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his body between the Buddha and Nalagiri. At that very moment, to Ananda’s surprise, the Buddha let forth a majestic cry. It was the cry
of the Elephant Queen the Buddha had befriended long ago in Rakkhita Forest in Parileyyaka.
Nalagiri was but a few yards from the Buddha when he heard the resounding cry, and he came to a sudden halt. The mighty elephant
knelt on all fours and lowered his head to the ground as if to bow to the Buddha. The Buddha gently stroked Nalagiri’s head and then,
holding the elephant’s trunk in one hand, led an obedient Nalagiri back to the royal stables.
The people applauded and cheered. Ananda smiled. He thought back to the days when they were youngsters. The young Siddhartha
had known no equal in the martial arts. He excelled at everything—archery, weightlifting, swordsmanship, horseracing-and today, the
Buddha treated an elephant on a rampage as though he were an old and docile friend. The bhikkhus and a large crowd followed the
Buddha and the elephant back to the stables. When they arrived, the Buddha gave the keeper a stern look, but then spoke in a
compassionate voice, “The Tathagata does not need to know who ordered you to release this elephant. But you should understand the
seriousness of your action. Dozens, even hundreds, of people could have been killed. You must never allow such a thing to happen again.”
The Buddha gently stroked Nalagiri’s head.
The keeper bowed before the Buddha. The Buddha helped him back to his feet, and then joined the bhikkhus to resume begging.
The Buddha and all his bhikkhus attended King Bimbisara’s funeral. The ceremony was an event of great solemnity and beauty. The
people grieved the passing of their beloved monarch and showed up in dense crowds to pay their final respects. More than four thousand
bhikkhus were present.
When the funeral was over, the Buddha spent the night at Jivaka’s Mango Grove before returning to Vulture Peak. The physician
informed him that the former queen Videhi had been forbidden to visit the king at all during the past month. The king passed from this life all