Now one day the wise Sumedha, having retired to the splendid upper apartment of his house, seated himself cross-legged, and fell a thinking. “Oh! wise man,[124] grievous is rebirth in a new existence, and the dissolution of the body in each successive place where we are reborn. I am subject to birth, to decay, to disease, to death,--it is right, being such, that I should strive to attain the great deathless Nirvā_n_a, which is tranquil, and free from birth, and decay, and sickness, and grief and joy; surely there must be a road that leads to Nirvā_n_a and releases man from existence.” Accordingly it is said, 17. Seated in seclusion, I then thought as follows: Grievous is rebirth and the breaking up of the body. 18. I am subject to birth, to decay, to disease, Therefore will I seek Nirvāna, free from decay and death, and secure. 19. Let me leave this perishable body, this pestilent congregation of vapours, And depart without desires and without wants. 20. There is, there must be a road, it cannot but be: I will seek this road, that I may obtain release from existence. Further he reasoned thus, “For as in this world there is pleasure as the correlative of pain, so where there is existence there must be its opposite the cessation of existence; and as where there is heat there is also cold which neutralizes it, so there must be a Nirvā_n_a[125] that extinguishes (the fires of) lust and the other passions; and as in opposition to a bad and evil condition there is a good and blameless one, so where there is evil Birth there must also be Nirvā_n_a, called the Birthless, because it puts an end to all rebirth.” Therefore it is said, 21. As where there is suffering there is also bliss, So where there is existence we must look for non-existence. 22. And as where there is heat there is also cold, So where there is the threefold fire of passion extinction must be sought. 23. And as coexistent with evil there is also good, Even so where there is birth[126] the cessation of birth should be sought.