Milinda’s Questions

Analysis of Formless Dhammas Chapter

4. Question on the Brahma World

The king asked,

“Venerable Nāgasena, how far away is it from here to the Brahma world?”

“So far, your majesty, that if a rock the size of a peaked-roof building had fallen from there, and falling at the speed of eighty-four thousand yojanas per day, it would take four months to land on the earth.”

“Venerable sir, you say thus,

‘Just as a strong man might stretch out his bent arm or bend his stretched arm,

in the same way a bhikkhu with psychic powers who has attained mastery over his mind could disappear from Jambudīpa and appear in the Brahma world.’ This I do not believe that one might go so quickly over so many hundreds of yojanas.”

The elder said,

“Where then, your majesty, is the place of your birth?”

“There is, venerable sir, an island called Alasanda, there I was born.”

“How far away, your majesty, is Alasanda from here?”

“About two hundred yojanas, venerable sir.”

“Do you not know, your majesty, of some business that you have completed there and now remember?”

“Yes, venerable sir, I remember.”

“Indeed, so quickly you have gone about two hundred yojanas, your majesty!”

“You are clever, Venerable Nāgasena!”

Question on the Brahma World fourth