IN THE REALM OF YAMARAJA

  THERE was a Brahman, a religious man and fond in his affections

but without deep wisdom. He had a son of great promise, who, when

seven years old, was struck with a fatal disease and died. The

unfortunate father was unable to control himself; he threw himself

upon the corpse and lay there as one dead. The relatives came and

buried the dead child and when the father came to himself, he was so

immoderate in his grief that he behaved like an insane person. He no

longer gave way to tears but wandered about asking for the residence

of Yamaraja, the king of death, humbly to beg of him that his child

might be allowed to return to life.

  Having arrived at a great Brahman temple the sad father went through

certain religious rites and fell asleep. While wandering on in his

dream he came to a deep mountain pass where he met a number of samanas

who had acquired supreme wisdom. "Kind sirs," he said, "Can you not

tell me where the residence of Yamaraja is?" And they asked him, "Good

friend, why wouldst thou know?" Whereupon he told them his sad story

and explained his intentions. Pitying his self-delusion, the samanas

said: "No mortal man can reach the place where Yama reigns, but some

four hundred miles westward lies a great city in which many good

spirits live; every eighth day of the month Yama visits the place, and

there mayst thou see him who is the King of Death and ask him for a

boon."

  The Brahman rejoicing at the news went to the city and found it as

the samanas had told him. He was admitted to the dread presence of

Yama, the King of Death, who, on hearing his request, said: "Thy son

now lives in the eastern garden where he is disporting himself; go

there and ask him to follow thee." Said the happy father: "How does it

happen that my son, without having performed one good work, is now

living in paradise?" Yamaraja replied: "He has obtained celestial

happiness not for performing good deeds, but because he died in

faith and in love to the Lord and Master, the most glorious Buddha.

The Buddha says: 'The heart of love and faith spreads as it were a

beneficent shade from the world of men to the world of gods.' This

glorious utterance is like the stamp of a king's seal upon a royal

edict."

  The happy father hastened to the place and saw his be beloved

child playing with other children, all transfigured by the peace of

the blissful existence of a heavenly life. He ran up to his boy and

cried with tears running down his cheeks: "My son, my son, dost thou

not remember me, thy father who watched over thee with loving care and

tended thee in thy sickness? Return home with me to the land of the

living." But the boy, while struggling to go back to his playmates,

upbraided him for using such strange expressions as father and son.

"In my present state, he said, "I know no such words, for I am free

from delusion."

  On this, the Brahman departed, and when he woke from his dream he

bethought himself of the Blessed Master of mankind, the great

Buddha, and resolved to go to him, lay bare his grief, and seek

consolation. Having arrived at the Jetavana, the Brahman told his

story and how his boy had refused to recognize him and to go home with

him.

  And the World-honored One said: "Truly thou art deluded. When man

dies the body is dissolved into its elements, but the spirit is not

entombed. It leads a higher mode of life in which all the relative

terms of father, son, wife, mother, are at an end, just as a guest who

leaves his lodging has done with it, as though it were a thing of

the past. Men concern themselves most about that which passes away;

but the end of life quickly comes as a burning torrent sweeping away

the transient in a moment. They are like a blind man set to look after

a burning lamp. A wise man, understanding the transiency of worldly

relations, destroys the cause of grief, and escapes from the

seething whirlpool of sorrow. Religious wisdom lifts a man above the

pleasures and pains of the world and gives him peace everlasting." The

Brahman asked the permission of the Blessed One to enter the community

of his bhikkhus, so as to acquire that heavenly wisdom which alone can

give comfort to an afflicted heart.