“Bow down with clasped hands.
“Hard, hard is it to meet with a Buddha through hundreds of ages.”
But they knew in whose presence they had stood.
This also have I heard.
The great Ananda, casting aside the fetters of love and retaining only its radiance, became a mighty Arhat and laid aside all sorrow.
After these things, one day it so chanced that one of the brothers sat with Pingiya the aged Brahman, the disciple of the Lord, and Pingiya from the fulness of his heart spoke of the Blessed One, saying:
“As he saw the Way, so he taught it, he, the very wise, the passionless, the desireless Lord, and how should he do otherwise, for in him was no shadow nor turning of untruth. I will praise the voice of him who was without folly, who had left arrogance far behind. It is he only, the Dispeller of darkness, the high Deliverer, who giveth light.”
And seeing his love, the other said:
“How then can you stay away from him even one instant, O Pingiya?”
And the old man replied: