Maitreya

“ Ah, Poverty, I pity thee, that so
⁠To me thou clingest, as thy dearest friend;
⁠When my poor life has met its woeful end,
I sadly wonder, whither thou wilt go. ⁠38
Maitreya. [Betraying his embarrassment.] Well, comrade, if I must go, at least let Radanikā go with me, to keep me company.
Chārudatta. Radanikā, you are to accompany Maitreya.
Radanikā. Yes, sir.
Maitreya. Mistress Radanikā, do you take the offering and the candle while I open the side-door. [He does so.]
Vasantasenā. It seems as if the door took pity on me and opened of itself. I will lose no time, but enter. ”

“ Sir, that is my mistress' mother.
Maitreya. Lord! What an extensive belly the dirty old witch has got! I suppose they couldn't put that superb portal on the house till after they had brought the idol in?
Maid. Rascal! You must not make fun of our mother so. She is pining away under a quartan ague.
Maitreya. [Bursts out laughing.] O thou blessèd quartan ague! Look thou upon a Brahman, even upon me, with this thy favor!
Maid. Rascal! May death strike you. ”

“ Maitreya. What? Wasn't it stolen?
Chārudatta. Yes.
Maitreya. What is the pleasant news, then?
Chārudatta. The fact that he did not go away disappointed.
Maitreya. But it was only entrusted to our care.
Chārudatta. What! entrusted to our care? [He swoons.]
Maitreya. Come to yourself, man. Is the fact that a thief stole what was entrusted to you, any reason why you should swoon?
Chārudatta. [Coming to himself.] Ah, my friend,
Who will believe the truth?
⁠Suspicion now is sure.
This world will show no ruth
⁠To the inglorious poor. ⁠24
Alas! ”

“ Well, well! This courtezan keeps a regular menagerie of birds. Really, the courtezan's house seems to me like Indra's heaven. Show me the way, madam.
Maid. Come, sir, and enter the eighth court.
Maitreya. [Enters and looks about.] Madam, who is this in the silk cloak, adorned with such astonishingly tautologous ornaments, who wanders about, stumbling and stretching his limbs?
Maid. Sir, this is my mistress' brother.
Maitreya. What sort of ascetic exercises does a man have to perform, in order to be born as Vasantasenā's brother? ”

“ Here is the court-room. I will go in at once. [He enters.] May happiness be the lot of the magistrates. Where is my friend?
Judge. Here.
Maitreya. My friend, I wish you happiness.
Chārudatta. It will be mine.
Maitreya. And peace.
Chārudatta. That too will be mine.
Maitreya. My friend, why do you seem so exceedingly troubled? And why were you summoned?
Chārudatta. My friend,
A scoundrel I, who bear the blame,
Nor seek in heaven to be blest;
A maid—or goddess—'t is the same—
But he will say the rest.30
Maitreya. ”

“ Vasantasenā. [To herself.] Say rather "consecrated."
Chārudatta.
Until she seems the crescent moon,
⁠With clouds of autumn [9] mated? ⁠54
But no! I may not gaze upon another's wife.
Maitreya. Oh, you need not fear that you are looking at another man's wife. This is Vasantasenā, who has been in love with you ever since she saw you in the garden where Kāma's temple stands.
Chārudatta. What! this is Vasantasenā? [Aside.]
My love for whom—my fortune spent—
My wretched self in twain has rent,
Like coward's anger, inward bent. ⁠55
Maitreya. ”

“ Better that he were injured in body than in character. For now the people of Ujjayinī will say that my lord committed this crime because of his poverty. [She looks up and sighs.] Ah, mighty Fate! The destinies of the poor, uncertain as the water-drops which fall upon a lotus-leaf, seem to thee but playthings. There remains to me this one necklace, which I brought with me from my mother's house. But my lord would be too proud to accept it. Girl, call Maitreya hither.
Radanikā. Yes, mistress. [She approaches Maitreya.] Maitreya, my lady summons you.
Maitreya. Where is she? ”

“ Maitreya, my friend, help Vasantasenā to get out.
Maitreya. Has she got fetters on her feet, so that she can't get out by herself? [He rises and lifts the curtain of the cart.] Why, this is n't mistress Vasantasenā—this is Mister Vasantasena.
Chārudatta. A truce to your jests, my friend. Love cannot wait. I will help her to get out myself. [He rises.]
Aryaka. [Discovers him.] Ah, the owner of the bullock-cart! He is attractive not only to the ears of men, but also to their eyes. Thank heaven! I am safe.
Chārudatta. [Enters the bullock-cart and discovers Aryaka.] ”

“ What right has a man with a pate that looks like a caret, to shplit my head into a hundred pieces? Not much! You confounded rashcal! [Maitreya raises his staff and repeats his words. Sansthānaka rises angrily and strikes him. Maitreya strikes back. During the scuffle the jewels fall from Maitreya's girdle.]
Sansthānaka. [Picks up the jewels and examines them. Excitedly.] Look, gentlemen, look! These are the poor girl's jewels! [Pointing to Chārudatta.] For a trifle like thish he murdered her, and killed her too. [The magistrates all bow their heads.] ”

“ Thus at the time of creation as well as that of dissolution the four-fold divisions of the Great Deity are equally essential, O Maitreya. Whatever is generated by any living being, O twice-born one—the agent is considered as a portion of Hari. And whatever destroys any living being, moveable or immoveable, is considered as the destroying portion of Janārddana as Rudra. In this wise Janārddana is the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe. And assuming three qualities he is three-fold—in creation, preservation and destruction—but his true form is void of these qualities. ”

“ When each one in this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to double its length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in the first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the Sakya who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted the three Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight Abstinences, and given offerings to the three Precious Ones ”

“ Kumbhīlaka. Yes, she's here. Vasantasenā is here.
Chārudatta. [Joyfully.] My good fellow, I have never let the bearer of welcome news go unrewarded. Take this as your recompense. [He gives him his mantle.]
Kumbhīlaka. [Takes it and bows. Gleefully.] I'll tell my mistress. [Exit.
Maitreya. Do you see why she comes in a storm like this?
Chārudatta. I do not quite understand, my friend.
Maitreya. I know. She has an idea that the pearl necklace is cheap, and the golden casket expensive. She isn't satisfied, and she has come to look for something more.
Charudatta. [Aside.] ”

“ His exquisite voice is soft and pure. Those who hear it can never tire; those who listen are never satiated [86] .’
In fact, the aspirations of few pious Buddhists in early times ever led them to soar higher than the 183 happiness of living with Maitreya and listening to his voice in his own Tushita heaven.
It is true that afterwards when the worship of the Dhyāni-Buddha Amitābha came into vogue in Northern countries this Buddha’s heaven, called Sukhāvatī, fabled to be somewhere in the Western sky, seems to have taken the place of the heaven of Maitreya. ”

“ Do those bulls of the Kuru race intend to stay out their time? Will the brotherly affection of the Kauravas ever be impaired?’
“Maitreya said, ‘Setting out on a pilgrimage to the different shrines, I arrived at Kuru-jangala, and there I unexpectedly saw Yudhishthira the just in the woods of Kamyaka. And, O exalted one, many Munis had come there to behold the high-souled Yudhishthira, dwelling in an ascetic asylum, clad in deer-skin and wearing matted locks. ”

“ Maitreya is neither a glutton nor a fool, but a simple-minded, whole-hearted friend.
The courtier is another character suggested by the technical works, and transformed by the genius of Shūdraka. He is a man not only of education and social refinement, but also of real nobility of nature. But he is in a false position from the first, this true gentleman at the wretched court of King Pālaka; at last he finds the courage to break away, and risks life, and all that makes life attractive, by backing Aryaka. Of all the conspirators, it is he who runs the greatest risk. ”

“ The king in gratitude entrusts the pair to the minister, who, however, is enamoured of Kaumudī and anxious to get rid of her husband. The opportunity is given [259] by a human sacrifice which a vassal of the king wishes to offer; Mitrāṇanda is sent by the minister with a letter intended to secure his being the victim, but luckily is recognized by Maitreya, his companion, who had won the vassal’s favour by curing him by a magic herb. Kaumudī in the meantime is expelled from the minister’s house by his jealous wife, and wanders until she meets Sumitrā, daughter of a merchant, and her family ”

“ Thus the dated inscription of the temple erected in Turfan A.D. 469 is a mixture of Chinese ideas, both Confucian and Taoist, with Indian. It is in honour of Maitreya, a Bodhisattva known to the Hînayâna, but here regarded not merely as the future Buddha but as an active and benevolent deity who manifests himself in many forms [532] , a view which also finds expression in the tradition that the works of Asanga were revelations made by him. Akâśagarbha and the Dharmakâya are mentioned. ”

“ Now the image was set up rather more than 300 years after the nirvâna (7) of Buddha, which may be referred to the reign of king P’ing of the Chow dynasty. (8) According to this account we may say that the diffusion of our great doctrines (in the east) began from (the setting up of) this image. If it had not been through that Maitreya, (9) the great spiritual master (10) (who is to be) the successor of the Sakya, who could have caused the ‘Three Precious Ones’ (11) to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those border lands to know our Law? ”

“ This is Gupta Rao sahib, of Bikanir.”
“I never heard of him,” said Maitraya, looking slightly scandalized although prepared to condescend.
“He is a very great actor,” said Benjamin. Whereat Ommony bowed with becoming gravity, and Maitraya took his measure, up and down.
“Does he act in that beard?” he inquired.
“I have lately been acting the part of an Englishman,” said Ommony; and his Urdu was as perfect and pedantic as Maitraya’s.
“An Englishman? There are few who can do that with conviction.” Maitraya stepped back a pace. “You don’t look like an Englishman. No wonder you grew a beard. ”

“ But "Magna Graecia" is pure Maitland; it is absolutely himself. It is, indeed, very nearly the Maitland who might have been if ill luck had not pursued him from his boyhood. Had he been a successful man on the lines that fate pointed out to him; had he succeeded greatly—or nobly, as he would have said—at the University; had he become a tutor, a don, a notable man among men of letters, still would he have travelled in southern Italy, and made his great pilgrimage to the Fonte di Cassiodorio. ”

“ He left an hour ago, he and all the women and Samding, on little Tibetan ponies. There was no ceremony. They rode away like ghosts into the mist.”
Maitraya took Ommony’s arm in rank defiance of caste decorum.
“Come along, Gupta Rao. I know you are no Brahman. You are possibly a Kshattriya like me, but what the devil has caste to do with our profession! Whatever you are, you have the approval of me, Maitraya! You are a great actor. You are a man after mine own heart—a little conceited possibly—a trifle grumpy on occasion—but we all have faults. I know a first-rate actor, when I see him! ”

“ Members of the mercantile community, Moslems as well as Hindus, bowed to Maitraya from open shop-windows or from the thronged sidewalk as if he were a royal personage. Men who would not have let his clothing touch them, because of the resulting caste-defilement, were eager to have it known that they were on familiar terms with him; for a popular actor is idolized not only in the West.
“You see, they know me!” said Maitraya proudly. “Men whose names I can’t remember pay me homage! Actors are respected more than kings and priests—and justly so. They rule badly and teach nonsense. ”

“ Matilall had only to sigh, and the visitor with him at the time would snap his fingers, by way of warding off the evil omen: if he but sneezed, his visitor would say: "May your life be prolonged." If Matilall called for a servant, the sycophant would scream out: "Ho there! Ho there!" and in answer to every remark of Matilall's, no matter what it was, he would say: "Whatever your honour says must be right." ”

“ Ommony led him to the cell and sat down on the truckle bed. Maitraya would not sit; he threw an attitude and paced the floor, striving to create an atmosphere of tremendous drama, that somehow refused to materialize between those dripping walls. He shuddered at the cold when he should have gestured like a Mogul chieftain, and coughed, which rather spoiled the grandeur of his voice.
“Gupta Rao—let us accept our destiny! If two men, mutually worthy of respect, were ever brought together for immortal purposes, those two are we! Consider! Have we not a task in common? ”

“ In all these household cares she was greatly assisted by Mailah, who was both active and skilful in all the duties of an Indian squaw: and eager also to evince her gratitude for the kindness and protection that were afforded to herself and her child by the Nausett Chief, by doing all that she could to lighten Oriana's labors. Time and occupation did not fail to have their usual effect on one so young, and naturally so light-hearted as Mailah; and animated cheerfulness took the place of the mournful expression that had hitherto so frequently sat on her countenance. She did not forget Lincoya ”