經律異相 28.30

28.30

King Bimbisāra asked Maudgalyāyana, "Which heaven has fine food?" Maudgalyāyana praised [it], saying, "The heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings." Bimbisāra was due to be reborn in Tuṣita, but he immediately thought, "I would rather be born first in this heaven, and later be reborn in Tuṣita." Upon the end of his life, he became the crown prince of King Vaiśravaṇa, named Jetṛ (Most Victorious Son). As spoken in Maudgalyāyana's Prajñapti: the primal beings who moved on their chests were called mahoragas; the beings born with three hands were called elephants. It is asked, "Why are they spoken of as humans, yet either mahoragas or elephants?" The answer is, "Those beings, after their lives ended in the Ābhāsvara heaven, came to be born here. At that time they were born among animals, but their shapes resembled humans. Because their eating and drinking, evil thoughts, and wicked deceit increased so much, the human marks gradually vanished and they finally became beasts, in form like toads." (Extracted from the Vibhāṣā, Fascicle Fourteen).