Lost Treasures of Buddhist Afghanistan (video)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; NationalGeographic.com, May 5, 2014

2014 Afghan landslide

(NatGeo) It had more treasures than we can comprehend as a magnificent crossroads between East and West at the foothills of the Himalayas (Hindu Kush), an agrarian territory that became cosmopolitan by the influx of travelers and traders and a world-teacher who went in search of enlightenment and an end to all suffering and found it in a neighboring kingdom in India. His success came back to this faraway land to give rise to Buddhism and send it on its way west and north along the same Silk Road that brought it so much traffic, riches, culture, and eventually imperial invasions and war.
 

Paul Fitzgerald and Liz Gould (invisiblehistory.com)

The Western Paradise (as Afghanistan)

Dhr. Seven, Ven. Chandananda Thero, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha and Shakyans were from the "Middle Country," skirting borders East and West

The "West," the rich Silk Route crossroads of the ancient Shakyan territory (janapada headed by Kapilavastu), now Bamiyan, Afghanistan (Afghanistan Matters, Netherlands)

  

Chinese Mahayana Buddhists often speak of the "Great Western Paradise," a Pure Land (suddhavasa, "Pure Abode"), a mythical Atzlan or faraway Afghan land. They are likely referring to rebirth in the space-deva-worlds of the Four Great Sky Kings. But why the Western World? Was King Virūpakkha, Regent of the Dragons (nagas), who sits facing east, particularly inviting? Or was it the historical fact that the Dharma had come from the West -- from India, considered the "holy land" by Chinese Buddhists, who were cloistered in their great walled empire? Did it refer to a future when everyone would want to "go west" for economic advantage? We suggest that because the Buddha came from the West (Northwest India, Gandhara, Afghanistan), as seen from the East and Far East, it was to the West that one would naturally want to go.

The Buddha (SDhammika/Barakat)

The Buddha came from the West.

What is the meaning of this shocking statement? Surely, the Buddha came from the East! That is, indeed, true. But at that time the "West" was the lands and cultures west of India, which is what we now call the Sacred East.

The river that divided the once great empire of India (Maha Bharat) was not the Ganges, which runs southeast down from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal (now "Bangladesh" as a result of Partition in 1947).

The Sindhu of the Indus and Hindus (W)

The Indus/Sindhu river (fed by the now defunct Saraswati river, whose historical existence has now been confirmed by satellite data) came down from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea to create a natural boundary between "West" and "East" in the Indian imagination. Siddhartha came from West to East and began teaching near the holy Indian city of Varanasi (Benares) on the Ganges.

MAP: Indus Valley Civilization

His extended family, however, got the message and began an almost simultaneous practice of the Dharma. His former wife (called Yasodhara, Bimba-devi, Rahula-mata) was already following as best she could eventually to become the fiercest enlightened disputant Bhadda kaccānā; his son (Rahula) would be the youngest to ordain; his cousins became great disciples; his father (Suddhodana) the king became enlightened; his mothers (Maya and Pajapati) were both helped, one in space, one on Earth, the latter becoming the world's first Buddhist nun; his half-sister (Sundari Nanda) and half-brother (Nanda) becoming enlightened disciples; his close cousin (Ananda) becoming his longtime attendant memorizing the sutras for all posterity; and other Shakyan princes and princesses also ordaining, creating a great need for massive Buddhist temple monastic complexes exactly like those found in Afghan archeological sites like Bamiyan, massive Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"), Tepe Narenj (near Kabul). 

The very first Buddhist temple complexes were likely built in Afghanistan and Indo-Pakistan (previously called Gandhara on the northwestern frontier of anything still called "India" at the time).

Moving over the western expanse beyond the remains of India (Afghanistan Matters/flickr)

 

The lands influenced by Vedic India extend back in time to the Indus Valley Civilization. They were to become India, Persia (particularly Seistan-Baluchistan), ancient Greek/Hellenized Bactria (the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom), and other empires (Shakyan, Sogdiana, Seleucid, etc.), what is now Central Asia and, by our American reckoning, parts of the geopolitical Middle East (Kurdistan, Iran, Afghanistan, a future-Pashtun'istan, and Hazar-istan in Buddhist Bamiyan, etc.), and lands formerly within the Soviet sphere of influence -- Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and China (Uygur Xinjiang), and Pakistan/Baltistan (a country which didn't exist except as a state in India until 1947's Partition of India by the British). 

Gandhara-style Buddha

Imagining Kapilavastu or the Shakyan janapada (territory) in Nepal or India, as we customarily do, obscures the real and more amazing history of Buddhism. It conceals facts brought to light by ancient textual (e.g., the oldest Buddhist texts being from Gandhara/Afghanistan) and modern archeological evidence (e.g., the oldest Buddhist monasteries and art being from Gandhara/Afghanistan) and by critically reviewing haphazard and politically-influenced history concocted by early British and German Orientalists. 

(See Ranajit Pal, who makes the stronger claim that evidence for Nepal was intentionally falsified).

• Map of Greco-Bactria, fusion of ancient Greece in India
• The oldest Buddhist art: Greco-Buddhist Gandharan style
• What is the "Middle Country" from which buddhas come?

Chronicle-To-Be

The Sinhalese recension of the Anagatavamsa, translated into English for the first time, is one of several texts forming a genre of Buddhist apocalyptic literature.

It was generated by the [messianic] cult of Maitreya in South and Southeast Asia.

 

The marvels of Mes Aynak to be lost

It is a prophetic text revealing a rich religious imagination focused on the advent of the next-Buddha (not a "second coming" but a new person to fill the post) in a time when those who have long persevered in the religious quest will gain an opportunity to realize the highest spiritual attainment. More

Looking "West" from Mes Aynak ("Copper Well") stupa, a Buddhist burial mound encased in stone, Afghanistan, west of India (ranajitpal.com)

Looking farther "West" to the beyond to Eurasia, the Caucasus, and Europe after the vast expanses of Central Asia, ruins of Mes Aynak or "Copper Well" mine and Buddhist monastic complex archeological site (livescience.com).

The Silk Road (Natural History Museum)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Natural History Museum (nhm.org)

Exploring the Silk Road

Tour the Silk Road (nhm.org)

Take a journey exploring the traded goods and ideas of the world’s cultural superhighway -- one that took Buddhism out of India (Gandhara and Magadha) into Central Asia (Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, the other 'Stans), ancient Greece (Bactria/Persia, Sogdiana, and the greater empire), and finally into China. Join the Natural History Museum for the Traveling the Silk Road Lecture Series to experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of the ancient route! More

• 

  Old Buddhism in Uzbekistan, new Googoosha

  Bactria - Ancient History Encyclopedia
• The Sogdians in China: A Short History
• Sogdiana - Ancient History Encyclopedia
• BBC: Popstar President Googoosha a.ka. Gulnara Karimova: Corruption in Uzbekistan (Central Asia's largest country, near Afghanistan)
• Monks' Footsteps: Uzbek Buddhist monuments
• USA/NSA "collected 200 million texts per day"
• Actress sues over French Pres. Hollande's "affair"
• Taliban [CIA] to return to power [to keep Afghan War going]
• UN confronts Vatican on its child molestation

Historical Sketch of Buddhism in Western Asia

(BerzinArchives.com) Historically, Buddhism was found in all five former Soviet Central Asian Republics that constitute West Turkistan: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan [and, of course, Afghanistan, which the former USSR failed to conquer]. It initially spread in the first century BCE from Gandhara (Indo-Pakistan) and Afghanistan to the kingdoms of Bactria and Parthia [The remains of two Parthian Buddhist monuments each have been found in Turkmenistan at Mary (Merv) and near Ashkabat; Buddhist caves have also been found near Ashkabat]. Turkmenistan and northeastern Iran constituted the kingdom of Parthia; while southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan constituted the kingdom of Bactria [The remains of Bactrian Buddhist monasteries have been found near Termez in southern Uzbekistan at Kara Tepe, Fayas Tepe and Dalverzin Tepe, and the remains of a reliquary at Zormala and of Buddhist wall murals at Balalyk Tepe, both in the Surkhan Darya region. Remains of a Buddhist monastery have been excavated at Ajina Tepe in southern Tajikistan.]

Was the Buddha born in Afghanistan? (movie)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; READER LETTER

Mes Aynak, Afghanistan Budhhas (Andy Miller/businesstoday.intoday.in)

An unnamed reader writes that s/he agrees with the hypothesis set forth by Dr. Ranajit Pal (ranajitpal.com). The theory states that the Buddha was born in the Sistan-Baluchistan region [formerly the northern border/frontier of India, now Pakistan and Afghanistan] overlapping Iran's southeastern border area in Afghanistan. 

 

The Buddha has always been addressed as Sakyamuni ["Sage of the Sakya tribe"], and in ancient times Sistan-Baluchistan was called Sakastan.

 

Equestrian Scythians were archers (wiki)

The Sakas [Sakyas?] were a Scythian tribe spread all over the ancient Gandhara region.

 

Moreover, the Buddha has always been described as having blue eyes, which is a common feature in the people of that area even today.

 

(ZB/Foundation) "The Legend of Buddha" With spectacular animation and engaging narration, this presentation of the life of the Buddha follows the journey of the Enlightened One from a fun-filled childhood to the difficult quest for attaining nirvana. (PentaMedia Graphics Ltd. hired 70 key animators and 300 others to create it using about 450,000 drawings of the Buddha were made to create the film, which covers nearly all aspects of his life).

 

Save Mes Aynak, UCLA/Fed Bldg, demo (WQ)

Buddhism began to be obliterated from the Gandhara region starting from the 7th century A.D. and was dealt the final blow by the Mongol invaders, who conducted a genocide in that area.

• The Gandhāran texts

The world's oldest Buddha statues, dating back to 600 B.C., have been found on the outskirts of the capital of Kabul [Kapil? Kapilavastu] in and around Mes Aynak, Afghanistan. 

 

Filmmaker Brock (btkomon@gmail)

Mes Aynak ("Copper Well") was the world's oldest known copper mine dating from 3000 B.C. The copper and other precious reserves found at this site have been valued at 100 billion U.S. dollars. 

 

A Chinese company has secured the mining rights from Afghanistan, and there is concern about the threatened complete destruction of the site (as Wisdom Quarterly has covered in various articles exploreing the Buddha's real birthplace, such as one asking the question, Where was the Buddha really born?)

This message was received in response to The Buddha was born in Nepal... when angry Anoop Thapa Xhettri wrote "do a little research before writing such rubbish and false..."

SAVE MES AYNAK (WQ)

"Thor: Dark World" (Sakka, King of the Devas)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson,  CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Wikipedia edit of Sakra

(MMDE) Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Zachary Levi, Anthony Hopkins, Jaimie Alexander, directed by Alan Taylor (Marvel, Nordic mythology), 2013.

The Buddha surrounded by space beings from akasha deva loka, Wat Bua Kwan, Thailand (WQ)

     

Sakka ousts Vepacitti told as Michael and titan/drag

Sakka (Śakra, शक्र) is the ruler of The World of the Thirty-Three according to Buddhist cosmology. His full title is Śakro devānām indraḥ (शक्रो देवानं इन्द्रः; Sakko devānaṃ indo), "Śakra, Lord of the Devas." 

 

In Buddhist texts, Sakka is the proper name, not an epithet of this shining one; conversely, Indra in Sanskrit and Inda in Pali are sometimes used as an epithet for Sakka as "lord (of lords)" or "king (of kings)," or "ruler (raja)." Nevertheless, his position as ruler is considered a station; therefore, there are many "Sakkas," at least one in each world-system, which may refer to a solar system, galaxy, or bubble-like cluster of space.

 

In East Asian traditions, Sakka is known as Dìshìtiān (帝釋天) or Shìtí Huányīn (釋提桓因) in Chinese and as Taishakuten (帝釈天) in Japan. In China, Sakka is sometimes compared to or conflated with Taoism's Jade Emperor (Yùhuáng Dàdì, 玉皇大帝 often simplified in Yùhuáng, 玉皇). Both share a birthday on the ninth day of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually in February).

 

What is a "Sakka"?

Deva, "shining one," like Sakka

The Sanskrit sakra, "powerful," as an epithet of Indra, is found in several Vedic verses from the ancient sacred Indian text, the Rigveda. Sakka seems to be the root source for the Nordic myth of the Nordic space alien (and Marvel Comic hero) "Thor" casting out his evil brother (Loki) and St. Michael casting out that infamous rebellious "being of light" Lucifer (later conflated with the devil, Satan, Belzebub, etc.)

  

In Buddhist lore, Sakka "cast out" one of the titan (asuras) chiefs, Vepacitti (which some might conflate with Mara Devaputra or as someone under Mara's control). There is in the story the additional complication of Sakka being married to Vepacitti's daughter, the titan princess Sujā.

Karma works (itself out) in mysterious ways.

Such are the startling entanglements of karma, because it is not that "God works in mysterious ways" so much as "karma works itself out in mysteriously incomprehensible ways." Both expressions are saying the exact same thing, the former with a personified character of all-encompassing "law" or regularity in the universe, the latter free of a personal agent controlling a natural and predictable (albeit bafflingly complex) pattern.

These parallel "myths" -- actual events attested to by the ancients -- are no coincidence, but are either remembrances colored by cultures of actual events or stories deriving from the wisdom of the East -- ancient Vedic and Buddhist cosmologies, particularly as inherited by ancient Greece when the great empire extended into ancient Northwest India (Bactria, Sogdiana, and the various Alexandrias like Kandahar, Afghanistan).

 

In Buddhist texts, Sakka's myth and character are different from those of the Vedic Indra. According to G.P. Malalasekara (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names), "Sakka and Indra are independent conceptions. None of the personal characteristics of Sakka resemble those of Indra. Some epithets are identical but are evidently borrowed, though they are differently explained."

 

Great Brahma/Odin creating the world

The World of the Thirty-Three that Sakka rules is located on the top of Mt. Sumeru (cf. Meru, a kind of Mt. Olympus, abode of the Greek gods), imagined to be the polar axis of the physical world extending through space, around which the Sun and Moon revolve. 

The World of the Thirty-Three is the highest of the celestial planes in direct contact with Earth. Like the other devas of this world, Sakka is long-lived but mortal. When one Sakka dies, the position or station is taken by another deva who becomes the new Sakka. It is a position in addition to being that being's name, as is the case with many Buddhist figures including the Buddha, with it cyclical conception of history and staggering view of time.

 

Buddhist stories about Sakka (past and present, in the past having been named Maghavā from Macala, an echo of "Michael") are found in the "Birth Tales" (Jātakas) as well as in sutras, particularly those preserved as part of the collection known as the Connected Discourses (Saṃyutta Nikāya or "Kindred Sayings").

 

If the glorious devas or "shining ones" were so different from the angry asuras or "titans" (often referred to as "demons" for their warlike ways), how is it that Sakka could be married to Suja, the daughter of his chief rival, Vepacitti (Sanskrit, Vemacitrin), one of the titan kings? 

 

Many long-lived "gods" have come down from space to be worshipped by mortals (Hilti)

 

The strange workings of karma, which connects beings as much by attraction as aversion -- love like hate being very sticky -- seems to be the ironic explanation.

 

But despite this intimate relationship, a state of war generally exists between the many inhabitants of the World of the Thirty-Three [lords or ruling devas] under Sakka and the titans, who formerly peacefully co-inhabited this celestial plane. Sakka, newly reborn into the position of "lord of the 33 lords" and "king of kings" (ruler of the immediately subordinate sky/space world of the Four Great Kings (Catu Maha Rajikas), ousted by Vepacitti and the titans after getting them drunk on "heavenly" beer or brew (sura). 

This is the legend of how they came to be called a-suras. They were cast onto Earth and, realizing that they had been duped, swore off drinking beer. Sakka thereby managed this ousting feat and has resolved subsequent "wars in heaven" with minimal violence and no loss of life. For Sakka is reputedly and unambiguously the world-system's most famous stream-enterers, having gained the first stage of enlightenment by hearing the Dharma from the Buddha.

Sakka is thus doubly splendid in being partly enlightened and ruling, partying (at the many balls, cotillions, feasts, and get togethers among the devas of the Sensual Sphere or kama loka, a sphere which includes our human plane, as exemplified by a sutra that recounts a visit to such a party in a large mansion/vimana/ship by Ven. Maha Moggallana, who shook it with his toe by a magical feat to bring the devas out of their careless diversions and sensual distractions). 

 

How could Sakka be in any way "enlightened" in the lineage of the "noble ones" (ariya)? Liberating insight that uproots some defilements and weakens others makes it so, even if one does not then immediately start behaving like a stereotypical "saint" or in anyway seem different to the casual observer. This is evident from verses in praise of stream entry in the "Jewel Sutra" or "Gem Discourse" (Ratana Sutta). The Three Jewels, or "Triple Gem," are the Buddha, Dharma, and enlightened Sangha -- the Teacher, the Teaching, and the successfully Taught.

Those who clearly comprehend the Noble Truths

Well taught by him of wisdom deep

Although they may be very neglectful,

They can never undergo an eighth birth.

Truly, in the [Noble] Sangha is found this precious jewel.

By this truth, may there be happiness.

For one after the acquisition of insight
Three things are immediately abandoned:
Self-illusion, doubt [about the Path or the Buddha], 

And clinging to useless rites and rituals

[as a means of gaining enlightenment]
Whatever they may be.
From the four states of [subhuman] misery,

One is absolutely freed
And is now incapable of committing six heinous deeds.

Truly, in the [Noble Community] is found this precious jewel.
By this truth, may there be happiness.

Whatever unskillful actions one does --
Whether by body, speech, or mind,
One is incapable of hiding it.
For it has been said that such an act [of concealment] is

Impossible for one who has seen the Path.
Truly, in the [Noble Community] is found this precious jewel.
By this truth, may there be happiness.

  

The Buddha in space visiting his former mother reborn in the World of the Thirty-Three

 

In fact, regardless of how one behaves after partly awakening to the Truth, however negligent, one has delimited rebirth to no more than seven more lives and can never be reborn onto any plane lower than the worlds comprising the "human plane" (manussa). Sakka accomplished this breakthrough while he was a deva king with great longevity and many sensual distractions, yet we often find ourselves to distracted with sensual pursuits and worries.

Sakka at one time frequently interacted with the Earth, visiting and questioning the Buddha, and is said to still protect and keep an eye on the progress in virtue of the Earth's inhabitants through his regents, the Four Great Kings.

 

Enlightened and humble (CB)

Sakka is mentioned in many Buddhist discourses. He is often shown consulting with the Buddha on questions of proper conduct, virtue, ethics, and morality (sila) -- behavior that leads beings to fortunate rebirths on Earth and in superior celestial worlds like his and higher. (The Bodhisatta, who eventually became the Buddha, was many times reborn as a Sakka).

 

An entire discourse explains what karma led to Sakka's very fortunate rebirth, and we are all capable of it, given our "divine nature," given our ability to be reborn as a deva (called a devaputra, "son of god," when deva is loosely translated as "god" in the ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian sense of the word).  Together with Brahmā -- a mythical god like Thor's father, Odin, or Cronus (father of the "king of the gods" Zeus)  -- Sakka is considered a Dharmapala or protector of the Buddhist Dharma. More

King Nemi-raja, ruler of Mithila, would make merit and teach Dharma to his subjects so that whenever one of them passed away, they would go onto a better rebirth. His reputation spread across the three spheres, and when it reached the devas, they were keen to meet him. Sakka got his vimana-charioteer, Matali, to take his ship to pick up the king. In Sakka's mansion, the king was invited to live there but declined and returned to the human world to do more good (Nemiraja Jataka, watnavaram.org).

Buddhism in ancient Greece (King Milinda)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, "The Questions of King Milinda" [Menander] (Miln), Milindapañha (as.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/Milinda)

Ancient Greek influence expanded to ancient India's northwestern frontier (Indo-Greeks)

Greek King Menander I (Milinda) engages Ven. Nagasena on the Dharma in Bactria

 

Gold Greek Buddha coin (as.miami.edu)

Because of his Greek (Western) heritage, the king of Bactria asks many questions that occur to Westerners today, which makes this work particularly valuable to modern readers. These are not normally raised in an Indian (Eastern) context.

As a consequence of the conquest of the Persian empire, the Greeks gained control of Bactria -- modern Afghanistan -- together with northern India. The local Greek rulers managed to establish their independence from the Seleucid Empire, which first held control over the area. 

 

Greek rule of Bactria continued until about 165 BC when the Shakas destroyed the Bactrian kingdom. Greeks continued to rule, however, in southern Afghanistan and northwestern India (Gandhara) for another 150 years. The most important of these kings was Menander I, known as "Milinda" in Buddhist sources, who ruled about 115-90 BC. Buddhism had reached the area [due to early converts in the Shakya clan, the Buddha's extended family, which was likely from this wealthy frontier area along the Silk Road even as the Buddha taught far to the east in India (Afghanistan has Buddhist art and architecture such as monastic complexes and statues as old as Buddhism, such as Mes Aynak)]. In addition, missionaries [were sent out by the Buddha] and later by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka more than a century earlier.

Buddhists in ancient Greece

Afghan Buddhist artifact from Mes Aynak, Afghanistan. This archaeological site is set to be destroyed by Chinese miners eager to extract mineral deposits (Jay Price/Getty Images/TheGuardian co uk)

  

Why did Ven. Nagasena go to Bactria? In the land of the Bactrian Greeks there was a city called Sagala, a great center of trade. Rivers and hills beautified it, delightful landscapes surrounded it, and it possessed many parks, gardens, woods, lakes, and lotus-ponds. Its king was Milinda, a man who was learned, experienced, intelligent, and competent. At the proper times he carefully observed all of the appropriate Brahminical rites with regard to things past, future, and present. As a disputant he was hard to assail, hard to overcome, and he was recognized as a prominent sectarian teacher.

 

One day a large company of enlightened disciples (arhats) of the Buddha living in a well-protected area in the Himalayas sent a messenger to Ven. Nagasena, who was then residing at Ashoka Park in Patna, asking him to come, as they wished to see him. Nagasena immediately complied by vanishing and miraculously appearing before them.

 

The arhats said to him: "That King Milinda, Nagasena, constantly harasses the Sangha (monastic order) with questions and counter-questions, with arguments and counter-arguments. Please go, Nagasena, and quench him!" 

 

"Save Mes Aynak" demonstration, UCLA/Westwood Federal Building, summer 2013 (WQ)

  

Nagasena replied: "Never mind one king, this King Milinda! If all of the kings of India would come to me with their questions, I could well dispose of them, and they would be no more trouble after that! You may go to Sagala without any fear whatsoever!" The elders (theras) went to Sagala, lighting up the city with their saffron robes, which shone like lamps, and bringing with them the fresh breeze of the sacred mountains.

 

Ven. Nagasena stayed at Sankheyya Hermitage together with a great number of monastics. King Milinda, accompanied by a large retinue of Greeks, went to him, greeted him in a friendly and courteous manner, and sat respectfully to one side. Nagasena returned these kind greetings, and his courtesy pleased the king's heart.

The king said, "Ven. Nagasena, will you converse with me?"

"Your majesty, if you will converse with me as the wise converse, I will, but if you converse with me as kings converse, I will not."

"Ven. Nagasena, how do the wise converse?"

"Your majesty, when the wise converse, whether they become entangled by their opponents’ arguments or extricate themselves, whether they or their opponents are convicted of error, whether their own superiority or that of their opponents’ is established, nothing in all this can make them angry. Thus, your majesty, do the wise converse."

"And how, venerable, do kings converse?"

"Your majesty, when kings converse, they advance a proposition, and whoever opposes it, they order that person’s punishment, saying, ‘Punish this person!’ Thus, your majesty, do kings converse."

"Venerable, I will converse as the wise converse, not as kings do. Let your worship converse in all confidence. Let your worship converse as unrestrainedly as if with another monastic, novice, lay disciple, or a keeper of the monastery grounds. Be unafraid!"

"Very well, your majesty," said the elder in assent. More