From Amitabha
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6. Gandhara
THE FOGS of the rainy season obscured the way, so the two men reached the capital only when the shades of evening were settling on the valley. One of the princes had died and Chandana (commonly called Kanishka), the third and youngest son of the king, was thought to be critically ill.
Charaka was at once conducted to the royal palace. He was ushered into the dimly lighted bedroom of Prince Kanishka. Charaka stood motionless and watched the heavy breathing of the patient. Charaka and Kanishka had for some time been educated together and were intimate friends. To Princess Kamalavati, the king's daughter who stood nearby, he whispered,
"His condition is very bad, but not yet hopeless. We must adjust the diet to the condition of the patient."
Charaka gave his instructions to the princess and the other attendants and then sat down quietly. When Kanishka awoke from his restless slumber, he extended his hand and tried to speak, but the physician hushed him, saying: "Keep quiet."
"I will," whispered Kanishka. "Tell my sister to call Matura to my bedside."
The scion of a noble Gandhara family, had served his country and was presently at the capital. He came and waited till Charaka gave him permission to see the patient.
In this interview the prince explained to Matura that he had to keep the mountaineers out of the kingdom, saying, "Serve me as a chancellor in this critical situation. Raise troops to expel the marauders, but at the same time exhaust diplomatic methods."
Matura took charge of state affairs and Charaka and Kamalavati united in attending to the treatment of the sick prince. Kanishka survived and regained strength, first slowly, very slowly, then more rapidly, till he felt that he was past all danger.
But the mountaineers renewed their raids, and the king of Magadha was too weak to interfere with his stubborn vassals. The prince accordingly declared war on the kingdom of Magadha. He raised an army, and the young men of the peasantry, who had suffered much from this state of unrest, gladly allowed themselves to be enlisted.
7. Kanisha
THE PREPARATIONS for war against Magadha there came tidings from the Parthian frontier that the troops of Gandhara had gained a decisive victory, but the king himself had died on the battle-field. The crown now passed to Kanishka who deemed it his first duty to overcome the enemies of his nation. Charaka was requested to accompany him in the field, and Matura remained behind as chancellor of the state.
Charaka loved the princess. She had been kindly disposed toward him from childhood; but now she admired him too, after watching him at the bedside of her brother. When the two parted she said smilingly: "Take care of my brother, and be good to yourself, for my sake."
Charaka stood bewildered. He felt his cheeks flushing, and did not know what to think or say. He was not sure whether it was right for him to accept and press the beautiful woman's hand that was offered him in unaffected friendliness and with maidenly innocence.
He stood before her like a schoolboy. He stammered; his head drooped; and at last covering his eyes with his hand, he began to sob. At that moment Kanishka approached to bid his sister goodbye, and very soon Charaka and Kamalavati parted.
While the king and his physician were riding side by side, Kanishka inquired about the trouble which had stirred Charaka to tears. Charaka said: "It is all my fault. When your sister bade me farewell, I became aware of a budding love toward her in my soul. I am weak, and that brought tears to my eyes."
"Do you think love a sin?" inquired the king.
"It is not celibacy," replied Charaka.
"You ought to know more about it."
"Alas!" sighed Charaka, "I am not fit to be a monk."
King Kanishka asked, "Is your soul burdened with sin?"
"My heart is full of passion, I would fathom the mysteries of being and comprehend the law of existence, its source and its purpose. There is a yearning in my breast, to be useful to others, and to be rooted in the mysterious ground from which springs all life. I am a reproduction of the life impulses that preceded me, and I yearn for a union with that eternal substratum of all life which will never pass away.
The Tathagata has discovered the way of emancipation, which is the eightfold noble path of righteousness. Now, I am charmed with love. Love is life-giving, heart-gladdening, courage-inspiring! I admire heroism, the wild heroism of the battle-field! I long for wisdom, not the wisdom of the monks, but practical science which teaches us the why and wherefore of things and imparts to us the wizard's power over nature. Now, a solution I cannot grasp, and I call it God. However, I have been told here is one man in the world who can help me in my distress, and that is Asvaghosha of Magadha."
"Asvaghosha of Magadha!" replied the king. "Very well! We are waging war with the king of Magadha. Let the prize of combat be the possession of Asvaghosha!"
8. Magadha
SOMETIMES war cannot be avoided. Such was Kanishka's maxim, and he acted accordingly. Subahu, king of Magadha, met his adversary in the field near Pataliputra with an army that had been rapidly assembled, but he could not stay the invader's victorious progress. In several engagements his troops were scattered to the four winds, his elephants captured, and he was obliged to retire to the fortress of Pataliputra. There he was besieged, and when he saw that no hope of escape was left he decided to make no further resistance and sent a messenger to king Kanishka, asking him for terms of peace.
"If you are anxious to produce peace, come out to me in person and I will listen to your proposition. I wish to see you. Let us meet face to face, and we will consider our difficulties," was the message from King Kanisha. Subahu came out with his minister and accompanied by his retinue and was asked, "Why did you not render justice to me when I asked for it?"
"I wanted to preserve a peace at home," said Subahu. "In other words," interrupted King Kanishka sternly, "your weakness prevented you from punishing the evil-doers under your jurisdiction, and being incapable of governing your kingdom, you lost your power and the right to rule."
"I have a clean conscience; You have carried the war into my country. You are the offender; and the Lord Buddha be praised!"
Kanishka mastered his anger and replied calmly: "Are you so ignorant as not to know that a ruler's first duty is justice? To me you refused justice!"
"Man's first duty is to seek salvation,' replied the king of Magadha, "not by harshness but by piety," Subahu exclaimed. "What is the world if we but gain salvation?"
Kanishka stared at the speaker, and then said, "Your piety is not of the right kind. This world is the place in which the test of truth must be made. I will not deprive you of your crown and title, but I insist on the penalty of three hundred million gold pieces. You shall remain king with the understanding that from now on you take council with me on all questions of political importance, for I see clearly that you stand in need of advice. Instead of three hundred million gold pieces I will accept the bowl which the Tathagata, the Blessed Buddha, carried in his hand when he was walking on earth, and as a ransom for your royal person which I hold here besieged in Pataliputra I request from you the philosopher Asvaghosha whose fame has spread through all the countries where the religion of enlightenment is preached."
The vanquished king said: "Truly, the bowl of Buddha and the philosopher Asvaghosha are amply worth three hundred million gold pieces. Yet you are generous and your conditions of peace are fair."
"Only worldly wise," said Kanishka, embracing the king of Magadha.
9. Asvaghosha
KANISHKA was in good spirits. He was elated by his success, but affable to all who approached him. In a short time he had become the most powerful monarch of India Princes of smaller dominions willingly acknowledged his superiority. Peace was established, commerce and trade flourished, and Greek sculptors flocked to Gandhara, transplanting the art of their home to the soil of India.
It was the beginning of India's golden age which lasted as long as the Dharma, the doctrine of the Tathagata, was kept pure and undefiled. Missionaries went out who reached Tibet and China and even far off Japan.
Kanishka and the king of Magadha enjoyed each other's company. One day they stood in front of a statue of Buddha and watched the graceful movements of a princess who led a flower procession in front of if and breathed, "If the princess will accept me I shall lead her as queen to my capital and she shall be the mother of the kings of Gandhara to come."
Magadha delivered to his powerful ally the sacred bowl and called for Asvaghosha, the old philosopher. Asvaghosha arrived at the Deer Park, bowed reverently and said: "Praised be the Lord Buddha! Gladness fills my heart when I think how your majesty treats your vanquished foe."
"Good, my friend," replied Kanishka; "My knowledge, however, is imperfect and even my learned friend Charaka is full of doubts on subjects of grave importance. Therefore I invite you to accompany me to Gandhara, where my people and myself are sorely in need of your wisdom and experience."
"Your invitation is flattering," said the philosopher, "but leave me at home. I am an aged man and could scarcely stand the exertion of the journey. Should I grow stronger I shall be glad to visit you in Gandhara."
"Charaka!" said the king, "have a room fitted up for Asvaghosha in our residence at Varanasi, and so long as we remain here he shall pass the time in our company. Let him be present at our meals, and when we rest in the evening from the labours of the day let us listen to the words of the philosopher who is regarded as the best interpreter of the significance of Buddha's teachings."
10. Amitabha
ONE EVENING when King Kanishka together with his friend Charaka enjoyed the company of Asvaghosha, the youthful ruler of Gandhara turned to the venerable philosopher with this request: "And now, worshipful master, tell us, do we worship in Buddha a god or a man?"
Replied Asvaghosha: "Buddha is neither a god nor a man. We worship in Buddha wisdom and goodness, and application of the truth."
Charaka interposed: "We do not speak of the gods, but of God, which means divinity itself. What would Buddha have taught about God?"
"You ask a question it will take a book to answer. But I shall be brief. Certainly, God is a reality. God in this sense is the good law that shapes existence, leading life step by step onward and upward toward its highest goal. Recognition of this law gives us light on the conditions of our existence so that we may find the right path: We call it Dharmakaya, the body of the good law, or Amitabha, the source of infinite light, or by some other name."
"Accordingly, a man is not a Buddha by birth, but he can become a Buddha by attaining to Buddhahood?" said the king inquiringly.
"Exactly so," replied Asvaghosha. "The highest truth is eternal. What is more, Buddha can be recognised with the mind's eye alone."
"Then Amitabha is the principle of being as much as Brahma?" enquired Charaka.
"Brahma is a personification of the principle of being," replied Asvaghosha, "but Amitabha is the standard of being. Amitabha is the intrinsic law which moulds life and develops it sensibly. The sage of the Shakyas [Buddha] is one ray of its light only. Wherever wisdom appears there is an incarnation, more or less partial, more or less complete, of Amitabha."
"Mark the doctrine and act accordingly," said Asvaghosha further. "You may call Divine Goodness God or Amitabha, or Allhood, or the eternal and the universal law. It exists, it is spiritual and it is and remains for all that exists the necessary norm; it is the rule and regulation. It is omnipresent in the universe, invisible. It is the womb of existence; it is that which gives definite shape to beings according conditions.
You have Amitabha in two aspects: (1) as the formation of particular existence and (2) as the general law of universal types.
Enjoyment of life is not wrong and the love of husband and wife is no cause for repentance when it runs well.
Those who mortify their bodies," continued Asvaghosha, "have not understood the doctrine."
Charaka extended his hand and said: "Thank you, venerable sir. I have proved useful to King Kanishka as a physician, perhaps also as a friend, and as a disciple of the Tathagata; and the problem before me is, whether it is right for me to remain in the world, to be a householder, to allow the particular, the sensual, the actual, a share in life by the side of the universal, the spiritual, the ideal."
"Do not despise the particular, the sensual, the actual," replied Asvaghosha. "In the material body the spiritual truths of goodness and love and veracity are actualized. Live in ennobling ways; that counts. The sensual, if it be void of the spiritual, is coarse and marks the brute. But existence is not wrong in itself, nor is the sensual without its good uses. The sensual, in its very particularity, by being an aspiration that is actual, becomes consecrated in spirituality. Think how holy is the kiss of true love; how sacred is the relation between husband and wife. It is the particular in which the universal must be realized, mere abstract goodness will become apparent only in the vicissitudes of actual life."
"If I could serve Buddha as a householder, my highest ambition would be to be a brother-in-law to King Kanishka," replied Charaka.
Asvaghosha said with a smile, "The emotions of your heart are reflected in your eyes. Go home and greet the king's sister with a saying of the Blessed One, and when you are married may your happiness be in proportion to your merit, or even greater and better. Buddha's doctrine is not extinction, not nihilism, but a liberation of man's heart from the fetters of selfishness. In it is also perfection and sanctification of love, and joy, and family ties. We do not aim at a cessation of life, but a cessation of ignorance, indolence, and ill will for the sake of gaining enlightenment, which is life's end and aim."
After a pause Asvaghosha added pensively: "The more the truth spreads, the more shall all relations and conditions be transfigured."
"Your instruction has benefited me too," said Kanishka to the philosopher, and turning round to the king of Magadha, he continued, "If your daughter, the Princess Bhadrasri would consent to accept my hand and accompany me to Gandhara as my wife and queen!"
"My august friend," replied the king of Magadha, "the Princess worships you. She beholds in you the restorer of her father's fortunes. It is but for you to make her admiration blossom out into rich love and wifely devotion."
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