The Great Chronicle of Buddhas
by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw | 1990 | 1,044,401 words
This page describes The Asura King (Rahu) contained within the book called the Great Chronicle of Buddhas (maha-buddha-vamsa), a large compilation of stories revolving around the Buddhas and Buddhist disciples. This page is part of the series known as the Buddha’s Height Measured by a Brahmin. This great chronicle of Buddhas was compiled by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw who had a thorough understanding of the thousands and thousands of Buddhist teachings (suttas).
Part 3 - The Asura King (Rāhu)
Rāhu, the Asura Deva King, was four thousand and eight hundred yojanas in height. The distance between his two arms was one thousand and two hundred yojanas. The thickness of his body was six hundred yojanas. His palms and his soles were three hundred yojanas in perimeter. The portion of the finger between two joints is fifty yojanas long. The distance between the two eye-brows was fifty yojanas. The mouth was two hundred yojanas long, three hundred yojanas deep and three hundred yojanas in circumference. The neck has (a girth of) three hundred yojanas. The forehead was three hundred yojanas. The forehead was three hundred yojanas in breadth and the head nine hundred yojanas.
Rāhu, the Asura King, thought: “I am too tall, I will not be able to look down and see the Exalted One.” So he did not go to the Buddha. But, one day, he heard words about the greatness of the Buddha and so he went, hoping to see the Master by any possible means.
Knowing the Asura Deva King’s mind, the Buddha thought of the posture in which He should be viewed. Then since a person who is standing appears to be tall in spite of his short stature, the Buddha decided to show His body to the Asura-king in a lying posture. The Buddha told the Thera Ānanda to put a small couch outside the Fragrant Chamber and then He lay down on the right side on the couch like a lion-king.
Rāhu then went near the Buddha but he had to look up to see the Buddha’s face, just as he had to stretch his neck and look up at the moon in the sky. The Buddha asked him why he had come to see Him only after a very long time. The Asura King replied that he had not come because he haboured under the misapprehension that he would not be able to stoop and see the Glorious Buddha.
Then the Buddha said to him: “Asura King! I have not developed the Perfections (Pāramīs) holding my head down (that is, relaxing my effort). I have given alms always holding up my head (that is, without relaxing my effort).”
On that very day, Rāhu, the Asura King, formally become one who took refuge in the Buddha.