Verse 42

³⁵Brahmin, do we remember what happened once while we were living with our teacher, when the teacher's wife sent the two of us to fetch firewood? ³⁶We had gone into the great forest, twice-born one, out of season, and a great wind and rain came on, fierce, with harsh thunder. ³⁷By then the sun had set and the quarters were covered over with darkness, and there was no telling hollow from bank, since everything had turned to water. ³⁸There we were, beaten hard by the great wind and water, in the rising flood, not knowing one direction from another, so that in the forest we took hold of each other's hands and wandered about in distress.

³⁹Knowing this, when the sun came up our teacher Sandipani went looking for us, his pupils, and found us in a bad way. ⁴⁰He said: Oh, my boys, you have suffered greatly for our sake. The self is the dearest thing a living creature has, and you set it aside and gave yourselves to me. ⁴¹This is the very return that good pupils make to a teacher: with a heart made wholly clean, to hand over to him everything they have and themselves as well. ⁴²I am pleased, best of the twice-born. May what you want come true, and may the sacred metres never go stale for you, here or in the world beyond.