
Yet, while so affirming, and drawing near to Gaggara lake, where the Buddha was encamped with his disciples, Sonadanda was full of doubts and hesitations, whose motive was sheer vanity.
He wished to seek wisdom from the Buddha, to ask him questions; but his vanity instantly suggested to him how unpleasant it would be, should the ascetic Gotama say, “You should not have asked your question in that way; you should have asked it in this way!” Sonadanda immediately conjured up a picture of his Brahman admirers, and perhaps also the disciples of the ascetic Gotama, mocking him and saying that he, Sonadanda the Brahman, did not even know how to ask a question properly. Then again, supposing that the ascetic Gotama were to ask a question, and Sonadanda should try to answer it, the ascetic Gotama might say, “The question should not be answered in that way, in this way should it be explained!” And once again the lively vanity of Sonadanda called up a picture of his Brahman friends rejoicing in his discomfiture. The Buddhist narrator skilfully and dramatically shows that the Brahman Sonadanda, even while on his way to seek wisdom from one whom he held to be a great Master, was in reality more concerned about himself than about the Master. It is a fine piece of portraiture, and it applies to others beside the ancient and venerable Brahman Sonadanda.
So overwrought by these imaginings of vanity was Sonadanda, that he even thought of turning back to his comfortable home without visiting the Buddha. He decided that this course would be inexpedient, but his decision was prompted not by aspiration, but once more by vanity. For he pictured his companions as saying, “Sonadanda the Brahman is a fool, obstinate, proud; he is afraid to meet the ascetic Gotama; after going so far, he turns back!” And Sonadanda added in his mind, that, if they spoke thus openly of him, his fame would suffer, and, if his fame suffered, his earnings would decrease. On the whole, the heart of the Brahman Sonadanda is sufficiently revealed.
So he went forward with his companions to the grove of Champaka trees by the lake, where the Buddha was surrounded by his disciples. He greeted the Master courteously and sat down beside him, but his thoughts continued to revolve around himself: “If only the ascetic Gotama would ask me something about my own subject, the science of the Three Vedas! then I should be able to win his admiration by my answer!”
The narrator says that the Buddha clearly saw this thought in Sonadanda’s mind and, with courteous kindness, proceeded to comply with Sonadanda’s wish. So he said to Sonadanda:
“O Brahman, what are the qualities which, in the view of the Brahmans, a man should possess in order to be a Brahman, so that he might truthfully say ‘Iam a Brahman’?”
Sonadanda was immensely relieved: “Exactly what I desired has happened”, he congratulated himself; “the ascetic Gotama has asked me a question in my own subject! I hope my answer will win his admiration!”
So he drew himself up, and. looking around on the gathering of Brahmans and disciples, spoke thus to the Buddha:
“In the view of the Brahmans, Gotama, in order to be a Brahman, so that he may truthfully say, ‘I am a Brahman’, a man should possess five endowments. And what are these five endowments?
“First, Sire, a Brahman should be well born on the mother’s side and on the father’s side, of stainless descent through seven generations.
“Second, he should know by heart, and be able rightly to intone the Mantras of the three Vedas; he should be a Master of Vedic studies and the traditions also; he should be able to recognize the bodily marks of a great man.
“Third, he should be handsome, fair, good to look upon.
“Fourth, he should be perfected in virtue.
“Fifth, he should be wise and learned, able to perform the Vedic sacrifice of the holy fire.”
As a basis of criticism, it would be well to compare this list of qualities with the qualifications for Chelaship, as set forth, for example, in the Crest Jewel of Wisdom.
The Buddha had, without doubt, a similar standard in mind, but he expresse