1. The white priests and the warriors,[2] who had learned of Issa's
discourse to the Sudras, resolved upon his death, and sent their
servants to find the young teacher and slay him.
2. But Issa, warned by the Sudras of his danger, left by night
Djagguernat, gained the mountain, and settled in the country of the
Gautamides, where the great Buddha Sakya-Muni came to the world, among a
people who worshipped the only and sublime Brahma.
3. When the just Issa had acquired the Pali language, he applied himself
to the study of the sacred scrolls of the Sutras.
4. After six years of study, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread
his holy word, could perfectly expound the sacred scrolls.
5. He then left Nepaul and the Himalaya mountains, descended into the
valley of Radjipoutan and directed his steps toward the West,
everywhere preaching to the people the supreme perfection attainable by
man;
6. And the good he must do to his fellow men, which is the sure means of
speedy union with the eternal Spirit. "He who has recovered his
primitive purity," said Issa, "shall die with his transgressions
forgiven and have the right to contemplate the majesty of God."
7. When the divine Issa traversed the territories of the Pagans, he
taught that the adoration of visible gods was contrary to natural law.
8. "For to man," said he, "it has not been given to see the image of
God, and it behooves him not to make for himself a multitude of
divinities in the imagined likeness of the Eternal.
9. "Moreover, it is against human conscience to have less regard for the
greatness of divine purity, than for animals or works of stone or metal
made by the hands of man.
10. "The eternal Lawgiver is One; there are no other Gods than He; He
has parted the world with none, nor had He any counsellor.
11. "Even as a father shows kindness toward his children, so will God
judge men after death, in conformity with His merciful laws. He will
never humiliate his child by casting his soul for chastisement into the
body of a beast.
12. "The heavenly laws," said the Creator, through the mouth of Issa,
"are opposed to the immolation of human sacrifices to a statue or an
animal; for I, the God, have sacrificed to man all the animals and all
that the world contains.
13. "Everything has been sacrificed to man, who is directly and
intimately united to me, his Father; therefore, shall the man be
severely judged and punished, by my law, who causes the sacrifice of my
children.
14. "Man is naught before the eternal Judge; as the animal is before
man.
15. "Therefore, I say unto you, leave your idols and perform not
ceremonies which separate you from your Father and bind you to the
priests, from whom heaven has turned away.
16. "For it is they who have led you away from the true God, and by
superstitions and cruelty perverted the spirit and made you blind to the
knowledge of the truth."