"So at the hour boar's flesh was offered him;
And he did not refuse it for himself,
But bade his host give other food to them,
His brethren; sweet rice was their share, and cakes.
Some prescience warned him what the end would be;
'For other none, save such as I myself,'
The Blesséd One to Kunda listening said,
'Were able to receive this nourishment,
The boar's flesh, and convert it to right use.
So what remains thereof when I have done,
Bury it under ground and eat it not.'
So spoke lord Buddha and partook the meat.
But he was seized straightway with colic pangs
That griped him sore; long time be sought in vain
For ease to his distress; but he was calm
And fully self-possessed amid it all,
Uttering no complaint. Relieved at last
A little, he to his attendant said—
Ânanda that one was, the Venerable—
'On now to Kusinârâ I will go.'
"But going, he fell weary with the way
And rested underneath a tree. 'I thirst,'
To Ânanda he said; 'fetch me to drink.'
But Ânanda replied: 'This stream, behold,
Is turbid, roiled with many passing wheels:
Yon other river is a pleasant stream,
With banks that make it easy of access.'
'I thirst, O Ânanda,' the master said
A second time, repeating the same words.
And yet a second time too Ânanda
Repeated that the nearer stream was foul,
And the one farther on approachable
And clear. A third time Buddha said, 'I thirst,'
And a third time repeated those same words.
Then Ânanda no longer made demur,
But took a bowl and to the streamlet went.
The water that had just been roiled with wheels
Was flowing limpid, bright, and sweet. He thought,
'How wonderful, how marvellous, the power,
The might, of the Tathâgata!' But he,
The Blesséd One, received the bowl and drank.
(Tathâgata we call our Buddha, so
Honoring him as one who holds himself
Filially faithful to ancestral ways.)
"To Kusinârâ faring forward still
The Buddha sowed instructions all the way.
But that which he in his forethoughtful care
Said for the solacing of Kunda's mind,
Should Kunda peradventure afterward
Hear some one say to him, 'O Kunda, that
Was evil to thee and loss, that Buddha died
Having partaken his last meal with thee'—
What Buddha said forefending blame like that,
Was memorable. He Ânanda thus taught:
'Tell Kunda: That was good to thee, and gain,
That the Tathâgata then died when he
Had his last meal as guest of thine partaken.
There is no offering of alms in food
Of greater profit unto him who gives
Than when one offers a Tathâgata
Food that once eaten by him he departs
With that complete departure wherein naught
Of all that late he was is left to be.
"One admonition our lord Buddha gave
In those last times with him, which let me pray
From some of you pardon that I report;
New lessons I have learned of womanhood,
Sharing these feasts of converse with you all.
Now Ânanda inquired of Buddha this:
'How, master, shall we deal with womankind?'
'O Ânanda,' the master made reply,
'Refrain from seeing them.' But Ânanda
Said: 'If by chance we see them at some time?'
'Abstain, O Ânanda, from speech with them,'
The Blesséd One made answer. Ânanda
Once more: 'O master, if they speak to us?'
'Bestir your senses to keep well awake,'
The Buddha said in final warning word."
The Indian paused hereon, his eyes down dropt,
A noble gentle shame confusing him.
He would have added (what, not added, Paul
Felt in his manner of reticence implied)
Tardy acknowledgment of fault his own
That he at first had spurned the thought proposed
To him of learning aught from Mary's lips;
Acknowledgment condign, with suit to be
Judged gently since his master so had taught—
All this he would have said in words outright,
But sense of other duty kept him dumb;
Besides that he was conscious in his mind
Of being by Paul already understood.
Publius as master of the feast perceived
Blindly that here a rally of some sort
Was needed for the rescue of the cheer
Just trembling on the balance to be lost.
He was perplexed, but his perplexity
Was his resource better than ready wit.
For, with a quick dependent instinct, he
Turned him to Paul unconsciously confessed
Ascendent wheresoever he might be,
And Paul, thus silently appealed to, spoke:
"Such thought of woman is not from the Lord;
The Lord our God made woman one with man.
Equal? Nay, equal not. Inferior? Nay,
Nor equal nor inferior; as too not
Superior; rather, part of him, as he
Of her, they twain together one, and whole
Neither without the other. He is head,
Not lord and master to rule over her,
As she not slave, not servant, to be ruled;
She, of her will unforced, subject to him
Through joyful choice of reverence and of love,
And he, with equal mutual reverent love,
Honoring her and cherishing as himself."
"So is it with you," said Krishna, "as I have seen
With wonder, and admired; almost convinced
That ye herein are better taught than I.
If I perchance in anything have failed
Of reverence meet toward womankind, I pray
Pardon ye it to me; and hold besides
That haply my lord Buddha had himself
Judged otherwise herein, with other types
To judge from of what womankind may be."
"Yea," Paul said, "he but judged from what he saw;
Not knowing he, as our Lord Jesus knew,
What God from the beginning and before
Established as the order of His world,
And looked upon it and pronounced it good.
But also what your Buddha judged amiss
Became a force creating what he saw;
For teaching and believing, subtle powers,
Are plastic to conform us to themselves.
What ye believe of woman, teaching her
To know that ye believe it of her, yea,
Making her half believe it of herself,
This she hereby, even in her own despite,
Tends to become; if it unworthy be,
Then all the issuing stream of humankind,
Fouled at the fountain thus, flows forth corrupt
And ever more corrupt—the stream turned back
With every generation to its source,
And adding to the feculence of that.
"The ruin has no remedy but one.
The Lord Christ by a woman came to us,
And opened a new fountain for our race,
Pure, more than pure, for purifying too.
Life drawn from Him, life fed from Him, life lived
In Him and for Him, that alone is pure,
And endless because boundless; blesséd; joy,
And peace, and power, and triumph evermore.
His life may all through faith in Him partake,
Faith which unites us vitally to Him.
Christ is the founder of a race redeemed,
Redeemed from sin, and death, and every ill.
In Him believing, we rejoice with joy
Unspeakable and full of glory, now
Already though before the time in hope.
Belief in misery makes miserable.
We do not need to be defeated so;
Thanks be to God Most High who giveth us
The victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!
"Would that thy Buddha groping in his dark,
Nobly as seems, with that maimed nobleness
Which only is left possible by sin
Without a Savior known, ah, would that he
Had known a Savior such as Christ the Lord!