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Their relative dignity may be learnt from the announcement, that when alms were given to them it produces greater merit by a hun- dred times than when given to the rahats ; and that when given to the supreme Budhas it produces greater merit by sixteen times sixteen than when given to them. The su- preme Budhas reveal the paths leading to nirwana to all beings; but the Pas^-Budhas can only obtain nirwdna for themselves. They cannot release any other being from the miseries of successive existence. They cannot preach the perfect bana, even as the dumb man, though he may have seen a remarkable dream, cannot explain it to others ; or as IL ORDERS OF SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 39 the savage, who enters a city and is sumptuously fed by some respectable citizen who meets with him, is unable, on his re- turn to the forest, to give his fellow-savages an idea of the taste of the food he has eaten, because they are not accus- tomed to food of the same kind, but although they cannot teach others, they may themselves attain to a perfect acquaint- ance with the four pratisambhidas, or modes of supernatural illumination. They can give' precepts so as to lessen the power of the sensuous principle ; but they cannot entirely destroy it It is a rule of the priests in Ceylon who belong to the sect of the Amarapuras, not to follow the observances of the Pas6-Budhas, unless they have received the sanction of Gotama. II. The fourth of the paths leading to nirw4na is called aiya, or aryahat The ascetic who has entered this path is called a Sahat He is free from all cleaving to sensuous objects. Evil desire has become extinct within him, even as the principle of fructification has become extinct in the tree that has been cut down by the root, or the principle of life in the seed that has been exposed to the influence of fire. The mind of the rahat is incapable of error upon any subject connected with religious truth ; though he may make mis- takes upon common subjects, or from allowing the faculty of observation to remain in abeyance. There are five great powers that the rahat possesses : — 1. Irdhi, or the power of working miracles; he can rise into the air, overturn the earth, or arrest the course of the sun. 2. The power to hear all sounds^ from whatever being proceeding. 3. The power to know the thoughts of other beings. 4. The power of knowing what births were received in former ages. 5. The power of knowing what births will be received by any being in future ages. But all rahats do not possess these powers in an equal degree of perfection. The rahat is subject to bodily pain ; nevertheless, his mind is free from the usual accompaniments of pain, such as agitation, sorrow, or unsub- missiveness ; as the trunk of the tree remains unmoved in tKe storm, though the branches may be subject to violent oscil- 40 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. lations. This high state of privilege was sometunes received in an instant ; as when the ascetic Nigrodha became a rahat whilst his hair was being cut off to prepare him for the re- ception of the priesthood. But in other cases it required a long and laborious exercise of discipline ; the facility of ac- quirement being ruled by the amount of merit received in former births. In the earlier ages of Budhism, the rahatship was attained by females. At his death, the rahat invariably enters nirwdna, or ceases to exist. As the cause of re-pro- duction, karma, is destroyed, it is not possible for him to enter upon any other mode of existence ; the concretive power that binds together the elements of existence is now wanting ; the effect ceases, from the evanishment of the cause. To make a false profession of the attainment of rahatship is one of the four crimes that involve permanent exclusion from the priesthood. III. The moment that man loses the aid of induction, and enters into the unseen world, his littleness becomes manifest ; and yet in no department of investigation has he pursued his course with more complacency, or allowed his imagination a revelry more unrestrained. But the bolder the flight he has taken, the less has he brought conviction to the minds of those who have listened to his reveries ; as all his creations are only a repetition of what any one may see in the every- day world ; or they are airy nothings ; or they are an un- natural jumble of things that have no affinity, and can never be reaUy conjoined. New arrangements he can form ; and when he has accomplished this simple task, he beguiles him- self into the belief that he has emanated a new existence. There is, therefore, no part of heathenism that is less inte- resting than its description of other worlds ; and in no light does it appear so absurd as in its accounts of the creatures by which they are inhabited. The Pas^Budhas and rahats are equally partakers of humanity ; but we must now pass on to the consideration of the unearthly and the monstrous. The d^was of Budhism do not inhabit the d^wa 16ka8 ex- clusively, as in the world of men there are also d^was of II. ORDERS OF SENTIENT EXISTENCE. 41 trees, locks, and the elements. They resemble the saints of the Somanists, or the kindred dii minores of a more ancient faith, as they are beings who were once men but are now reaping the reward of their prowess or virtue. They re- side in a place of happiness ; but do not possess the higher attributes of divinity. They receive birth by the appari- tional form, are subject to various passions, and in size are more than colossal (2). Their number must be incalculable by the numeration of mortals ; as many myriads of myriads are represented as being present when Grdtama delivered the discourse called Maha Samaya, in the hall of KutdgAra, near his native city of Kapilawastu. When the acquisition of merit in previous births has been sraaU, the d^was be- come subject to fear as they approach the period in which they are to pass into some other mode of existence. Thus Sekra himself, the ruler of TawutisA, previous to the occa- sion upon which he heard the sacred bana from the lips of G6tama (by which he received merit, and thereby a pro- longation of the period of his reign), became greatly sorrowful when he reiSected that he was about to leave the pleasures he had so long enjoyed. But the d^was who possess a greater share of merit are free from fear, as they know that when they are re-bom it will be in some superior state of existence. The functions of the d^was are of varied character, and in some instances inconsistent with the powers attributed to " the three gems." They endeavour to prevent the acquirement of merit by those whom they fear will supplant them in the possession of the various pleasures and dignities they respec- tively enjoy (3). They take cognizance of the actions of men, as we learn from the legend of the guardian deities (4). They sympathize with those who act aright, as in the case of the nobleman Wisikha (5) ; and punish those by whom they themselves are injured (6), or those who insult and persecute the faithful (7). The grand principles of Budhism would be complete with- out the existence of any other orders of being beside those 42 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. that inhabit our earth, and are perceptible to the senses ; and it would agree better with the genius of the system pro- pounded by G6tama, to suppose that, like other sceptics, he believed in neither angel nor demon, than to imagine that the accounts of the d^was and other supernatural beings we meet with in works called Budhistical were known at its first promulgation. All the accounts of his interviews with d^was and brahmas, as well as those which represent these agencies as listening to his words and doing him homage, must, it is unnecessary to say, have been the product of a more recent age. It is possible that he may have enunciated the mun- dane system now attributed to him, and have spoken of other worlds, which his disciples peopled with imaginary beings, in deference to vulgar prejudice or from pride of office, making them ancillary to the exaltation of the sage in whose glory they so largely participated. There is the greater reason to believe that this class of legends has been grafted upon Budhism from a foreign source ; as nearly the whole of them may be traced to opinions that are common to almost every school that arose among the Hindus in the period that succeeded the age of G6tama.