In his hand he carried
a golden dragon-pitcher, and bending low upon his knees he poured the
flowing water as a sign of the gift of the Getavana Vihara for the use
of the priesthood throughout the world. The lord then received it, with
the prayer that "overruling all evil influences it might give the
kingdom permanent rest, and that the happiness of Anathapindada might
flow out in countless streams." Then the king Prasenagit, hearing that
the lord had come, with his royal equipage went to the Getavana to
worship at the lord's feet. Having arrived and taken a seat on one side,
with clasped hands he spake to Buddha thus:--
"O that my unworthy and obscure kingdom should thus suddenly have met
such fortune! For how can misfortunes or frequent calamities possibly
affect it, in the presence of so great a man? And now that I have seen
your sacred features, I may perhaps partake of the converting streams of
your teaching. A town although it is composed of many sections, yet both
ignoble and holy persons may enter the surpassing stream; and so the
wind which fans the perfumed grove causes the scents to unite and form
one pleasant breeze; and as the birds which collect on Mount Sumeru are
many, and the various shades that blend in shining gold, so an assembly
may consist of persons of different capacities: individually
insignificant, but a glorious body. The desert master by nourishing the
Rishi, procured a birth as the three leg, or foot star; worldly profit
is fleeting and perishable, religious profit is eternal and
inexhaustible; a man though a king is full of trouble, a common man, who
is holy, has everlasting rest.
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