92 



CEYLON BRANCH 



not willing to be separated from you even by death ; why, 

 while you are alive, should we permit you to leave the house 

 and become a houseless priest ? When they had thus spoken, 

 Rattapala remained silent. 



A second and a third time his parents spoke to him in the 

 same words, but he gave no answer. 



His parents then went to his friends and said, This Ratta- 

 pala, is lying on the bare ground and says, Either here I will 

 die or become a priest. Come, and go to Rattapala, and say 

 to him, Friend Rattapala, you are the only son of your parents, 

 pleasing and beloved; you are in affluent circumstances and 

 have been tenderly educated. Friend Rattapala, you have 

 never known any trouble. Get up, friend Rattapala, eat, drink, 

 associate with your women ; and eating, drinking, and attended 

 by your women, enjoy the pleasures of sense, perform acts of 

 merit, and live content. Your parents will not consent to your 

 forsaking family life and becoming a houseless priest. They 

 are unwilling to be separated from you even by death; why 

 should they permit you, while you live, to forsake family life 

 and become a houseless priest ? 



His friends acceded to the request of his parents and going 

 to him spoke to him as they were desired, but he gave them 

 no answer. Three times they used the words above recited 

 [to prevent this endless repetition the words are not translated] 

 but received no reply. 



They then returned to his parents and said, Mother and 

 father, this Rattapala, lies there on the bare ground saying, 

 Here I will die or become a priest: if you do not consent to 

 his forsaking family life and becoming a priest, he will die 

 there ; but if you give your consent, you will see him when he 

 is a priest, and if he should not be satisfied with his priestly 

 state, to what else will he turn, except to return back here ; 



