Collected Works (Vol. II)

THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS. 227" V. ‘“Now the great elephant strode with lordly footsteps in the forest, and Jehjaour shut himself up with his caldrons and things and felt quite happy, for he knew his danger was not near till the approaching of Perdu’ R Abu’s Arahatship. But in spite of the young gently-ambling cows which Ganesha took care to throw in his way, in spite of the tender shoots of green and the soft cocoanuts, this elephant was not as other elephants. The seasons spoke to him of change—the forest is ever full of sorrow— and nobody need preach to him the absence of an ego, for the brutes have had more sense than ever to imagine there was one. So the tusker was usually to be found, stil] as a rock, in some secluded place, meditating on the Three Characteristics) And when Ganesha appeared in all his glory, he found him to his disgust quite free from elephanto- morphism. In fact, he quietly asked the God to leave him alone. ‘* Now he was still quite a young elephant when there came into the jungle, tripping merrily along, with a light-hearted song in its nucleolus, no less than a Bacillus. ‘‘ And the elephant died. He was only seventeen years old. VI. “* A brief consultation ; and the Srotapatti was reincarnated asa parrot. For the parrot, said the wicked Jehjaour, may live 500 years and never feel it. ‘‘So a grey wonder of wings flitted into the jungle. So joyous a bird, thought the God, could not but be influenced by the ordinary passions and yield to such majesty as his own. ‘* But one day there came into the jungle a strange wild figure. He was a man dressed in the weird Tibetan fashion. He had red robes and hat, and thought dark things. He whirled a prayer-wheel in his: hands}; and ever as he went he muttered the mystic words: ‘Aum Mani Padme Hum.’! The parrot, who had never heard human speech, tried to mimic the old Lama, and was amazed at his: success. Pride first seized the bird, but it. was not long before the words had their own effect, and it was in meditation upon the conditions of existence that he eternally re- peated the formula, *% * * ‘*A home at distant Inglistan. An old lady, and a grey parrot inacage, The parrot was still muttering inaudibly the sacred mantra. Now, now, the moment of Destiny was athand! The Four Noble Truths shone out in that parrot’s mind ; the Three Char- acteristics appeared luminous, like three spectres on a murderer’s grave: unable to contain himself he recited aloud the mysterious sentence. ‘*The old lady, whatever may have been her faults, could act promptly. She rang the bell. ‘Sarah!’ said she, ‘take away that dreadful creature! Its language is positively awful.’ ‘What shall I do with it, mum?’ asked the ‘general.’ ‘Aum Mani Padme Hum,’ said the parrot. The old lady stopped her ears. ‘ Wring its neck !’ she said. ‘* The parrot was only-eight years old. VII. *** You're a muddler and an idiot !’ said the infuriated God. ‘Why not make him a spiritual thing? A Nat? lives 10,000 years.” ‘Make him a Nat then !’ said the magician, already beginning to fear that fate would be too strong for him, in spite of all his cunning. ‘There’s some one working against us on the physical plane. We mist transcend it.’ No sooner said than done: 1 **O the Jewel in the Lotus! Aum!” most famous of the Buddhist formularies. 2 The Burmese name for an elemental spirit. The