The Bodhisatta became king in Benares. The wicked councilor called in the king of Kosala and got him to seize upon the kingdom of Kasi, and to throw the Bodhisatta into prison. The king of Benares developed ecstatic meditation and sat cross-legged in the air. A fierce heat sprang up in the body of the marauding king, and he went to the king of Benares and repeated the first stanza:

Stript of all the joys of life,

Jewelled earrings, horse and car,

Robbed of child and loving wife,

Bought thy pleasure seems to mar.

On hearing him the Bodhisatta recited these verses:–

Pleasures soon make haste to leave us,

Pleasures soon must all forego,

Sorrow has no power to grieve us,

Joy itself soon turns to woe.

Moons with new-born orb appearing

Wax awhile, to wane and die,

Suns with warmth all nature cheering,

Haste to set in yonder sky.

Change is this world’s law I see,

Sorrow has no pangs for me.

Thus now did the Great Being expound the Truth to the usurper king, and bringing his conduct to the test, repeated these stanza:–

The idle sensual layman I detest,

The false ascetic is a rogue confessed.

A bad king will a case unheard decide;

Wrath in the sage can ne’er be justified.

The warrior prince a well-weighed verdict gives,

Of righteous judge the fame for ever lives.

The king of Kosala having thus gained the forgiveness of the Bodhisatta and given him back his kingdom, departed to his own country.

The Master, having ended his discourse, thus identified the Birth: “At that time Ananda was the king of Kosala, and I myself was the king of Benares.”