The Bodhisattva spoke: 'Verily, such is the lore of Political Wisdom (râganîti), Your Majesty, but to me it seems something difficult to follow.
18. 'It is excessively painful to overlook heavy and unbearable pain, even if the sufferer be somebody unacquainted with us. How much more, if those suffer who, having their minds intent on worshipping us, are like dear relations to us!
19. 'So, on seeing distress and despair overwhelming the monkeys in consequence of their sudden danger, a great sorrow overcame me, which did not leave me room to think of my personal interest.
20. 'Perceiving the bows bent and the glittering arrows fly upward on all sides, and hearing the dreadful noise of the strings, hastily and without further consideration I jumped over from the tree to the mountain.
21. 'Then—for the distress of my poor comrades, overcome with the highest degree of terror, drew me back to them—I tied a cane fast to my feet, a well-rooted reed, suitable for the effort at which I aimed.
22. 'So I jumped once more, leaping from the mountain-side to the tree, in order to rescue my comrades, and with my hands I attained its nearest branch stretched out like a hand to meet me.
23. 'And while I was hanging there with extended body between that cane and that outstretched branch of the tree, those comrades of mine happily made their escape, running without hesitation over my body.'
The king, perceiving the ecstasy of gladness, which even in that miserable condition pervaded the Great Being, and much wondering at it, again spoke to him:
24. 'What good has Your Honour obtained, thus despising your own welfare and taking upon yourself the disaster which threatened others?'
The Bodhisattva spoke: