“This narrative is not meant for narration.” Byron, Don Juan, XIV 7...

“Thus have I heard: That the time came when the earthly sojourn of the Lord Buddha should be ended, and journeying from place to plate in the land of Magadha, he came to Rajagriha.” Thus the Holy Budd...

It was the intention of the Master to stop at the first house he came to⁠—in this instance a building whose blue walls shone out from between the trees of the surrounding garden. As he was about to ap...

My name is Kamanita. I was born in Ujjeni, a town lying far to the south, in the land of Avanti, among the mountains. My father was a merchant, and rich, though our family could lay claim to no specia...

One delightful afternoon we betook ourselves to a public garden outside of the town⁠—a really magnificent park it was, lying close to the high banks of the Gunga, with shady groups of trees, large lot...

As I knew that for me sleep was not to be thought of, I did not undress at all that evening, but sat down at the head of my bed on the grass mat intended for devotional exercises, and spent the night ...

Now that night and darkness had come, we betook ourselves, Somadatta and I, clad in dark apparel which we had gathered well up about us, our loins firmly belted, and with swords in our hands, to the w...

Deeply moved by these vivid memories, the pilgrim became silent for a short time. Then he sighed, drew his hand over his forehead, and went on with his narrative. In short, O brother, I went about dur...

A little behind the eastern wall of Kosambi lies a beautiful sinsapa wood which is, strictly speaking, a sacred grove. In an open glade the sanctuary yet stands, though in a sadly dilapidated conditio...

When I again reached the village in which my followers had taken up their quarters for the night, I did not hesitate to wake them; and, at least a couple of hours before sunrise, the caravan was on it...

Thus the Sutra reads: “The Divine also dost thou think?⁠ ⁠… No!⁠ ⁠… Irresponsibility⁠ ⁠… On account of space, of Scripture, of Tradition.” The worshipful Vajaçravas comments upon this as follows: “ ’T...

After the foregoing specimen of the curious sentiments of this extraordinary man⁠—to whose charge at least one cannot lay, as to that of so many other noted thinkers, that he didn’t put his theories i...

Yes, it was she. No possibility of mistaking those features⁠—and yet they in no way resembled hers, were indeed like nothing that I had ever seen⁠—in such nameless, superhuman misery did they seem to ...

The end of the matter was that I continued to reside in the house of my parents in Ujjeni. This, my native town, O stranger, is, as all the world knows, famed throughout India not less for its revels ...

One morning I was walking back and forth in the grounds with my head gardener, considering where improvements could be best introduced, when my father, on his old ass, rode into the courtyard. I haste...

Such was the state of affairs in my home, when, one forenoon, I sat in a large room which lay on the shady side of the house, and was set apart for the transaction of all business matters. For that re...

Half-swooning, I sat down upon a bench. My brain, however, began to work again at once. Angulimala had been there, of that there could be no doubt; and the reason for his coming was only too clear to ...

What a hitherto unknown stillness enveloped me now, O brother, as, after stationing my people, each man at his post, I again entered the house! That I didn’t hear the voices of my wives⁠—it wasn’t tha...

With these words, the pilgrim Kamanita brought his narrative to a close, became silent, and gazed meditatively out upon the landscape. And the Lord Buddha also became silent, and gazed meditatively ou...

And the Lord Buddha said: “The Perfect One, brother, the Fully Enlightened One, set the wheel of Doctrine rolling at Benares, beside the Rock of the Prophet, in the Grove of the Gazelles. And to it ma...

After the Lord Buddha had ended his discourse, the pilgrim Kamanita remained sitting for a long time, silent and motionless, a prey to conflicting and sceptical thoughts. Finally he said: “Thou hast t...

When the Master awoke in the grey dawn, he saw the pilgrim Kamanita busy, rolling up his mat, hanging his gourd over his shoulder, and looking round for his staff which he hadn’t at once been able to ...

At the time when the Master uttered these words in the hall of the potter at Rajagriha, the pilgrim Kamanita awoke in the Paradise of the West. Wrapped in a red mantle, whose rich drapings flowed down...

With a gasp of astonishment Kamanita now noticed that a white figure, throned not far from him on her lotus flower, suddenly seemed to grow upward. The mantle, with its piled-up mass of folds and corn...

Kamanita followed them long with his eyes and wandered. And then he wondered at his wonder. “How does it happen that everything here seems so strange to me? If I belong to this place, why does not eve...

It suddenly seemed to Kamanita as though something living were moving in the depths of the pond. In the crystal deeps he became dimly aware of a rising shadow. The waters bubbled and seethed, and a la...

When thou, my friend, wert gone from Kosambi, I dragged myself miserably through the days and nights, as a girl does who is devoured by a fever of longing, and is at the same time a prey to a thousand...

At that time I always spent the first hours of the night on the Terrace of the Sorrowless, either alone or with Medini. On the evening of the day of which I have just spoken, I was there by myself, an...

When Kamanita perceived that even here, in the abode of bliss, these memories overshadowed, as with dark and troublous wings, the yet delicate, newly awakened soul of his beloved, he took her by the h...

As a matter of fact, they did not again visit the inhospitable shores of the heavenly Gunga. Often, however, they turned their flight toward the valley of the malachite rocks. Reposing under the might...

“Assuredly we are as old as the world,” said Kamanita. “But up to this time we have wandered on, never resting, and death when he has come has always projected us into a new life. Now, however, we hav...

When Satagira had reached the goal he had set himself, of possessing me as his wife, his love rapidly cooled, and the more quickly, that it met with no response on my side. I had promised to be a true...

The whole night through I remained on the Terrace, the unresisting prey of passions, hitherto unknown to me, but which were now unchained, and which made sport of my heart as the whirlwind does of the...

A frightful calm now came over me as I returned to my room. There was nothing more to be considered, no doubt to be combated, no questions to be answered. All was decided; his Karma willed it so. By h...

I stood today⁠—he began⁠—a few hours after sunrise at the edge of the forest, gazing out at the towers of Kosambi, my mind full of vengeance on Satagira and revolving the question as to whether thou w...

I do not know how long it was before I opened my lips; but for a very long time, I believe, I sat there without uttering a word, and let everything Angulimala had said rise, point by point, before me,...

The setting sun shot its sheaf of rays through the openings between the trunks, consecrating, it seemed, with a heavenly benediction, the silent and expectant company assembled in the depths of the fo...

“Yes, my friend,” added Vasitthi, “I heard those words, which appear so destructive of all hope to you, without disappointment, as I now without pain, and indeed even with joy, perceive how, round abo...

And Kamanita and Vasitthi entered again into existence in the kingdom of the hundred-thousandfold Brahma as the gods of a double star. The luminous astral substance to which Kamanita’s spiritual essen...

There came a day when a feeling of discomfort, the consciousness of a void, arose in Kamanita. And involuntarily his thoughts turned to the hundred-thousandfold Brahma, as the source of all fullness. ...

After that first evening I neglected no opportunity of visiting the Krishna grove, and of becoming more deeply initiated into the doctrine, by the words of the Master or of one of his great scholars. ...

I had now become a sister of the Order, and betook myself early in the morning of each day with my alms-bowl to Kosambi, where I went from house to house till the bowl was full⁠—although Satagira woul...

At this time one of the brothers came over to us once a week, and expounded the doctrine. After some time Angulimala’s turn came, and then I did not go into the common hall, but remained lying in my c...

My lack of strength did not admit of our undertaking long daily journeys, and made it necessary sometimes to take a day for rest, so that only after a pilgrimage of a month did we arrive in Vesali, wh...

And they were the last I heard on earth. My life-force was exhausted; fever held my senses in thrall. Like fleeting dream-pictures, I still saw figures round about me⁠—Medini’s face often near to mine...

As in a banquet hall, when all the torches and lamps are extinguished, one little lamp is left burning before a sacred picture in a corner, so Kamanita was left behind, alone, in universal night. For ...

It need scarcely be remarked that the few passages from the Upanishads are quoted from Professor Deussen’s Sechzig Upanishads des Veda. To the second great translation of this excellent and indefatiga...

The golden umbrella is the emblem of royalty. ↩ Rajagriha = “royal city,” now Rajgir, ten miles southeast of Patna. ↩ The Oxford of ancient India, lying in the Punjab. ↩ Landing-stage with magnificent...