Both answered and said: "Yes, Gotama, we think so." 6
"But tell me," continued the Buddha, "has any one of the Brahmans, versed in the Vedas, seen Brahmā face to face?" 7
"No, sir!" was the reply. 8
"But, then," said the Blessed One, "has any teacher of the Brahmans, versed in the Vedas, seen Brahmā face to face?" 9
The two Brahmans said: "No, sir." 10
"But, then," said the Blessed One, "has any one of the authors of the Vedas seen Brahmā face to face?" 11
Again the two Brahmans answered in the negative and exclaimed: "How can any one see Brahmā or understand him, for the mortal cannot understand the immortal." And the Blessed One proposed an illustration, saying: 12
"It is as if a man should make a staircase in the place where four roads cross, to mount up into a mansion. And people should ask him, 'Where, good friend, is this mansion, to mount up into which you are making this staircase? Knowest thou whether it is in the east, or in the south, or in the west, or in the north? Whether it is high, or low, or of medium size?' And when so asked he should answer, 'I know it not.' And people should say to him, 'But, then, good friend, thou art making a staircase to mount up into something—taking it for a mansion—which all the while thou knowest not, neither hast thou seen it.' And when so asked he should answer, 'That is exactly what I do; yea I know that I cannot know it.' What would you think of him? Would you not say that the talk of that man was foolish talk?" 13
"In sooth, Gotama," said the two Brahmans, "it would be foolish talk!" 14
The Blessed One continued: "Then the Brahmans should say, 'We show you the way unto a union of what we know not and what we have not seen.' This being the substance of Brahman lore, does it not follow that their task is vain?" 15