ns at Rajagaha about six months before the Buddha's death.
The King sends his minister to ask whether he will be successful in
attacking the Vajjians. The Buddha replies that as long as they act in
concord, behave honourably, and respect the Faith, so long may they be
expected not to decline but prosper. The compiler may perhaps have felt
this narrative to be an appropriate parallel to the Buddha's advice to
his disciples to live in peace and order. He summoned and addressed the
brethren living in Rajagaha and visited various spots in the
neighbourhood. In these last utterances one phrase occurs with special
frequency, "Great is the fruit, great the advantage of meditation
accompanied by upright conduct: great is the advantage of intelligence
accompanied by meditation. The mind which has such intelligence is freed
from intoxications, from the desires of the senses, from love of life,
from delusion and from ignorance."

He then set forth accompanied by Ananda and several disciples. Judging
from the route adopted his intention was to go ultimately to Savatthi.
This was one of the towns where he resided from time to time, but we
cannot tell what may have been his special motives for visiting it on
the present occasion, for if the King of Kosala had recently massacred
the Sakyas his presence there would have been strange. The road was not
direct but ran up northwards and then followed the base of the
mountains, thus enabling travellers to cross rivers near their sources
where they were still easy to ford. The stopping-places from Rajagaha
onwards were Nalanda, Pataliputra, Vesali, Bhandagama, Pava, Kusinara,
Kapilavatthu, Setavya, Savatthi. On his last journey the Buddha is
represented as following this route but he died at the seventh
stopping-place, Kusinara. When at Pataligama, he prophesied that it
would become a great emporium[373]. He was honourably entertained by the
officers of the King who decided that the gate and ferry by which he
left should be called Gotama's gate and Gotama's ferry. The gate
received the name, but when he came to the Ganges he vanished
miraculously and appeared standing on the further bank. He then went on
to Vesali, passing with indifference and immunity from the dominions of
the King of Magadha into those of his enemies, and halted in the grove
of the courtezan Ambapali[374]. She came to salute him and he accepted
her invitation to dine with her on the morrow, in spite of the protests
of the