Said the Blessed One: "Nay, I will tell you: Ye who have left the world and have adopted this glorious faith of putting aside selfishness, ye shall not do evil for evil nor return hate for hate. Nor do ye think that ye can destroy wrong by retaliating evil for evil and thus increasing wrong. Leave the wicked to their fate and their evil deeds will sooner or later in one way or another bring on their own punishment." And the Tathāgata repeated these stanzas: 14 "Who harmeth him that doth no harm And striketh him that striketh not, Shall gravest punishment incur The which his wickedness begot,-- 15 "Some of the greatest ills in life Either a loathsome dread disease, Or dread old age, or loss of mind, Or wretched pain without surcease, 16 "Or conflagration, loss of wealth; Or of his nearest kin he shall See some one die that's dear to him, And then he'll be reborn in hell." 17 THE LAST DAYS. LXXXVIII. THE CONDITIONS OF WELFARE. When the Blessed One was residing on the mount called Vulture's Peak, near Rājagaha, Ajātasattu the king of Magadha, who reigned in the place of Bimbisāra, planned an attack on the Vajjīs, and he said to Vassakāra, his prime minister: "I will root out the Vajjīs, mighty though they be. I will destroy the Vajjīs; I will bring them to utter ruin! Come now, O Brahman, and go to the Blessed One; inquire in my name for his health, and tell him my purpose. Bear carefully in mind what the Blessed One may say, and repeat it to me, for the Buddhas speak nothing untrue." 1 When Vassakāra, the prime minister, had greeted the Blessed One and delivered his message, the venerable Ānanda stood behind the Blessed One and fanned him, and the Blessed One said to him: "Hast thou heard, Ānanda, that the Vajjis hold full and frequent public assemblies?" 2 "Lord, so I have heard," replied he. 3 "So long, Ānanda," said the Blessed One, "as the Vajjis hold these full and frequent public assemblies, they may be expected not to decline, but to prosper. So long as they meet together in concord, so long as they honor their elders, so long as they respect womanhood, so long as they remain religious, performing all proper rites, so long as they extend the rightful protection, defence and support to the holy ones, the Vajjis may be expected not to decline, but to prosper." 4