Mahavagga, Khandaka 8, Chapter 15

1. Now when the Blessed One had remained at Benares as long as he thought fit, he went onwards on his journey toward Sāvatthi. And in due course journeying 'straight on he arrived at Sāvatthi; and there, at Sāvatthi, he stayed at the Jetavana, Anātha-piṇḍika's Ārāma. And Visākhā the mother of Migāra went up to the place where the Blessed One was; and when she had come there, she saluted the Blessed One, and took her seat on one side. And the Blessed One taught Visākhā the mother of Migāra seated thus: and incited, and aroused, and gladdened her with religious discourse. And Visākhā the mother of Migāra when she had been thus taught, &c., spake thus to the Blessed One: 'Will my Lord the Blessed One consent to accept his morrow's meal at my hands, together with the company of the Bhikkhus?' The Blessed One, by remaining silent, granted his consent; and Visākhā the mother of Migāra, perceiving that the Blessed One had consented, rose from her seat, and saluted the Blessed One, and keeping him on her right side as she passed him, she departed thence.

2. Now at that time, when the night was far spent, there was a great storm of rain over the whole world^[1]. And the Blessed One said to the Bhikkhus:

'Just as it is raining in the Jetavana, O Bhikkhus, so is it raining over the whole world. Let yourselves, O Bhikkhus, be rained down upon, for this is the last time there will be a mighty storm of rain over the whole world.'

'Even so, Lord,' said those Bhikkhus in assent to the Blessed One; and throwing off their robes they let themselves be rained down upon.

3. And Visākhā the mother of Migāra having provided sweet food, both hard and soft, gave command to a slave girl, saying,

'Go thou^[2] to the Ārāma; and when you are there, announce the time, saying, "The time, Sirs, has arrived, and the meal is ready."'

'Even so, my Lady,' said the slave girl in assent to Visākhā, the mother of Migāra; and going to the Ārāma she beheld there the Bhikkhus, with their robes thrown off, letting themselves be rained down upon. Then thinking, 'These are not Bhikkhus in the Ārāma, they are naked ascetics letting the r tin fall on them,' she returned to the place where Visākhā the mother of Migāra was, and said to her:

There are no Bhikkhus in the Ārāma; there are naked ascetics there, letting the rain fall on themselves.'

Then it occurred to Visākhā the mother of Migāra—she being learned, expert, and wise—'For a certainty the venerable ones must have thrown off their robes in order to let themselves be rained down upon, and this foolish girl thinks therefore that there are no Bhikkhus in the Ārāma, but only naked ascetics letting the rain fall on them.' And she again gave command to the slave girl, saying,

'Go thou to the Ārāma; and when you are there, announce the time, saying, "The time, Sirs, has arrived, and the meal is ready."'

4. Now the Bhikkhus when they had cooled their limbs, and were refreshed in body, took their robes, and entered each one into his chamber, When the slave girl came to the Ārāma, not seeing any Bhikkhus, she thought: 'There are no Bhikkhus in the Ārāma. The Ārāma is empty.' And returning to Visākhā the mother of Migāra she said so.

Then it occurred to Visākhā the mother of Migāra—she being learned, expert, and wise—'For a certainty the venerable ones, when they had cooled their limbs and were refreshed in body, must have taken their robes, and entered each one into his chamber.' And she again gave command to the slave girl, saying,

'Go thou to Ārāma; and when you are there announce the time, saying, "The time, Sirs, has arrived, and the meal is ready."'

5. And the Blessed One said to the Bhikkhus: 'Make yourselves ready, O Bhikkhus, with bowl and robe; the hour for the meal has come.'

'Even so, Lord,' said the Bhikkhus in assent to the Blessed One. And in the morning the Blessed One, having put on his under-garment, and being duly bowled and robed, vanished from the Jetavana as quickly as a strong man would stretch forth his arm when it was drawn in, or draw it in again when it was stretched forth, and appeared in the mansion^[3] of Visākhā the mother of Migāra. And the Blessed One took his seat on the seat spread out for him, and with him the company of the Bhikkhus.

6. Then said Visākhā the mother of Migāra: Most wonderful, most marvellous is the might and the power of the Tathāgata, in that though the floods are rolling on knee-deep, and though the floods are rolling on waist-deep, yet is not a single Bhikkhu wet, as to his feet, or as to his robes.' And glad and exalted in heart she served and offered with her own hand to the company of the Bhikkhus, with the Buddha at their head, sweet food, both hard and soft. And when the Blessed One had finished his meal, and had cleansed his hands and the bowl, she took her seat on one side. And, so sitting, she spake thus to the Blessed One:

'Eight are the boons, Lord, which I beg of the Blessed One.'

'The Tathāgatas, O Visākhā, are above granting boons (before they know what they are)^[4].'

'Proper, Lord, and unobjectionable are the boons I ask.'

'Speak then, O Visākhā.'

7. 'I desire, Lord, my life long to bestow robes for the rainy season on the Saṃgha, and food for in-coming Bhikkhus, and food for out-going Bhikkhus, and food for the sick, and food for those who wait upon the sick, and medicine for the sick, and a constant supply of congey, and bathing robes for the nuns.'

'But what circumstance is it, O Visākhā, that you have in view in asking these eight boons of the Tathāgata?'

'I gave command, Lord, to my slave girl, saying, "Go thou to the Ārāma; and when you are there, announce the time, saying, 'The time, Sirs, has arrived, and the meal is ready.'" And the slave girl went, Lord, to the Ārāma; but when she beheld there the Bhikkhus with their robes thrown off, letting themselves be rained down upon, she thought: "These are not Bhikkhus in the Ārāma, they are naked ascetics letting the rain fall on them," and she returned to me and reported accordingly. Impure, Lord, is nakedness, and revolting. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with special garments for use in the rainy season^[5].

8. 'Moreover, Lord, an in-coming Bhikkhu, not being able to take the direct roads, and not knowing the places where food can be procured, comes on his way wearied out by seeking for an alms. But when he has partaken of the food I shall have provided for in-coming Bhikkhus, he will come on his way without being wearied out by seeking for an alms, taking the direct road, and knowing the place where food can be procured. It was this circumstance that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with food for in-coming Bhikkhus.

'Moreover, Lord, an out-going Bhikkhu, while seeking about for an alms for himself, may be left behind by the caravan^[6], or may arrive too late at the place whither he desires to go, and will set out on the road in weariness. But when he has partaken of the food I shall have provided for out-going Bhikkhus, he will not be left behind by the caravan; he will arrive in due time at the place whither he desires to go, and he will set out on the road when he is not weary. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with food for out-going Bhikkhus.

9. 'Moreover, Lord, if a sick Bhikkhu does not obtain suitable foods his sickness may increase upon him, or he may die. But if a Bhikkhu have taken the diet that I shall have provided for the sick, neither will his sickness increase upon him, nor will he die. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with diet for the sick.

'Moreover, Lord, a Bhikkhu who is waiting upon the sick, if he has to seek out food for himself, may bring in the food (to the invalid) when the sun is already far on his course^[7], and he will lose his opportunity of taking his food^[8]. But when he has partaken of the food I shall have provided for those who wait upon the sick, he will bring in food to the invalid in due time, and he will not lose his opportunity of taking his food. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with food for those who wait upon the sick.

10. 'Moreover, Lord, if a sick Bhikkhu does not obtain suitable medicines his sickness may increase upon him, or he may die. But if a Bhikkhu have taken the medicines which I shall have provided for the sick, neither will his sickness increase upon him, nor will he die. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with medicines for the sick.

'Moreover, Lord, the Blessed One when at Andhakavinda, having in view the ten advantages thereof, allowed the use of congey^[9]. It was those advantages I had in view, Lord, in desiring to provide the Saṃgha my life long with a constant supply of congey.

11. 'Now, Lord, the Bhikkhunīs are in the habit of bathing in the river Aciravatī with the courtesans, at the same landing-place, and naked. And the courtesans, Lord, ridiculed the Bhikkhunīs, saying, "What is the good, ladies, of your maintaining^[10] chastity when you are young? are not the passions things to be indulged? When you are old, maintain chastity then; thus will you be obtainers of both ends." Then the Bhikkhunīs, Lord, when thus ridiculed by the courtesans, were confused. Impure, Lord, is nakedness for a woman, disgusting, and revolting. It was this circumstance, Lord, that I had in view in desiring to provide the Bhikkhunī-saṃgha my life long with dresses to bathe in.'

12. 'But what was the advantage you had in view for yourself, O Visākhā, in asking these eight boons of the Tathāgata?'

'Bhikkhus who have spent the rainy seasons in various places will come, Lord, to Sāvatthi, to visit the Blessed One. And on coming to the Blessed One they will ask, saying, "Such and such a Bhikkhu, Lord, has died. Where has he been re-born, and what is his destiny?" Then will the Blessed One explain that he had attained to the fruits of conversion, or of the state of the Sakadāgāmins, or of the state of the Anāgāmins, or of Arahatship^[11]. And I, going up to them, shall ask, "Was that brother, Sirs, one of those who had formerly been at Sāvatthi?"

13. 'If they should reply to me, "He had formerly been at Sāvatthi," then shall I arrive at the conclusion, "For a certainty did that brother enjoy either the robes for the rainy season, or the food for the in-coming Bhikkhus, or the food for the out-going Bhikkhus, or the food for the sick, or the food for those that wait upon the sick, or the medicine for the sick, or the constant supply of congey." Then will gladness spring up within me on my calling that to mind; and joy will arise to me thus gladdened; and so rejoicing all my frame will be at peace; and being thus at peace I shall experience a blissful feeling of content; and in that bliss my heart will be at rest; and that will be to me an exercise of my moral sense, an exercise of my moral powers, an exercise of the seven kinds of wisdom^[12]! This, Lord, was the advantage I had in view for myself in asking those eight boons of the Blessed One.'

14. 'It is well, it is well, Visākhā. Thou hast done well in asking eight boons of the Tathāgata with such advantages in view.'

And the Blessed One gave thanks to Visākhā the mother of Migāra in these verses;

'Whatsoever woman, upright in life, a disciple of the Happy One, gives, glad at heart and overcoming avarice, both food and drink—a gift, heavenly, destructive of sorrow, productive of bliss,—

'A heavenly life does she attain, entering upon the Path that is free from corruption and impurity;

'Aiming at good, happy does she become, and free from sickness, and long does she rejoice in a heavenly body.'

And when the Blessed One had given thanks to Visākhā the mother of Migāra in these verses, he arose from his seat, and departed thence.

15. Then the Blessed One on that occasion, after he had delivered a religious discourse, addressed the Bhikkhus, and said:

I allow you, O Bhikkhus, garments for the rainy season^[13], and food for in-coming Bhikkhus, and food for out-going Bhikkhus, and diet for the sick, and food for those that wait upon the sick, and medicine for the sick, and a constant supply of congey, and bathing robes for the sisterhood.'

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Here ends the chapter called the Visākhā-bhāṇavāra.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Cātuddīpiko, literally, 'over the four continents,' into which the world was supposed to be divided. Compare Genesis vii. 44.

[2]:

Gaccha je; where je is the appropriate form of address invariably used to a female slave or maid-servant. Compare Childers, in the 'Dictionary,' p. 617.

[3]:

Koṭṭhaka does not only mean a room, as given by Childers: it signifies here, as at Jātaka I, 227, a battlemented dwelling, the house of a person of rank.

[4]:

See our note on this phrase at I, 54, 4.

[5]:

See below, the note on § 15.

[6]:

Compare sukhā vihāyati in the Sigālovāda Sutta at p. 302 of Grimblot's 'Sept Suttas Pālis.'

[7]:

Compare Ussūra-seyyo in the Sigālovāda Sutta at p. 302 of Grimblot's 'Sept Suttas Pālis;' and Böhtlingk-Roth, under utsūra.

[8]:

Bhattacchedaṃ karissati, because he may not eat solid food after sun-turn.

[9]:

See Mahāvagga VI, 24. The ten advantages are enumerated in § 5 there.

[10]:

In the text read ciṇṇena. Compare Bhikkhunī-vibhaṅga, Pācittiya XXI, 1, where the whole passage recurs. The first sentence also recurs ibid., Pācittiya II.

[11]:

A conversation of the kind here referred to is related, as having actually taken place at Nādika, in the 'Book of the Great Decease,' II, 5-8.

[12]:

The succession of ideas in this paragraph is very suggestive, and throws much light both upon the psychological views and upon the religious feelings of the early Buddhists. The exact rendering of course of the abstract terms employed in the Pāli text is no doubt, as yet, beset with difficulty, for the reasons pointed out in Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pāli,' pp. xxv, xxvi; but the general sense of the passage is already sufficiently clear. For one or two words we have no real and adequate equivalent.

[13]:

The size of such a garment is limited by the 91st Pācittiya to six spans by two-and-a-half--that is just enough to go round the loins from the waist half down to the knee. It would be decent, and yet avoid the disadvantage of wearing the robes in the rain, where they would become wet and heavy in the manner described, for instance, at Mahāvagga VII, 1, 1.