Arahat's State Cannot Be Traced
The Story of Venerable Anuruddha
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 4
The Story of Venerable Anuruddha
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 4
He whose cankers are destroyed and who is not attached to food, whose object is the Void, the Unconditioned Freedom — his path cannot be traced, like that of birds in the air.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to Venerable Anuruddha.
One day, his robes worn out, Venerable Anuruddha was searching refuse heaps and similar places for cloth to make new ones.
In his third previous existence he had had a wife who was now reborn in the World of the Thirty-three as the goddess Jalini. Seeing him searching for cloth, she resolved to help him.
She took three celestial cloths, thirteen cubits long and four cubits wide. Knowing he would not accept them if she offered them openly, she laid them on a refuse heap just ahead of where he was searching, arranged so that only their hems showed. Anuruddha found them and took them with him.
On the day he was to make his robes, the Buddha came to the monastery with many monks and sat down, along with the eighty chief disciples. Venerable Mahakassapa sat at the foot of the cloth, Venerable Sariputta in the middle, and Venerable Ananda at the head. The monks spun thread, the Buddha threaded the needle, and Venerable Moggallana went back and forth fetching whatever was needed.
Meanwhile the goddess went into the village and urged the people to give alms, telling them that robes were being made for her noble Anuruddha, that the Buddha and the eighty chief disciples were at the monastery, and that they should take rice-porridge and other provisions there.
So much food arrived that, even after the monks had eaten, a great heap of food remained over. Sakka drew a circle around the place where the robes were being made, and the ground looked as if it had been dyed with lac.
The monks were offended and asked why so much food had been provided for so few monks. When they told the Buddha, he asked whether they thought Anuruddha had ordered it, and they said they did.
The Buddha told them that his son Anuruddha did not speak in that way, and that those who have rid themselves of the corruptions do not spend their time talking about requisites. This food had been brought about by the supernatural power of a goddess.
The Story of Venerable Anuruddha
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 4
He whose cankers are destroyed and who is not attached to food, whose object is the Void, the Unconditioned Freedom — his path cannot be traced, like that of birds in the air.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to Venerable Anuruddha.
One day, his robes worn out, Venerable Anuruddha was searching refuse heaps and similar places for cloth to make new ones.
In his third previous existence he had had a wife who was now reborn in the World of the Thirty-three as the goddess Jalini. Seeing him searching for cloth, she resolved to help him.
She took three celestial cloths, thirteen cubits long and four cubits wide. Knowing he would not accept them if she offered them openly, she laid them on a refuse heap just ahead of where he was searching, arranged so that only their hems showed. Anuruddha found them and took them with him.
On the day he was to make his robes, the Buddha came to the monastery with many monks and sat down, along with the eighty chief disciples. Venerable Mahakassapa sat at the foot of the cloth, Venerable Sariputta in the middle, and Venerable Ananda at the head. The monks spun thread, the Buddha threaded the needle, and Venerable Moggallana went back and forth fetching whatever was needed.
Meanwhile the goddess went into the village and urged the people to give alms, telling them that robes were being made for her noble Anuruddha, that the Buddha and the eighty chief disciples were at the monastery, and that they should take rice-porridge and other provisions there.
So much food arrived that, even after the monks had eaten, a great heap of food remained over. Sakka drew a circle around the place where the robes were being made, and the ground looked as if it had been dyed with lac.
The monks were offended and asked why so much food had been provided for so few monks. When they told the Buddha, he asked whether they thought Anuruddha had ordered it, and they said they did.
The Buddha told them that his son Anuruddha did not speak in that way, and that those who have rid themselves of the corruptions do not spend their time talking about requisites. This food had been brought about by the supernatural power of a goddess.