CHAPTER X
THE SACRED BO-TREE
HE broad stone staircase which leads down to the court from the north commands the view of the temple and tree which uncounted thousands have drunk in with ecstasy, a place which has resounded for centuries with prayers and chants; for Gautama Buddha said in his lifetime: "If any one look with a pleasant mind at a dagoba, or at the Court of the Bo-tree, he will undoubtedly be born in a dewa loka,"[1] a pilgrimage to Buddha-Gaya being therefore a certain advance toward Nirvana. Aside from the historic and religious associations of this particular bo- or pipul-tree, the Ficus religiosa has a character and interest quite its own, the effect of its symmetrical growth and well-balanced foliage masses, heightened by the continual agitation of its brilliant, dark-green leaves. Even on that still afternoon each individual, heart-shaped leaf, with its long-drawn, tapering tendril tip, was trembling and spinning on its slender foot-stalk, until the whole tree mass was in agitation—every one of the myriad
- ↑ Dewa loka is one of the six celestial worlds between earth and heaven.
133
