Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
On the next day the festivals of the coronation, and of the
housewarming, and of the marriage of Nanda, the king’s son, were being
celebrated all together. But the Buddha went to his house, and gave him
his bowl to carry; and with the object of making him abandon the world,
he wished him true happiness; and then, rising from his seat, departed.
And (the bride) Janapada Kalyāṇī, seeing the young man go away,
gazed wonderingly at him, and cried out, “My Lord, whither go you so
quickly?” But he, not venturing to say to the Blessed One, “Take your
bowl,” followed him even unto the Wihāra. And the Blessed One received
him, unwilling though he was, into the Order.
It was on the third day after he reached Kapilapura that the Blessed
One ordained Nanda. On the second day the mother of Rāhula arrayed
the boy in his best, and sent him to the Blessed One, saying, “Look,
dear, at that monk, attended by twenty thousand monks, and glorious in
appearance as the Archangel Brahma! That is your father. He had certain
great treasures, which we have not seen since he abandoned his home. Go
now, and ask for your inheritance, saying, ‘Father, I am your son. When
I am crowned, I shall become a king over all the earth. I have need of
the treasure. Give me the treasure; for a son is heir to his father’s
property.’”
The boy went up to the Blessed One, and gained the love of his father,
and stood there glad and joyful, saying, “Happy, O monk, is thy
shadow!” and adding many other words befitting his position. When the
Blessed One had ended his meal, and had given thanks, he rose from his
seat, and went away. And the child followed the Blessed One, saying, “O
monk! give me my inheritance! give me my inheritance!”
And the Blessed One prevented him not. And the disciples, being
with the Blessed One, ventured not to stop him. And so he went with
the Blessed One even up to the grove. Then the Blessed One thought,
“This wealth, this property of his father’s, which he is asking for,
perishes in the using, and brings vexation with it! I will give him the
sevenfold wealth of the Arahats which I obtained under the Bo-tree,
and make him the heir of a spiritual inheritance!” And he said to
Sāriputta, “Well, then, Sāriputta, receive Rāhula into the Order.”
But when the child had been taken into the Order the king grieved
exceedingly. And he was unable to bear his grief, and made it known to
the Blessed One, and asked of him a boon, saying, “If you so please, O
Master, let not the Holy One receive a son into the Order without the
leave of his father and mother.” And the Blessed One granted the boon.
And the next day, as he sat in the king’s house after his meal was
over, the king, sitting respectfully by him, said, “Master! when you
were practising austerities, an angel came to me, and said, ‘Your son
is dead!’ And I believed him not, and rejected what he said, answering,
’My son will not die without attaining Buddhahood!’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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