Part 10: Ajita’s fast-breaking

On the next day the Master broke his two days’ fast with rice pudding^[1] at the house of King Brahmadatta. The gods rained a stream of treasure consisting of twelve and a half crores of gold into the courtyard of King Brahmadatta’s house. With upraised arms the gods waved in the air the ends of their garments which stole the beauty of the shoots of vines rocked by the wind. Also the drum, beaten by the joyful gods, sounded in the sky with the deep sound of the murmur of the ocean breaking on the shore. The gods made a shower of perfumed rain resembling perspiration of the Master’s glories wandering about. The chief-gods showered five-colored flowers followed on all sides by bees like friends. “Oh, the gift! Oh, the gift! This is an excellent gift, for by its power the giver has unequaled power instantly. He attains emancipation, sometimes in this very same birth, or sometimes in the third, being born in the heavens or in the kalpātītas^[2] in the second birth.” So the gods with joyful hearts made a loud tumult in the sky accompanied by cries of “Hail! Hail!”

The persons who saw the Lord receive alms became free from disease, like gods physically. When the Blessed One had broken his fast, he left the house of King Brahmadatta, like an elephant leaving a pool after drinking. Thinking “No one must step on the footprints,” King Brahmadatta had a platform of jewels made over the Lord’s footprints. King Brahmadatta made a pūjā three times a day with flowers, etc., to the platform, considering the Jineśvara present there. If this platform had not been worshipped with ointment, flowers, etc., he did not eat, like a servant,^[3] the master not having eaten.