13. 'But an ill-disposed man is not fit to be had for a patron, no more than a dried-up pond will serve him who is in want of water. If profit may be gained from the side of such a one, it requires much care to acquire it, and the result will be meagre and not unmixed.
14. 'He, however, who desires ease and dislikes trouble, must attend only on such a patron who has composed his mind and by his placidity resembles a great lake of pure water in autumn. So is the well-known line of conduct approved of men.
15. 'Further, he who is averse to one intent on showing his attachment; likewise he who, attending on somebody who dislikes him, afflicts himself; thirdly, he who is slow in remembering former benefits—such persons bear only the shape of a man and raise doubts as to their real nature.
16. 'Friendship is destroyed both by lack of intercourse and profusion of attentions, also by frequent requests. Therefore, desiring to protect this remnant of our affection from the dangers of my residing here, I now take my leave.'
The king said: 'If Your Reverence has a strong determination to go, thinking your departure to be indispensable, pray, deign to favour us by coming back here again, will you? Friendship ought to be kept safe also from the fault of lack of intercourse, did you not say so?' The Bodhisattva replied: 'Your Majesty, sojourning in the world is something subject to many hindrances, for a great many adversaries in the shape of various calamities attend it. Thus considering, I cannot make the positive promise, that I shall come again. I can only express my wish to see you another time, when there may be some indispensable reason for coming.' Having in this way appeased the king, who dismissed him in the most honourable manner, he set off from his realm, and feeling his mind troubled by intercourse with people living in the world, took up his abode in some forest-place. Staying there, he directed his mind to the exercise of meditation and before long came to the possession of the four ecstatic trances (dhyâna) and the five kinds of transcendent knowledge (abhigñâ).
Now, while he was enjoying the exquisite happiness of tranquillity, the remembrance of the king, accompanied by a feeling of compassion, appeared to his mind. And, as he was concerned about the present state of that prince, he directed his thoughts towards him, and saw[165] that his ministers were each enticing him to the tenets of the (false) doctrine which he professed. One among them endeavoured to win him for the doctrine according to which there should be no causality, taking for examples such instances, where it is difficult to demonstrate causality.
17. 'What,' said he, 'is the cause of the shape, the colour, the arrangement, the softness and so on of the stalks, the petals, the filaments and the pericarps of the lotuses? Who diversifies the feathers of the birds in this world? In just the same manner this whole universe is the product of the work of essential and inherent properties, to be sure.'
Another, who held a Supreme Being (Îsvara) for the first cause, expounded him the tenets of his lore.
18. 'It is not probable that this universe should exist without a cause. There is some being who rules it, Eternal and One. It is He who in consequence of the fixation of His mind on His transcendental volition, creates the world and again dissolves it.'
Another, on the contrary, deceived him by this doctrine: This universe is the result of former actions, which are the cause of fortune, good and ill; personal energy has no effect at all to modify it.