,

Be God, and melt into the vast divine,

Flying from false to true, from wars of sense

To peace eternal, where the silence lives?

But the prince heard them, not yet comforted.