“Venerable Lady, the Perfect One is dead. Does he exist after death?” “Great King, the Exalted One has not declared that he exists after death.” “Then, venerable Lady, does the Perfect One not exist.” “The Perfect One has not declared that he does not exist after death.” “But, venerable Lady,—does and does not? How is this possible?” And, smiling a little, the learned nun replied: “Great King, have you an accountant or a mint-master who could count the sands of Ganges and lay the figure before you?” “Venerable Lady, no.” “Or who could measure the drops in the ocean?” “Again no, venerable Lady.” “And why? Because the ocean is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable. So also is it if the existence of the Perfect One be measured by any human category, for all statements of bodily form are abolished in the Perfect One; their root is severed; they are done with and can germinate no more. The Perfect One is released from the possibility that his being can be gauged in any human terms. He is now deep, immeasurable and unfathomable as the ocean, and neither the terms of existence or of non-existence as understood by the world fit him any more.” Then there was a long silence and the King having heard the nun Khema’s words with approbation, rose and bowed reverently before her and went his way. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can the tongue tell of such matters for they are beyond and above us. And it is for this reason that the Blessed One replied thus to the venerable Malukya, when he reproached the Perfect One as follows: “Is the world eternal or the slave of time? Does the World-Honoured live on beyond death? It pleases me not at all that all these important matters should remain unanswered. May it please the Master to answer them if he can. And if he does not know let him say so plainly.” But the Master replied with his smile: “Did I say to you, Malukya,—‘Come and be my disciple, and I will teach you whether the world is everlasting or finite, whether the vital faculty is separate from the body or one with it, whether the Exalted One lives or does not live after death?’ Did I promise all this?” “No, sir, you did not.” “And, Malukya, if a man is struck by a poisoned arrow, suppose he says—‘I will never allow my wound to be treated until I know who shot the arrow—was it a man of high or low caste. And I must know whether he is tall or short, and how his bow and arrows are made!’—Would this be a sensible proceeding? Surely no. He would die of his wounds. “Why have I not made these things clear? Because the knowledge of them does not conduce to holiness nor right detachment, nor to peace and enlightenment.—What is needed for these I teach, the truth of suffering and its origin, the truth of the Way to its cessation. Therefore let what I have not revealed rest, and follow that which I have revealed.”