“Why are hearts cold,” etc.—This story the Master told during a stay near Sāketa, about a brahmin named Sāketa. Both the circumstances that suggested the story and the story itself have already been given in the First Book [1].
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[ p. 163 ]
[235]…And when the Tathāgata had gone to the monastery, the Brother asked, “How, Sir, did the love begin? ”and repeated the first stanza:—
Why are hearts cold to one—O Buddha, tell!—
And love another so exceeding well?”
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The Master explained the nature of love by the second stanza:
“Those love they who in other lives were dear,
As sure as grows the lotus in the mere.”
After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth:—“These two people were the brahmin and his wife in the story; and I was their son.”
162:3 No. 68. ↩︎