Now, on the day when he had received the sweet rice-milk, his bowl had disappeared;[217] so the Blessed One thought, “The Buddhas never receive food in their hands. How shall I take it?” Then the four Guardian Angels knew his thought, and, coming from the four corners of heaven, they brought bowls made of sapphire. And the Blessed One accepted them. Then they brought four other bowls, made of jet; and the Blessed One, out of kindness to the four angels, received the four, and, placing them one above another, commanded, saying, “Let them become one.” And the four closed up into one of medium size, becoming visible only as lines round the mouth of it. The Blessed One received the food into that new-created bowl, and ate it, and gave thanks.
The two brothers took refuge in the Buddha, the Truth, and the Order, and became professed disciples. Then, when they asked him, saying, “Lord, bestow upon us something to which we may pay reverence,” with his own right hand he tore from his head, and gave to them, the Hair-relics. And they built a Dāgaba in their own city, and placed the relics within it.[218]
But the Perfectly Enlightened One rose up thence, and returned to the Shepherd’s Nigrodha-tree, and sat down at its foot. And no sooner was he seated there, considering the depth of the Truth which he had gained, than there arose in his mind a doubt (felt by each of the Buddhas as he became aware of his having arrived at Truth) that he had not that kind of ability necessary to explain that Truth to others.
Then the great Ruler of the Brahma heavens, exclaiming, “Alas! the world is lost! Alas! the world will be altogether lost!” brought with him the rulers and archangels of the heavens in tens of thousands of world-systems, and went up to the Master, and said, “O Blessed Lord, mayst thou proclaim the Truth! Proclaim the Truth, O Blessed Lord!” and in other words of like purport begged from him the preaching of the Truth.
Then the Master granted his request. And considering to whom he should first reveal the Truth, thought at first of Aḷāra, his former teacher, as one who would quickly comprehend it. But, on further reflection, he perceived that Aḷāra had been dead seven days. So he fixed on Uddaka, but perceived that he too had died that very evening. Then he thought of the five mendicants, how faithfully they had served him for a time; and casting about in his mind where they then might be, he perceived they were at the Deer-forest in Benares. And he determined, saying, “There I will go to inaugurate the Kingdom of Righteousness.” But he delayed a few days, begging his daily food in the neighbourhood of the Bo-tree, with the intention of going to Benares on the full-moon day of the month of May.
And at dawn of the fourteenth day of the month, when the night had passed away, he took his robe and his bowl; and had gone eighteen leagues, just half way, when he met the Hindu mendicant Upaka. And he announced to him how he had become a Buddha; and on the evening of that day he arrived at the hermitage near Benares.[219]
The five mendicants, seeing already from afar the Buddha coming, said one to another, “Friend, here comes the mendicant Gotama. He has turned back to a free use of the necessaries of life, and has recovered roundness of form, acuteness of sense, and beauty of complexion. We ought to pay him no reverence; but as he is, after all, of a good family, he deserves the honour of a seat. So we will simply prepare a seat for him.”
The Blessed One, casting about in his mind (by the power that he had of knowing what was going on in the thoughts of all beings) as to what they were thinking, knew their thoughts. Then, concentrating that feeling of his love which was able to pervade generally all beings in earth and heaven, he directed it specially towards them. And the sense of his love diffused itself through their hearts; and as he came nearer and nearer, unable any longer to adhere to their resolve, they rose from their seats, and bowed down before him, and welcomed him with every mark of reverence and respect. But, not knowing that he had become a Buddha, they addressed him, in everything they said, either by name, or as “Brother.” Then the Blessed One announced to them his Buddhahood, saying, “O mendicants, address not a Buddha by his name, or as ‘brother.’ And I, O mendicants, am a Buddha, clear in insight, as those who have gone before.”[220]
Then, seated on the place prepared for him, and surrounded by myriads of angels, he addressed the five attendant elders, just as the moon was passing out of conjunction with the lunar mansion in June, and taught them in that discourse which was The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness.
Of the five Elders, Kondanya the Believer[221] gained in knowledge as the discourse went on; and as it concluded, he, with myriads of angels, had arrived at the Fruit of the First Path.[222] And the Master, who remained there for the rainy season, sat in the wihāra the next day, when the other four had gone a-begging, talking to Vappa: and Vappa that morning attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, in a similar manner, Bhaddiya on the next day, and Mahā Nāma on the next, and Assaji on the next, attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, on the fifth day, he called all five to his side, and preached to them the discourse On the Non-existence of the Soul; and at the end of that discourse all the five elders attained to Nirvāna.