(2) Mahamoggallana Thera Bojjhanga

Mahamaggallana Thera was the second of chief disciples of the Buddha. He was born in Kolitagama near Rajagaha. On the same day as Sariputta (they were both older than the Buddha), and was called Kolita after his village. His mother was a brahmine called Moggali (maggallani), and his father was the chief householder of the village. Moggallana’s and Sariputta’s families had maintained an unbroken friendship for seven generations, and so the children were friends from their child hood. Sariputta had five hundred golden palanquins and Moggallana five hundred carriages drawn by thorough breds. One day the two friends went together to see a mime play (giraggasamajja), and there, realizing the impermanence of things, decided to renounce the world. They first lived as disciples of Sanjaya and they wandered all over Jambudipa, discussing with all learned men, but finding no satisfaction. Then they separated themselves after agreeing that whoever will succeed first in finding what they sought should inform the other.

After some time, Sariputta, wandered about in Rajagaha, met Assaji and was converted by him to the faith of the Buddha, and became a sotapanna. He found Moggallana and repeated the stanza to him which he had heard from Assaji [ye dhamma hetuppaphava, etc], and Moggallana also became a sotapanna. The two then resolved to visit the Buddha at Veluvana, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Sanjaya to accompany them.

Sanjaya’s disciples, however, five hundred in number, agreed to go, and they all arrived at Veluvana. The Buddha preached to them, and ordained them by the “ehibhikkhu- pabajja.” All became arahants except Sariputta and Moggallana. Moggallana went to the hamlet of kallavala^[1] in Magadha, and there, on the seventh day after his ordination, drownsiness overcame him as he sat meditating. The Buddha knew this, and appearing before him, exhorted him to be zealous. That very day he attained arahantship.

On the day that Sariputta and Moggallana were ordained, the Buddha announced in the assembly of monks that he has assigned to them the place of chief disciples and then recited the Patimokkha. The monks were offended as why the new comers should be shown such great honour? But the Buddha told them, how these two had for a whole asankheyya and one hundred thousand years strenuously exerted themselves to win this great eminence under him. They had made the first resolve in the time of Anomadassi Buddha. Moggallana had been a householder, named Sirivaddha, and Sariputta a householder, called Sarada. Sarada gave away his immense wealth and became an ascetic. The Buddha visited him in his hermitage, where Sarada and his seventy four thousand pupils showed him great honour. He prayed to be a chief disciple of some future Buddha. Anomadassi saw that his wish would be fulfilled and told him so.

After the Buddha’s departure, Sarada went to Sirivaddha, and announcing the Buddha’s prophecy, advised Sirivaddha, to make elaborate preparations and entertained the Buddha and his monks for seven days. At the end of that time, he announced his wish to the Buddha, who declared that it would be fulfilled. From that time, the two friends, in that and subsequent births engaged in good deeds.^[2]

Sariputta and Moggallana are declared to be the ideal disciples, whose example others should try to follow.^[3] In the Saccavibha nga Sutta.^[4] The Buddha thus distinguishes these “twin brethren” from the others: “Sariputta is one who brings forth and Moggallana is as the nurse of what is brought forth; Sariputta trains in the fruits of conversion, Moggallana trains in the highest good. Sariputta is able to teach and easily explain the fourth Noble Truths; moggallana on the other hand, teaches by his iddhipatihariya.^[5] Moggallana’s pre-eminence lay in his possession of iddhi-power.^[6]

He could create a living shape innumerable times and could transfer himself into any shape at will.^[7] Several instances are given of this special display of iddhi. Once, at the Buddha’s request, with his great toe he shook the Migaramatupasada, and made it rattle in order to terrify some monks who sat in the ground floor of the building talking loosely and frivolously, regardless even of the fact that the Buddha was in the upper storey.^[8]

On another occasion, when Moggallana visited Sakka to find out if he had profited by the Buddha’s teaching, he found him far too proud and obsessed by the thought of his own splendour. He thereupon shook sakka’s palace, vejayanta, till sakka’s hair stood on end with right and his pride was humbled.^[9] Again, Moggallana is mentioned as visiting the Brahma-world in order to help the Buddha in quelling the arrogance of Baka-Brahma. He himself questioned Baka in solemn conclave in the Sudhamma-Hall in the Brahma-world and made him confess his conviction that his earlier views were erroneous.^[10] In the Maratajjaniya sutta^[11] we are told how Mara worried Moggallana by entering into his belly, but Moggallana ordered him to come out and told him how he himself had once been a Mara named Dust whose sister Kali was the mother of the present Mara. Dust incited the householders against Kakusandha Buddha and was, as a result, born in purgatory. But according to the commentaries,^[12] Moggallana’s greatest exhibition of iddhi-power was the subjugation of the Naga Nandopa-nanda. No other monk could have survived the ordeal because no other was able to enter so rapidly into the fourth jhana; which was the reason why the Buddha would give permission to no other monk but Moggallana to quell the Naga’s pride. Similarly in many ways was his subjection of the Naga who lived near the hermitage of Aggidatta.^[13] Moggallana could see, without entering into any special state of mind, petas and other spirits invisible to the ordinary mortal eye.^[14] He would visit various world and bring back to the Buddha reports of their inhabitants,^[15] which the Buddha used in illustration of his sermons. The Vimanavatthu^[16] contains a collection of stories of such visits and we are told^[17] that Moggallana’s visits to the deva-worlds—e.g. that to Tavatimsa -were very welcome to the devas. Though Moggallana’s pre-eminence was in iddhi-power, yet in wisdom, too, he was second only to Sariputta. These two could answer questions with the range of no other disciples of the Buddha.^[18]

The Buddha paid a compliment to Moggallana’s powers of preaching, when, having preached himself to the Sakyans in their new Mote Hall at Kapilavatthu, he asked Moggallana, after their departure, to talk to the monks, as he himself was weary. And Moggallana spoke to them of lusts and of the means of getting rid of them. At the end of the sermon the Buddha praised him warmly^[19]. Mention is made elsewhere^[20] of eloquent sermons preached by him on the jhanas, on qualities which lead to true emancipation,^[21] and of visits paid to him by Sakka in company with numerous other gods in order to hear him preach. Other devas also went to hear him–e.g. candana, suyama, santusita, sunimitta and vasavatti.^[22] He was also consulted by those, such as vacchagotta,^[23] and vappa^[24] eager to learn from him, the teachings of the Buddha. When the Buddha went to preach the Abhidhamma in Tavatimsa, it was Moggallana that he entrusted the task of preaching to the people who were waiting for his return. Moggallana, therefore, provided for those people spiritually, while Anathapindika looked after their bodily needs.^[25]

When the time drew near for the Buddha’s return, Moggallana, at the request of the people, went to Tavatimsa, diving into the earth and climbing sineru, in full view of them all, in order to find out what the Buddha had intended to do so that the people might be kept informed.^[26] No task, which he might be told by the Buddha to perform, seemed to Moggallana too insignificant. Thus, we find him employed by the Buddha as messenger to the arahant Uggasen, telling him that Buddha wished to see him.^[27] He was also sent to Sakkhara, to Macchariya-kosiya, to check his miserness and bring him to Jetavana;^[28] and to Silava whom Ajatasattu was plotting to kill^[29] when Visakha was building the Migaramatupasada and the Buddha was away on one of his journeys, Moggallana, because of his iddhi-power, and five-hundred monks were left to supervise the work, which was carried through without difficulty.^[30]

The Buddha placed great faith in his two chief disciples and looked to them for keeping the order pure.^[31] Their fame had reached even to the Brahma-world, for we find Tudu-Brahma singing their praises, much to the annoyance of the Kokalika monk.^[32] When Devadatta created a schism among the monks and took five-hundred of them to Gayasisa, the Buddha sent Sariputta and Moggallana to bring them back. They were successful in this mission.^[33] Kakudha Koliyaputta, once servant of Moggallana and later born in a huge manomayakaya, had warned Moggallana of Devadatta’s intrigues against the Buddha, but the Buddha ignored this information carried to him by Moggallana.^[34] When Rahula, the Buddha’s son was ordained Sariputta was his preceptor and Moggallana his teacher.^[35] Moggollana seems to have carried out diligently the charge laid on him by the Buddha of looking after the monks’ welfare. Among the verses, attributed to him in the Theragatha, are several containing Exhortations to his colleagues,^[36] some of the colleagues, are mentioned by name-e.g, Tissa, Vaddhamana and Pottihila.^[37] Elsewhere^[38] mention is made of his living at Kalasila, with a company of five-hundred monks, watching over them and discovering that they were all arahants.Vangisa witnessed this and praised Moggallana in verse before the Buddha.

The love existing between Moggallana and Sariputta were mutual as was the admiration. Sariputta’s verses in praise of Moggallana^[39] are even more eloquent than those of Moggallana in praise of Sariputta^[40]. Their strongest bond was the love of each for the Buddha; when away from him, they would relate each other how they had been conversing with him by means of the divine ear and the divine eye.^[41] In the Mahagosinga sutta^[42] we find them staying in the Gosinga salavana in the company of Mahakassapa, Ananda, Revata and Anuruddha, engaged in friendly discussion, referring their conclusions to the Buddha for his opinion Sariputta, Moggallana and Anuruddha and Moggallana and Anuruddha are again mentioned^[43] as staying in the Ketakivana in Saketa. A discussion between Anuruddha and Moggallana is recorded, in which Anuruddha speaks of the value of cultivating the four 80 Satipatthanas. “It seems to have been usual for Sariputta and Moggallana, in their journey to travel together as the head of the monks, and lay disciples, who gave alms to the monks, were anxious to include them in their invitations.^[44]

Moggallana died before the Buddha, Sariputta died before both of them. The Theragatha contains several verses attributed to Moggallana regarding Sariputta’s death.^[45] Sariputta died on the full-moon day of Kattika and Moggallana two weeks later, on the new-moon day.^[46] According to the commentaries^[47] his death resulted from a plot the Niganthas. Moggallana used to visit various worlds and return with his report that he had discovered that those who followed the Buddha’s teaching reached happy worlds, while the followers of the heretics were reborn in woeful conditions. These statements diminished the number of the heretics and they bribed brigands to kill Moggallana. They surrounded the Elder’s cell in Kalasila, but he, aware of their intentions, escaped through the keyhole. On six successive days, this happened. On the seventh day, they caught him and beat him, crushing his bones and leaving him for dead. Having recovered consciousness, with a great effort of will, he dragged himself to the Buddha in order to take his leave, and there he died, to the sorrow of the deva-worlds. This sad death is said to have been the result of sin committed by him in a previous birth. Acting on the instigation of his wife, he had taken his blind parents into a forest, where, pretending that they were attacked by thieves, he had beaten them to death. For this deed he suffered in hell for innumerable years, and in his last birth lost his life by violence.

Moggallana’s body was of the colour of the blue lotus or the rain cloud.^[48] There exists in Sri Lanka an oral tradition that this colour is due to his having suffered in hell in the recent past! But our discussion is about Mahamoggallana. There he was seriously ill but by the magical power of recitation of the Bojjhanga sutta he recovered from illness.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For details see pacala sutta (A. iv. 85f.) where the village is called kalla-valamutta.

[2]:

Manorathapurani (Anguttara commentery) i. 84 ff.; Apadana Ii. 31ff.; Dhammapadatthakatha i. 73f.; Sutta Nipata commentary, 2 vols i. 326 ff.; the story of the present is given in brief at vin, I, 39ff.

[3]:

E. g., s. ii. 235; A. i. 88.

[4]:

M. iii. 248.

[5]:

BUA. 31.

[6]:

A. i. 23.

[7]:

Theragatha Vs. 1183; he is recorded as saying that the could crush sineru like a kidney bean (Dhammapadatthakatha Iii. 212), and rolling the earth like a mat between his fingers, could make it rotate like a potter’s wheel, or could place the earth on sineru like an umbrella on its stand. When the Buddha and his monks failed to get alms in Veranja, Moggallana offered to turn the earth upside down, so that the essence of the earth, which lay on the under surface, might serve as food. He also offered to open away from Nalerupucimanda to uttarakuru, that the monks might easily go there for alms; but this offer was refused by the Buddha (vin. ii. 7; sp. I,182 f.; Dhammapadatthakatha ii. 153).

[8]:

See pasadakampana sutta (s.v. 269 ff.; also the Utthama sutta, Sutta Nipata commentary, 2 vols I,336.f.).

[9]:

See culatanhasankhaya sutta (M. i. 251 ff.).

[10]:

Theragatha Vs. 1198; Theragatha A. ii 185; s. i.144 f.; other visits of his to the Brahma-world are also recorded when he held converse with Tissa Brahma (a. iii. 331ff.; iv. 75 ff.; cp. Maha Vastu i. 54 ff.).

[11]:

M. i. 332. ff.

[12]:

E. g., Theragatha A. ii. 188ff.

[13]:

Dhammapadatthakatha iii. 242.

[14]:

See, e.g., Dhammapadatthakatha ii. 64; iii. 66, 410 f., 479; s.ii. 254 ff. where he saw petas while in the company of Lakhana; cp. Avadanas i. 246 ff.

[15]:

See also Maha Vastu i. 4 ff. regarding his visit to the Nirayas.

[16]:

See also Dhammapadatthakatha iii. 291 (re Nandiya) and iii. 314.

[17]:

S. v. 366 f.

[18]:

Dhammapadatthakatha iii. 227.

[19]:

S. iv. 183 ff.

[20]:

Ibid, 262-9.

[21]:

A. v. 155 ff.

[22]:

S. iv. 269-80.

[23]:

E.g., s. iv. 391 ff.

[24]:

A. ii. 196. ff.

[25]:

Dhammapadatthakatha iii. 219

[26]:

Ibid., 224; J. iv. 265; Cariya-Pitaka Dvy. 375.

[27]:

Ibid., iv. 62.

[28]:

Ibid., i. 369 f.; J. i. 347.

[29]:

Theragatha A. i. 536.

[30]:

Dhammapadatthakatha i. 414 f.

[31]:

There is one instance recorded of Moggallana seizing a wicked monk, thrusting outside and bolting the door (A. iv. 204 ff.). Once, when a monk charged Sariputta with having offended him as he was about to start on a journey, Moggallana and Ananda went from lodging to lodging to summon the monks that they might hear Saputta vindicate himself (Vin. ii. 236; A. iv. 374.).

[32]:

Kokalika had a great hartred of them–e.g., A. v. 170 ff.; Sutta Nipata ; p. 231 ff.; Sutta Nipata commentary, 2 vols Ii. 473 ff.

[33]:

Dhammapadatthakatha i. 143 ff; see also Dhammapadatthakatha ii. 109 f., where they were sent to admonish the Assajipuna-bbasuka.

[34]:

Vin. ii. 185; A. iii. 122ff.

[35]:

J. i. 161; see Sutta Nipata commentary, 2 vols i. 304 f., where the account is slightly different. There Moggallana is spoken of as Rahula’s kammavacacariya.

[36]:

Theragatha vss. 1146.9, 1165 f.

[37]:

Ibid., 1162, 1163, 1174f.

[38]:

S. i. 194 f.

[39]:

Theragatha Vss. 1178-81.

[40]:

Ibid., 1176 f.

[41]:

E. g., S. ii. 275 ff.; Moggallana else-where also (s. ii. 273 f.) tells the monks of a conversation he held with the Buddha by means of these divine powers. For another discussion between Sariputta and Moggallana, see a. ii. 154

[42]:

M. i. 212.

[43]:

S. v. 174 f., 299.

[44]:

Velukandalu in Dakhinagiri (A.iii.336; iv 63); and cittagahapati in Machikasanda (Dhammapadatthakatha ii. 74f.).

[45]:

vs. 1158-61.

[46]:

Saratthapakasini (Samyutta commentary) iii. 181.

[47]:

J. v. 125 ff.; the account in Dhammapadatthakatha iii. 65 ff. differs in several details. The thieves tried for two months before succeeding in their plot and, in the story of the past, when the blind parents were being beaten, they cried out to the supposed thieves to spare their son. Moggallana, very touched by this, did not kill them. Before passing into Nibbana, he preached to the Buddha, at his request, and performed many miracles, returning to kalasila to die. According to the Jataka account his cremation was performed with much honour, and the Buddha had the relics collected and a thupa erected in veluvana.

[48]:

Buddha–vaysa i. 58.