But the Great Being felt his heart oppressed with great compassion and spoke thus, comforting the poor merchants: 'There is still an expedient to rescue us even now. It occurs to my mind. Why, I will make use of it. But you must show courage for a moment.' Now, when the merchants heard this, the hope that there was still some remedy, after all, revived their courage, and fixing their whole attention upon him, they became silent. But Supâraga, the Bodhisattva, after throwing his upper-garment on one shoulder and bending his right knee on the ship's deck[122], made his veneration to the Tathâgatas, having his whole heart absorbed by that deed of devotion; after which he thus addressed the company: 'Be you, honourable sea-traders, and you, different gods, who have your dwelling in the sky, my witnesses. [122] In the Pâli redaction the Bodhisatta orders the merchants to bathe his body with fragrant water and to clothe him with unwashed, i.e. new, garments, and to prepare a vessel filled with water, to pour out while performing his sa_kk_akiriyâ. 30. 'Since I have remembrance of my Self, since the time when I have become conscious of my deeds, I do not recollect, however much I ponder, having injured in any respect any living being. 31. 'By the power of this Act of Truth and by the strength of my store of meritorious actions may the ship turn safely without reaching the Mare-mouth!' And so great was the power of the veracity of the Great Being, so great also the splendour of his merit[123], that the current and the wind changed to the opposite direction and made the vessel go back. The merchants beholding the ship go back, exulted with the highest admiration and joy, and expressing their veneration to Supâraga by reverential bows, told him that the ship went back. Then the Great Being instructed them to be calm and to hoist the sails quickly. And being thus ordered, they who had the charge of that work, having regained by their gladness their ability and energy, did as he had said. [123] In the Pâli version it is the power of the Great Being's veracity alone that causes the winds to change. 32. Then, resplendent with the lovely outspread wings of her white sails, and filled with the sound of her merry and laughing crew, the ship flew over the sea, like a flamingo in the pure and cloudless sky.