Subhuti

“ Tathágata declares that these thirty-two distinguishing marks are no real distinctions after all, that they are but mere names.
Subhúti, if there be a virtuous disciple, male or female, who should offer body and life in a work of charity, as many times as there are sands in the Ganges; and if, on the other hand, there be a man who receives and adopts the principles of this Sútra up to the point of the four canons; on account of this man, I declare his merit is very great, and in point of number vast indeed. ”

“ Subhuti, concerning ‘visible objects,’ the Lord Buddha declared that these are not really ‘visible objects’ they are merely termed ‘visible objects.’”
1 “Because, O Subhuti, if a man were to say that belief in self, belief in a being, belief in life, belief in personality, had been preached by the Tathagata, would he be speaking truly? Subhuti said, not indeed, Bhagavat, he would not be speaking truly. And why? Because, what was preached by the Tathagata as a belief in self, that was preached as no-belief, therefore it is called belief in self.”—The Vagrakkhedika. Max Müller. ”

“ So then, Subhúti, if a Bodhisatwa still be affected by any individual distinction, such as the following: I will strive after so and so because “it seems agreeable to me,” or because “men approve of it,” or because “it is the best reward for a sentient creature,” or because “it entails endless duration of life,” such a Bodhisatwa, I say, is not a true Bodhisatwa, wherefore it is plain, O Subhúti, that there is in reality no such condition of being as that described as the unsurpassed, just, and enlightened heart. ”

“ Moreover, Subhūti, suppose good men and good women accept, maintain, study, and recite this sūtra. If they are treated badly due to karma from a previous life that would make them fall onto evil paths, then from this treatment by others their karma from previous lives will be eliminated in this lifetime, and they will attain Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi. ”

“ Moreover, Subhúti, in repeating this Sútra in due order, and having come to the part in which the four canons are laid down, you should know that at this point the whole body of Devas, men and asuras, ought with one accord to bring their tribute of worship, as to a temple or Stúpa. How much more then if there be a man who is able completely to believe and receive the whole Sútra and to recite it throughout. ”

“ To show fear, is to whet an Indian's appetite for blood: coolness confounds and awes him when anything will.
If Sublette had longed for excitement, while an invalid in his lonely lodge on Bear River, he longed equally now for that blissful seclusion. Listening for, and hearing one's death-warrant from a band of blood-thirsty savages, could only prove with bitter sharpness how sweet was life, even the most uneventful. ”

“ Mark Sutherland took her hand, and replied gently—
“My dear India, we do not deny that God continually brings good out of evil; but is that a justification of the evil? And even admitting, for argument’s sake, that the reduction of a portion of the Ethiopian race to slavery by the Anglo-Americans is to be the means of Christianizing them, is it not full time, after two hundred years of bondage, that some of this harvest sowed with tears and blood should be reaped?—that some of these good fruits should begin to be enjoyed?” ”

“ Her two elder sisters were called Sukeshini and Suhásini, and for the sake of alliteration the father gave the name of Subhâsini to his youngest daughter. And people abbreviated the name into Subhà.
The two elder girls had been matched at great expense and after a mighty hunt for a bridegroom; now the youngest one weighed heavily upon the oppressed heart of her parents.
It does not come home to every one that one who cannot speak, is capable of feeling; and so, everybody gave vent to their sense of dark misgivings with regard to her future in her very presence. ”

“ As the youth Sudhana has come to man’s estate, and is proud of his strength and courage, you can send him out with the troops.” The king said, “I will do so.” Thereupon the king summoned the youth, and said to him, “O youth, march forth with the troops and subdue the mountaineers.” “Your majesty, I will act in accordance with your commands.”
Having thus spoken, Sudhana prepared to obey his father. On betaking himself to the zenana, he saw Manoharā there, and not only forgot all his other wives, [58] but also, as soon as he saw her, forgot the commands laid upon him by the king. ”

“ The youth gazed at the city, which was adorned by a park rich in flowers and fruits of various kinds, the haunt of all sorts of birds, provided with tanks, oblong and square lakes, and surrounded by Kinnarīs. He saw some Kinnarīs coming to draw water, and he said to them, “What are you going to do with all that water?” They replied, “The Kinnarī king has a daughter, Manoharā. As she has fallen into the hands of human beings, the smell of humanity has to be washed off her.” The youth Sudhana said, “Are all these jugs to be emptied over her at once, or one after another?” ”

“ For the Sudras, who had come under the domination of the Aryan religion, there was no religious instruction, no religious observance, no social respect. Despised and degraded in the very community in which they were forced to live, they sighed for a change, and as they increased in number, pursued various useful industries, owned lands and villages, and gained in influence and power, they became more and more conscious of the unbearable conditions to which they were condemned. ”

“ Wherefore should a strength like mine require a companion? What! shall not men trust themselves to the great ocean wave? Shall not one heal the hand which a snake has bitten? If a vigorous being struggles to the utmost, no blame can be found with the pains taken, even though they may not be successful.” [71]
Thereupon the youth Sudhana, provided with the various objects indicated by Manoharā, set forth. He passed in their turn the rivers, the caverns, and the abysses, assisted by the remedies, the spells, and the antidotes, and he came into the neighbourhood of the Kinnarī king, Druma. ”

“ Passing our of Jagrata, the Indians held that, beyond the chaotic borderland, we entered, in Svapna and Sushupti, upon real states of being. Sushupti, the highest, was accounted a spiritual state; here the soul touches vaster centres in the great life and has communion with celestial intelligences. The unification of these states into one is one of the results of Raj-Yoga; in this state the chela keeps memory of what occurred while his consciousness was in the planes of Svapna and Sushupti. ”

“ We were overjoyed to think that we had got to a resting-place, where we could repose our weary limbs, and recruit the lost strength of our sick. While Sublet was finishing his business with his Indian trappers, they delivering their peltry, and he remunerating them in his way with cloth, powder, ball, beads, knives, handkerchiefs, and all that gawdy trumpery which Indians admire, together with coffee, rice, and corn, also leather, and other articles,—we, being idle, had time to think, to reflect, and to be uneasy. ”

“ Then followed a talk, and after the giving of a considerable present, Sublette was allowed to depart. This he did with all dispatch, the company putting as much distance as possible between themselves and their visitors before making their next camp. Considering the warlike character of these tribes and their superior numbers, it was as narrow an escape on the part of the company as it was an exceptional freak of generosity on the part of the savages to allow it. But Indians have all a great respect for a man who shows no fear ”

“ He hates him for his political opinions, for his principles, and, more than all, for having had the power to give up the beautiful India. Clement Sutherland worships his beautiful daughter; and he hates Mark for not having laid upon her shrine the most precious jewel of his soul—his integrity. And now, with the opposition of your guardian, who is invested with such power over your fortune, what have you to expect in giving yourself to Mark Sutherland? ”

“ So he went to the hunter Phalaka, and asked him where it was that he had got possession of Manoharā. The hunter replied, “On the slope of such and such a mountain dwells a Rishi, in whose hermitage there is a pool, Brahmasabhā by name. Going there to bathe, I captured her according to the Rishi’s directions.” Sudhana said to himself, “I will go to the Rishi’s abode, and there obtain information.” Hearing that the youth was greatly depressed by his separation from Manoharā, the king said, “O youth, wherefore are you so depressed? I will now give you a much more beautiful wife.” ”

“ Mark Sutherland to Miss Sutherland must be preceded by a complete and final renunciation of his present purposes, before it could be received by her. Full of bitterness, he wrote to her again, and concluded his note thus:—
“I know you now, India; I know you perfectly. I no longer worship you. Alas! there is nothing in you to worship, or even to approve beyond your enchanting beauty. And yet I love you still for that bewildering beauty and for the dream that is passing away. ”

“ Manu enjoins a grihasta or householder to always travel with beasts which are well broken in, swift, endowed with lucky marks, and perfect in colour and form, without urging them much with the goad. Marks are accounted lucky if they appear in certain forms, and at certain spots. One of these marks is usually known as sudi in Telugu, and suli in Tamil. A sudi is nothing but a whorl or circlet of hair, a properly formed sudi being perfectly round in form, and nearly resembling the sudivalu, the chakrayudha of Vishnu, which is a short circular weapon commonly known as the discus of Vishnu. ”

“ Sir Subramaniem's faith in Theosophic doctrines was strengthened at one time not by any European, but by an Indian Theosophist, a man well and deeply read in Western Science and Philosophy, and with a keen analytical perception of the merits of Hindu psychic Injunctions, the late Mr. T. Subba Row who died in 1890 and when he was only 33 and deeply deplored by all sections of the public. A man of vast powers of intellect, of transparent sincerity and perfect equanimity of mind, it is to Mr. Subba Row that Sir Subramanya Iyer even to-day confesses his acknowledgment for his faith in Theosophy. ”

“ Labour, wait, struggle, for such a position, and, though no mother, sister, wife, or love, smile on your career, men and women will know it! God will bless it!”
Mark Sutherland still remained buried in deep and silent thought upon her words. Oh, if India had so spoken to him, so sympathized with his aspirations, so encouraged his flagging hopes and energies, what might he not have accomplished, even before this! But this child Rosalie was nothing, and yet she spoke words of high moment, and spoke them “as one having authority.”
“You astonish me, Rosalie; you talk far beyond your years and sex ”

“ Many persons were seen getting ready to depart. At this juncture Subodh stood up and said—"Gentlemen, pray be seated. It is not proper that so many of you should go away because of one man. I would much rather go away myself, gentlemen, and leave you to enjoy yourselves."—Having delivered this speech, Subodh shot out of the room.
Poor Kishori Babu was greatly distressed at this unexpected calamity. He ran after Subodh, caught hold of him near the gate of his house, and besought him to remain and have his dinner in a separate room, all by himself. ”

“ The king sent a general to subdue them, but he returned completely overcome and vanquished. Just the same happened to seven other generals whom the king sent out. The ministers said to the king, “Wherefore, your majesty, do you allow your forces to dwindle away and the power of the foe to increase? Be pleased to order out all who are capable of bearing arms within your realm.” The Brahman who was the Purohita thought that this was the time for bringing about Sudhana’s death, so he said to the king, “There can be no doubt that in that wise defeat will take place.” ”

“ I recognized for certain that the Sufis are assuredly walking in the path of God. Both in their acts and in their inaction, whether internal or external, they are illumined by the light which proceeds from the prophetic source. The first condition for a Sufi is to purge his heart entirely of all that is not God. The next key of the contemplative life consists in the humble prayers which escape from the fervent soul, and in the meditations on God in which the heart is swallowed up entirely. ”

“ Suttu smiled at him indulgently.
"Lo, God did not make me all stomach," she said. "I eat the air and the sunshine; and I like to see the parrot people and the squirrel people eat my dates, even if I can't."
Shâhbâsh gave a rumble of despair, and bolstered up his uneasy conscience by telling himself such views were unnatural, accursed.
"Is a grave ordered?" asked Suttu, in surprise, when, that evening after supper, the dwarf shouldered his mattock. "Who is dead?" ”

“ Seeing these hosts, and perceiving that their walls had given way, the mountaineers were greatly astonished, and asked the hosts whence they came. They replied, “Open the gates with all speed. The youth Sudhana is on the march behind us, and we are his army. If you do not open your gates with all speed, everything will be overthrown.” The mountaineers said, “We did not rebel against the king. Moreover, the youth is judicious; but we have been reduced to fear and anxiety by the king’s officials.” ”