Part 38 - Story of Venerable Upavāṇa

At that time, the Venerable Upavāṇa was standing in front of the Buddha, fanning Him.

Then the Buddha said to Upavāṇa: “Move away, bhikkhu, do not stand in front of me.” The Venerable Upavāṇa obeyed without delay, dropped the palm-leaf fan there, and stood at a suitable place.

Thereupon it occurred to Venerable Ānanda thus: “This Venerable Upavāṇa had for a long time (during the first twenty years of the Bhagava’s Buddhahood) been a close attendant to the Bhagavā, and yet at this period of His passing away the Bhagavā caused him to move aside, saying: ‘Move away bhikkhu, do not stand in front of me.’ What might be the reason for the Bhagavā in doing so?”

Therefore he asked the Buddha:

“Venerable Sir, Venerable Upavāṇa had for a long time been a close attendant on the Bhagavā, and yet at this period of the Bhagava’s passing away, the Bhagavā caused him to move aside with the words: ‘Move away bhikkhu, do not stand in front of me.’ What is the reason for the Bhagavā in doing so?”

Then the Buddha, wishing to clear away from Ānanda’s mind any idea of Venerable Upavāṇa being at fault and to make it clear that the Venerable Upavāṇa was not at fault, explained to him thus:

(a) “Ānanda, (with the exception of the Asaññasatta Brahmas and Brahmas of the Non-Material Sphere) most of the devas and Brahmās of ten world-systems are gathered here at Kusināgara to see the Tathāgata. There is not, within twelve yojanas in and around this Sal grove, a single space about the breadth of a tail hair (of a mountain goat) that remains unoccupied by powerful deva.

(b) “Ānanda, the devas are murmuring against Upavāṇa thus: ‘We have come from afar to see the Tathāgata. It is only rarely that the Homage-worthy, Perfectly Self-Enlightened Buddhas arise in the world. And tonight, in the third watch of the night, the Tathāgata is due to pass away. This powerful bhikkhu standing in front of the Bhagavā is obstructing our view. Alas! we are going to miss the chance of seeing the Tathāgata at his last hour.’ This is the reason why I had asked Bhikkhu Upavāṇa to step aside.”

(A note of explanation:—

(a) Within the space close to the Buddha, devas and Brahmās in their subtle corporeality in groups of ten each, occupied units of space which were a tail hair in breadth. Beyond those groups of devas are Brahmās, there were groups of devas and Brahmās in groups of twenty, each occupying space of the same breadth. And beyond those groups were similar arrangement of space occupancy with groups of thirty, forty, fifty and sixty devas and Brahmās. Even though tightly spaced, there was no deva or Brahmā who got in the way of another either bodily or in their costumes; no one needed to ask another to clear the way for him or for her.

(b) Upavāṇa was a person of extra large size, about the size of an elephant calf. Moreover, he was wearing dust-rag robes (paṅsakū), which added to his bulk. So he was making an obstruction by standing himself in front of the Buddha, a genuine cause of complaint on the part of the devas and Brahmās. It might be asked: “Did not the devas and Brahmās have power to see through the bhikkhu?” The answer is: “No, they did not have.” For although devas and Brahmās can see through a worldling, they cannot see through an arahat. The Venerable Upavāṇa was not only an arahat but a person of unique powers so that people could not come too close to him.

The cause and condition for the extraordinary powers of the Venerable Upavāna even amongst the arahats was that he had been a guardian spirit at the shrine set up in honour of Buddha Kassapa.)

The Guardian Spirit of the Shrine

Ninety-one aeons or kappas before the advent of Buddha Gotama, Buddha Vipassī passed away leaving behind a single relic, a mass of golden hue. (It is customary for the Buddhas, who appear during the human life span of thousands of years, to leave behind a single piece of relic at their passing away, which is enshrined by the people.) The people of those times built a shrine to house the relic. The shrine was of a yojana high, with golden coloured bricks measuring one cubit by half cubit, two fingers' breadth thick. For cement they used crystal stone powder (used for eye lotion) mixed in sesame oil.

In the construction of the shrine, the devas belonging to terrestrial abodes raised a further yojana above the shrine built by human beings, which was further raised by another yojana by the devas of celestial abodes. Above that height, the Unhavalāhaka devas, the Ābbhavalāhaka devas, the devas of Catumahārāja realm and the devas of Tāvatiṃsa realm added a yojana respectively to the structure so that altogether the shrine, in commemoration of Buddha Vipassī, that encased a single piece of the Buddha-relic was seven yojanas in height.

When people came to that shrine to make offerings of flowers and other things, the guardian spirit of the shrine took over the offerings and placed them suitably before the shrine even in the presence of the donors.

At that time, in his previous existence, bhikkhu-elder Upavāṇa was born as a wealthy brahmin. He went to the shrine to make an offering of golden-hued piece of cloth, as a token of a robe for the Buddha. The guardian spirit placed the cloth beautifully at the shrine which pleased the brahmin donor greatly and who uttered his wish that in future he be reborn as a guardian spirit to a Buddha-shrine of this kind. At his death, he was reborn in the deva realm.

During the time the future Upavāṇa was being reborn, in turns, in the deva-loka and the human world, Buddha Kassapa had appeared in the world. When Buddha Kassapa passed away, the prevailing human life span being immense (twenty-thousand years), only a single piece of Buddha-relic remained. This relic was treasured in a shrine of one yojana in diameter and in height. The future Upavāṇa, at that time, became the guardian spirit of the shrine. After passing away from that life, he was born in the deva realm again. At the time of Buddha Gotama, he was reborn in a noble family. He renounced householder’s life, leaving behind his wife and children, and became an arahat.

Thus, the cause and condition for Upavāṇa’s extraordinary powers even among arahats, was that he had been a guardian spirit at the shrine erected in commemoration of Buddha Kassapa.

After the Buddha had thus explained to the Venerable Ānanda that Venerable Upavāṇa was told to move aside in the crowd not because he was at fault but only to satisfy the devas, the Venerable Ānanda said to the Buddha: “Venerable Sir, what is the Bhagava’s assessment of the state of mind that is present in the devas and Brahmās?” (By this, the Venerable Ānanda was enquiring how far the devas and Brahmās were able to bear the grief at the impending Buddha’s decease.)

The Buddha told Ānanda that the devas and Brahmās were in a state of despondency thus:

“Ānanda, the devas, who choose to remain in the air and are standing there (as if there was firm ground to stand on, having transformed the sky into firm ground by their divine power), are wailing with dishevelled hair, their arms upraised; they fling themselves down, rolling (on the fancied ground) in all directions, all the while lamenting: ‘All too soon is the Bhagavā going to realize Parinibbāna! All too soon is the Well-Spoken One going to realize Parinibbāna! All too soon is the Possessor of the Eye of Wisdom going to vanish from the world!”

“Ānanda, the devas, who choose to remain on the earth and are standing on the ground (transforming the natural earth into supportable ground for their bodies of subtle corporeality), are wailing with dishevelled hair, their arms upraised, they fling themselves down, rolling in all directions, all the while lamenting: ‘All too soon is the Bhagavā going to realize Parinibbāna! All too soon is the Well-Spoken one going to realize Parinibbāna! All too soon is the Possessor of the Eye of Wisdom going to vanish from the world!”

“But those devas, who are free from sensual attachment, can bear it with fortitude in the keen contemplation ‘that all conditioned things are impermanent by nature. And hence, how would it be possible to find any permanence in this conditioned nature?’ ”

(The devas' bodies are composed of subtle corporeality. The texture of the natural earth cannot support them; if they were to stand on it, their bodies would seep into the earth like a lump of butter. On a certain occasion, a Brahmā named Hatthaka went to the Buddha and as he tried to stand there, his body seeped into the earth. The Buddha had to remind him to transform his body into a gross kind of corporeality so as to be able to remain solid on the ground. The same situation holds true with devas. That was why the devas, in this context, needed to transform the natural earth to suit their subtle corporeality so that it became possible for them to roll on it.)