‘Venerable Nāgasena, the Blessed One said to his mother’s sister, Mahā-Pajāpatī the Gotamī, when she was about to give him a cloth wrapper for use in the rainy season:

“Give it, O Gotamā, to the Order. If the Order is presented by you with it, then will you have paid homage: thereby alike to the Order and to me.”

‘But what, Nāgasena? Is not the Tathāgata of greater weight and importance, and more worthy of gifts than even the jewel treasure of the Order, that the Tathāgata should have told his aunt, when about to present him with a wrapper for the rainy season which she herself had carded and pressed and beaten and cut and woven, to give it to the Order! If, Nāgasena, the Tathāgata were really higher and greater and more excellent than the Order, then he would have known that a gift given to him would be most meritorious, and therefore would not have told her to give it to the Order. But inasmuch as the Tathāgata, Nāgasena, puts himself not in the way of gifts to himself, gives no occasion for such gifts, you see that he then told his aunt to give that wrapper rather to the Order.’

‘The quotation you make, O king, is correct, and the Blessed One did so direct his aunt’s gifts. But that was not because an act of reverence paid to himself would bear no fruit, or because he was unworthy to receive gifts, but it was out of kindness and mercy that he, thinking: “Thus will the Order in times to come, when I am gone, be highly thought of;” magnified the excellence which the Order really had, in that he said: “Give it, O Gotamī, to the Order. If you present the Order with it, thus will you have paid homage alike to the Order and to me.” Just as a father, O king, while he is yet alive, exalts in the midst of the assembly of ministers, soldiers, and royal messengers, of sentries, body guards, and courtiers —yea, in the presence of the king himself—the virtues which his son really possesses, thinking: “If established here he will be honoured of the people in times to come;” so was it out of mercy and kindness that the Tathāgata, thinking: “Thus will the Order, in times to come, when I am gone, be highly thought of;” magnified the excellence which the Order really had, in that he said: “Give it, O Gotamī, to the Order. If you present the Order with it, thus will you have paid homage alike to the Order and to me.”

‘And by the mere gift of a wrapper for the rainy season, the Order, O king, did not become greater than, or superior to, the Tathāgata. just, O king, as when parents anoint their children with perfumes, rub them, bathe them, or shampoo them, does the son by that mere service of theirs become greater than, or superior to, his parents?’

‘Certainly not, sir! Parents deal with their children as they will, whether the children like it or not. And therefore do they anoint them with perfumes, shampoo, or bathe them.’

‘And just so, O king, the Order did not become greater than, or superior to, the Tathāgata merely by the fact of that gift; and although the Tathāgata, whether the Order liked it or not, told his aunt to give the wrapper to the Order.

‘Or suppose, O king, some man should bring a complimentary present to a king, and the king should present that gift to some one else—to a soldier or a messenger, to a general or a chaplain—would that man become greater than, or superior to, the king, merely by the fact that it was he who got the present ?’

‘Certainly not, Sir! That man receives his wage from the king, from the king he gains his livelihood; it was the king who, having placed him in that office, gave him the present.’

‘And just so, O king, the Order did not become greater than, or superior to, the Tathāgata merely by the fact of that gift. The Order is, as it were, the hired servant of the Tathāgata, and gains its livelihood through the Tathāgata. And it was the Tathāgata who, having placed it in that position, caused the gift to be given it.

‘And further the Tathāgata, O king, thought thus: “The Order is by its very nature worthy of gifts. I will therefore have this thing, my property though it be, presented to it,” and so he had the wrapper given to the Order. For the Tathāgata, O king, magnifies not the offering of gifts to himself, but rather to whomsoever in the world is worthy of having gifts presented to him. For this was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all gods, in the most excellent Majjhima Nikāya, in the religious discourse entitled Dhamma-dāyāda, when he was exalting the attainment of being content with little:

“He would become the first of my Bhikkhus, the most worthy of presents and of praise.”

‘And there is not, O king, in the three worlds any being whatever more worthy of gifts, greater or more exalted or better, than the Tathāgata. It is the Tathāgata who was greatest and highest and best. As it was said, O king, by Māṇava-gāmika the god, in the most excellent Samyutta Nikāya, as he stood before the Blessed One in the midst of the assembly of gods and men:

“Of all the Rājagaha hills Mount Vipula’s acknowledged chief,
Of the Himalayas Mount White, of planetary orbs the sun,
The ocean of all waters, of constellations bright the moon —
In all the world of gods and men the Buddha’s the acknowledged Lord!”

And those verses of Māṇava the god, O king, were well sung, not wrongly sung, well spoken, not wrongly spoken, and approved by the Blessed One. And was it not said by Sāriputta, the Commander of the faith:

“There is but one Confession, one true Faith,
One Adoration of clasped hands stretched forth
—That paid to Him who routs the Evil One,
And helps us cross the ocean of our ills!”

‘And it was said by the Blessed One himself, the god over all gods:

“There is one being, O brethren, who is born into the world for the good and for the weal of the great multitudes, out of mercy to the world, for the advantage and the good and the weal of gods and men. And what is that being? A Tathāgata, an Arahat Buddha supreme.”’

‘Very good, Nāgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say.’

Here ends the dilemma as to the precedence of the Order over the Buddha.