After coming down from the palace of Truth, Sudassana, the king was lying hard on the couch prepared for him in the Palm grove which was all of gold and jewels. Subhadda said to her husband, “”Eighty four thousand cities, chief of which is the royal city of Kusavati, own your sovereignty, sir. Set your heart on them.”

Sudassana told Subhadda, his wife, “Don’t say like that, my queen; rather tell me, saying, ‘Keep your heart set on this town, and yearn not after those others’.”

“Why so, my lord?”

“Because I shall die today” answered the king.

In tears, wiping her streaming eyes, the queen managed to sob out the words the king told her. Then she broke into weeping and lamentation; and the other women of the harem, to the number of eighty four thousand, also wept and wailed nor could any of the courtiers forbear, but all alike joined in one universal lament.

“Peace!” said the Bodhisatta and at his word their lamentation was stopped. Then, turning to the queen, he said “Neither weep nor wail, my queen. For, even down to a tiny seed of sesamum, there is no such thing as a compound thing which is permanent all are transient, all must break up.” Then, for the queen’s behoof, he uttered this stanza:-

How transient are all component things!

Growth is their nature and decay

They are produced they are dissolved again

And then is best when they have sunk to rest

Thus did the great Sudassana lead his discourse up to ambrosial Nirvana as its goal. Moreover, to the rest of the multitude he gave the exhortation to be charitable, to obey the Commandments, and to keep hallowed the fast days. The destiny he won was to be reborn thereafter in the Realm of Devas.