ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 18.18

18.18

he took a wife. But even though they enjoyed themselves and coupled, they had no children. They desired a son, so the householder supplicated the deities. He prayed to Paśupati, Varuṇa, Kubera, Śakra, Brahmā, and the rest, and to the deities of the pleasure groves, the forest deities, the deities of the crossroads, the deities of forks in the road, the deities who receive strewn oblations, the deities of his inherited tradition, and the deities who are in constant attendance of righteous persons. Although he made every effort to pray to them, he still could not have a son or a daughter.

Then, when the Bodhisattva was born, the soothsayers prophesied, “If he remains here at home, he will become a universal monarch, but if he shaves his head and face and dons the colorful religious robes, and if with nothing short of perfect faith he goes forth from home to live as a mendicant, then he will be renowned throughout the world as a tathāgata, an arhat, a totally and completely awakened buddha.”

Upon hearing these words, the charioteer Subhadra was devastated. “If I have a son,” he thought, “he will become charioteer to the prince, and our lineage of charioteers will not be broken.” With that, he began making especially fervent prayers to all the deities.

The Bodhisattva, upon witnessing old age, sickness, and death, went to live in the forest, where he practiced austerities for six years. After practicing austerities there for six years, from the young women Nandā and Nandabalā¹³⁴ of Serika village he accepted honeyed porridge prepared from milk that had been made into cream sixteen times over.

Then he accepted grass from Svastika the grass peddler. Then the nāga king Kāla praised him highly, and he proceeded to Bodhimaṇḍa. There he laid the grass out smooth,