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But the man who was to kill Buddha, when he came in sight of him became terrified and stood stark still. Then Gotama called to him, and the man laid aside his bow and quiver, ap- proached, and falling at Buddha's feet, confessed his sin and begged forgiveness. Gotama told him that as he had seen his sin and made amends for it, it was meet that he be forgiven. And he saved the man's life by sending him back by a side path. (29) The two men who were to kill the first, waited long, and finally wandered on to where Buddha was sitting at the foot of a tree. He discoursed to them, as he had to the first one, and two likewise desired to be- come his followers. He saved them also by sending them back by a safe path. Having thus far failed, we are told that Devadatta hurled a huge rock down a mountain slope with the intention of killing the Blessed One, "but two moun- tain peaks came together and thus saved him." (30) Still determined upon the murder of Gotama, Deva- datta procured a great man-slaying elephant and sent it down the road upon which Buddha was advancing, (29) Vol. 20, Sacred Books of the East, p. 243 to 250. (30) This is a ridiculous and foolish story, as that where the waters of Jordan ' ' rose up upon a heap and stood there, ' ' so that the people could go dry shod over against Jericho. (Joshua, eh. 3, 14 to 17.) If one is a falsehood, the other seems to be of the same piece of cloth. (Vol. 20, p. 245, Sacred Books of the East.) 2i6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES expecting that tlic elephant would destroy him in a moment. But the elephant, on approaching his sup- posed victim, stood still and allowed Buddha to caress him. Moreover, Devadatta undertook to break up the Sampha (church), and for those offenses Buddha said Devadatta was doomed irretrievably to remain for a Kalpa in a state of suffering and woe. A Kalpa, as we have seen, is a vast period of time, millions and millions of years. Devadatta's crime was committed about twenty-three hundred and fifty years ago. It was an awful crime, but, if true, the punishment was and is fiendishly excessive. For, according to the record, he is only, as it were, just at the commence- ment of his "woe and suffering." The rich man men- tioned in Luke, who for now nearly nineteen hundred years has been suffering in a "furnace of fire," and Devadatta (Buddha's would-be murderer), who has been boiling in an iron pot for twenty-three hundred and fifty years, represent two such fiendish inflictions that we utterly discredit both stories. The hell into which Devadatta was plunged is said to be guarded four-fold, and the rich man's hell is so arranged that none can escape, for it is surrounded by a great, deep, awful gulf, impassable alike to friend or foe. (31) Section 5. Buddha, as we have seen, had ten hells (31) Vol. 20, S. B. E., p. 263 and 264, and Vol. 10, S. B. E., p. 119 to 122; Luke, ch. 16, v. 22 to 31. Mark 9, v. 43 to 44, says the fire is not quenched. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 217 of different lengths, but the lengths and the rigors of the punishments were terrible in every one of them, as a further illustration will show. Kakaliya, a Bhikkhu, falsely and without cause accused Sariputta and Naggallana, Buddha's two chief disciples, of hav- ing fallen into evil desires. He was told that he was wrong, and that their lives were pure. But he repeated the slander again and again, and each time was told of his error. Soon thereafter Kokaliya was struck with boils, and died. Sahampati, a wise Brahman, having said that Kokaliya had gone to the Paduma hell for backbiting, Buddha was asked : "How long is Paduma hell ?" and he replied : "Take a load of Sesamum seeds, and every one hundred years throw away one seed; that load will dwindle to nothing before even Abbuda hell is reached." He then proceeds to name nine interven- ing hells. Paduma hell is the tenth. Meanwhile millions and millions of years are pass- ing, during all which time Kokaliya is tossing in tor- ment for backbiting. The Hindus say that sometimes backbiters are laid on "spread embers." (32) Buddha now proceeds to lecture his followers upon the sin of lying, of evil doing, of covetousness ; all these, he says, will go to the pool for a long time; that a man's evil deeds will follow him into the other world, where he will suffer as if struck by red hot balls of iron. Sometimes the wicked, he says, are struck (32) Abbuda bell is the shortest one. Vol. 10, S. B. E,, p. 117 to 121. Luke 16, v. 24: His hell has tormenting flames. 2i8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES with iron iianimcrs, and go to dense darkness. Some- times they are boiled in iron pots. Thereafter, the wicked Hindu reaches a dark abyss, and while vainly striving to cross it, he is slashed with sharp knives, and jackals tear him; his tongue is seized with a hook, and Hell's watchman pounces upon him and mangles him further. (33) Section 6. The reader should not overlook the fact that the hells of both Buddha and Jesus are mate- rial hells, and that the bodies of the wicked are sent there. (34) Besides, there is not much difiference in the punish- ment of the wicked in India and in Palestine. Buddha boiled them in iron pots "for a long time," and Jesus roasted or broiled them in "a furnace of fire that never shall be quenched." (35) Even angels were sent "down to hell' from Jeru- salem, and bound in "chains and darkness." (36) There were devils without number in both Palestine and India ; but Jesus had this advantage over Gotama — he could cast them out, and the record is that he cast out many. (37) But the curious thing about the Jewish hell is, that while the "flames" are fierce and "tormenting," they (33) Vol. 10, Sacred Books of E., p. 122. (34) Manu, it •will be remembered, made a strong body for the wicked, but it was a material "strong body." (Manu, p. 142, p. 500.) (35) Mark 9, v. 43. (36) 2nd Peter, eh. 2, v. 4, Jesus' hell (Mass. 25, v. 41) was everlasting fire. (37) Matt. 9, V. 32 to 33; Luke 11, v. 14; Mark 3, v. 15. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 219 yet do not extinguish the eyesight of the sinners, for they can see across "a great gulf." (38) The ques- tion has been asked : From whom did Buddha get his ideas of hell? The answer is easy. He learned it from that old code of Manu, a moral code in existence more than a thousand years before he was born. Manu las twenty-one hells. (39) Buddha abridged the num- ber somewhat. No doubt Jesus obtained his ideas of hell from Esdras and the Essenes, but possibly from the Buddhists. Second Esdras, chapter 7, con- tains the key note of Jesus' hell, and Esdras must have learned it from the Essenes, who imported it from India. But what did any one, or all, of those men know about hell, any more than the reader of these lines? Were they inspired about hell? Or was this whole thing born in a poet's brain? Yet when all this is said, it may well be asked : if there be such a place as heaven, shall thieves and murderers and all the evil brood enjoy it equally with the pure in heart? I answer: No, by no means. But just how long, and what intensity of suffering the wicked will meet, is not given to man, here and now, to know. There are many problems unsolvable to us. A man may be born of a line of wicked ancestors. There is a vicious strain in his blood for which he is not to blame. He is born without his consent. He is born, as it were, in (38) Liike 16, v. 19 to 31. A real fire, we know, would destroy the eye utterly. The Hindus, more philosophical than the Jews, made a strong body. (Manu, eh. 12, s. 16.) (39) Manu 4, s. 87. 220 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES the gutter; lie lives in the gutter, and dies as he has lived. Possibly he dies under the black hood, a mur- derer. Shall he suffer in a furnace of fire, for millions and millions of years? Shall he boil in an iron pot for countless ages ? I answer : No ; but if God is his judge, the judgment will be exactly just and right. CHAPTER XIX The Doctrines of Jesus and Buddha. "Is there a land of pure delight, to saints immortal given f" Section i. Two hundred years before Jesus was born, the Jews in their religion had no certain place called heaven into which the pious soul could go, at the death of the body, to enjoy eternal bliss. True a department of eschatology, more than two thousand years B.