“Take up the mat, Ananda,—I will go to spend the day at the Kapila Ketiya.”
“So be it, Lord,” said the venerable Ananda, and he followed step for step behind the Blessed One.
And when he had come there the Blessed One sat down upon the mat spread out for him, and the venerable Ananda took his seat respectfully beside him. And the Blessed One said:
“Whoever, Ananda, has developed himself and ascended to the very heights of the four paths to Power, thus transcending bodily conditions and using these Powers for good may if he desires it, remain in the same birth for an age, or that portion of the age which is yet to run. Now He who has thus Attained has developed these Powers and could therefore live on yet for an age or that portion of the age which has yet to run.”
But even though this suggestion was given by the Blessed One, the venerable Ananda did not comprehend it, nor did he say, “Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain! Live on for the good and happiness of the peoples, out of pity for the world and the weal of Divine Beings and men.”
And a second time did the Blessed One say this, and yet did not the beloved Ananda speak.
Now the Blessed One addressed him thus:
“You may leave me, Ananda, for awhile.”
And rising from his seat, Ananda saluted the Lord, and sat down at the foot of a tree not far off, and when he was gone, the Evil One, the Tempter, approached the Lord and stood beside him, and he said:
“Pass away now, Lord, from existence. Let the Blessed One die. For did he not say that when the Order was established, and the lay-people, and the truth made known, that then the time would be come? And all this is now done, and the time is here. Pass away now, therefore, Lord. Let the Blessed One die.”