付法藏因緣傳 3.10

3.10

Then King Aśoka invited the Venerable into the palace, arranged a jeweled throne, personally supported him up onto it, and said: "Great Holy One! Wherever the Buddha traveled, walked, and stayed, I wish to erect stūpas to increase the faith of the multitude." The Venerable praised him, saying: "Excellent, excellent! I will now go and show the King every place." He immediately prepared the fourfold army, and they set out together. They headed toward the Lumbinī garden to show the Buddha's birthplace, up to coming to Kuśinagara, where his converting affinity ended and he entered nirvāṇa. Hearing these words, the King fell unconscious to the ground; only after cold water was sprinkled on his face did he revive. Thereupon stūpas were erected in all these places, and having made offerings of a hundred thousand ounces of gold, he then departed. He further showed the King the merit-stūpas of Śāriputra and the other five hundred arhats; the King paid homage to them all and made offerings of gold. Finally, they came to the stūpa of Bakula. The King said: "What merit does this stūpa possess?" [The Venerable] replied: "Great King! The Buddha prophesied that this man would be free of all decline and illness. Long ago, ninety-one kalpas in the past, after the extinction of Vipaśyin Buddha, Bakula was residing at a monastery. He saw wealthy and noble people coming to make offerings to the saṅgha. The Venerable [Bakula] was lying down drunk at the time, and thought to himself: 'Since I am poor and destitute, with what shall I make an offering? Right now I have only a single harītakī fruit. If there are any sick monks among the saṅgha, I can offer it to them to heal their disease.' Thereupon he struck the mallet and announced the offering of medicine. At that time a monk was suffering severely from a headache; he asked the medicine-keeper for a harītakī fruit. The medicine-keeper said: 'Someone has offered medicine; you may take and consume it.' Then the monk went there, took the medicine, and having consumed it, his disease was immediately cured. On account of this cause, for ninety-one kalpas he was born among humans and devas, never having any disease. In his final life, he was born into a brāhmaṇa family. His mother died early, and his father took another wife. When Bakula was still a young child, he saw his mother making cakes and asked her for one. His stepmother was jealous and wicked, harboring a longstanding hatred, and immediately threw him into the cake oven; its flames blazed furiously, and she covered it with a pan. His father came from outside, searched everywhere for him, and found his son right in the oven. Later, on another occasion, the mother was boiling meat, and this little child again came and asked for some. The mother was even more enraged and threw him into the cauldron; the broth boiled scaldingly hot, but he was neither burned nor scalded. The father sought him again, unable to find him at all, and said: 'Where can my son be now?' At that time Bakula answered from within the cauldron; the father pulled him out, entirely safe and sound as before. Later, the mother went to a river, and Bakula held her clothes, following behind. The mother became furiously enraged and said: 'What sort of ghostly, monstrous creature is this? Even though I burned and boiled him, I could not make him die!' She thereupon seized him and threw him into the river. He encountered a large fish, which immediately swallowed him. Owing to his merit, he still did not die. A fisherman caught this fish on a hook, brought it to the market, and offered it for sale. Since he asked a high price, no one bought it; from morning till evening, it was on the verge of rotting and stinking. Bakula's father was walking through the market; seeing this large fish, he thought: 'The meat of this fish now is abundant. It is about to spoil, and the price asked is meager. I should now buy it and take it home.' He then gave him the money, took the fish, and returned home. He immediately cut open its belly with a sharp knife. At that time, Bakula called out loudly from inside the fish's belly: 'May father be gentle, do not let me be harmed!' He then opened the fish's belly and lifted him out. As he gradually grew up, he went to the Buddha and left the household life, attaining the path of an arhat and becoming endowed with all merits. At the age of one hundred and sixty, he had never experienced any illness, not even a fever or a headache. Desiring little and knowing contentment, he always delighted in seclusion and quiet, never having taught anyone even a single four-line verse." Having heard this, the King sent someone with a single coin to make an offering to this stūpa. A minister said to the King: "They are equally arhats; why make an offering with only a single coin?" The King said to the minister: "Because he saved himself and could not convert others." The stūpa deity would not accept it and handed it back to the King. The minister said: "Truly he desires little; he does not even wish to accept a single coin, how much less many!" Such are the five hundred great arhats: each has his past causes, but they are omitted and not recounted. After King Aśoka had finished making offerings to the stūpas of the Tathāgata and the śrāvakas, he joyfully joined his palms and spoke a verse: