“Root out the love of self, As you might the autumn lotus with your hand. Devote yourself to the Way of Peace alone-- To the Nirvāna which the Blessed One has preached!”[307] As the stanza was over the monk reached to Arahatship; and at the thought of now being delivered from every kind of future life, he gave utterance to his joy in the hymn of praise beginning-- He who has lived his life, whose heart is fixed, Whose evil inclinations are destroyed; He who is wearing his last body now, Whose life is pure, whose senses well controlled-- He has gained freedom!--as the moon set free, When an eclipse has passed, from Rahu’s jaws. The utter darkness of delusion, Which reached to every cranny of his mind, He has dispelled; and with it every sin-- Just as the thousand-ray’d and mighty sun Sheds glorious lustre over all the earth, And dissipates the clouds! * * * * * And he returned to the Blessed One, and paid him reverence. The Elder also came; and when he took leave of the Teacher, he took his co-resident junior back with him. And the news of this was noised abroad among the brethren. And they sat together in the evening in the Lecture Hall, extolling the virtues of the Sage, and saying, “Brethren, Sāriputta the Venerable, not possessing the knowledge of hearts and motives, ignored the disposition of the monk under his charge; but the Master, having that knowledge, procured in one day for that very man the blessing of Arahatship, with all its powers! Ah! how great is the might of the Buddhas!” When the Teacher had come there and had taken his seat, he asked them what they were talking about. And they told him. “It is not so very wonderful, O monks,” said he, “that I now, as the Buddha, should know this man’s disposition; formerly also I knew it.” And he told a tale. * * * * * Once upon a time Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, and the Bodisat was his adviser in things spiritual and temporal. Now somebody took a common hack to be rubbed down at the ford where the king’s state charger used to be bathed. The charger was offended at being led down into the water where a hack had been rubbed down, and refused to step into it. The horsekeeper went and said to the king, “Your majesty! the state charger won’t enter the water.” The king sent for the Bodisat, and said, “Do you go, Paṇḍit, and find out why the horse won’t go into the water when he is led down to the ford.” “Very well, my Lord!” said he; and went to the ford, and examined the horse, and found there was nothing the matter with it. Then, reflecting what might be the reason, he thought, “Some other horse must have been watered here just before him; and offended at that, he must have refused to enter the water.” So he asked the horsekeepers whether anything had been watered at the ford just before. “A certain hack, my Lord!” said they.