[956] When they had come, the guardian of the Dhamma (dhammapāla), unshaken,
kissed his children upon the head,
and, having called them to him, he spoke this word:
"I have been given by the king here to the young man (māṇava).
Today I [still] have happiness of my own, [but] I am at his disposal:
taking me, he will go wherever he wishes.
And I have come to instruct you —
how could I go without having given you a safeguard?
If the king who dwells in the realm of the Kurus,
he who draws the people to himself (janasandha), abounding in objects of desire,
should ask you: 'What old thing do you remember of former days?
What did your father teach you aforetime?'
[and if he should say:] 'Be seated, all of you, upon seats equal with mine;
for what man here is [more] an intimate of the king?' —
then, saluting him with joined palms (añjali), you should speak thus:
'Not so, sire (deva)! For that is not proper (dhamma).
How, sire, could one of lowly birth
come to share an equal seat with the royal tiger (vyaggharāja)?'"
End of the Lakkhakaṇḍa.
[Variant readings printed in the Siam Raṭṭha edition: 1. M (Burmese): anujjā; 2. M: vammadharāni — both keyed to words preceding this excerpt; 3. Sī (Sinhalese), Yu (European/PTS): kurukhettavāsī, "dwelling in the Kuru country," for kururaṭṭhavāsī.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.