阿彌陀經通贊疏 1.73

1.73

The commentary says: The sixth is the pair of flowing stream and worthy of offerings. In Sanskrit he is called Gavāmpati, which is translated as "Bovine Appearance." "Jiaofanboti" is corrupt. In the past, because he plucked a stalk of grain and several grains fell to the ground, he had to repay them as an ox for five hundred lives; although now in a human body, he still exhibited the appearance of an ox chewing cud, so he was named the Ox-Appearance Monk. Fearing that people might disparage him and consequently fall into various sufferings, the Buddha ordered him to go to the Śirīṣa Grove in the Trāyastriṃśa Palace to practice meditation. When the Buddha was to enter parinirvāṇa and the Dharma treasury was to be compiled, someone was sent to call him. He asked: "Is the World-Honoured One at peace?" The messenger replied: "He has already attained extinction." He asked again: "Is my master still alive?" The messenger reported: "Śāriputra could not bear to see the World-Honoured One enter extinction and the three realms left without a refuge, so he entered extinction first." The venerable one, hearing these words, sighed repeatedly and then transformed into a stream of water flowing down to the lower realm, uttering a verse from within the water. The verse said: / "Gavāmpati bows with his head / To the foremost image of the wondrous, majestic assembly; / The elephant king has already departed, and the elephant calf follows; / Since the Great Master has entered extinction, I shall also enter extinction." / Thereupon he transformed into fire, burned his body, and entered quietude. For this venerable one, avoiding suspicion, he practiced contemplation upon the summit of Mount Sumeru; in the Śarī Grove, he suddenly heard that our Buddha, the World-Honoured One, had manifested his return to extinction, and learned that his own master, Śāriputra, had manifested his disappearance into emptiness; the water flowed with a verse amid the crags, and fire consumed his body in heaven; hence it is called "flowing stream."