法苑珠林 56.49

56.49

爾時老母聞偈歡喜。心念前日有臭米汁。欲以施之則不可飲。遙啟迦葉。哀我受不。迦葉答言。大善。母即在窟匍匐取之。形體裸露不得持出。側身僂體籬上授與。迦葉受之。尊口祝願使蒙福安。迦葉心念。若吾齎去著餘處飲。母則不信謂吾棄之。即於母前飲訖盪鉢。還著囊中。於是老母特復真信。迦葉自念。當現神足令此母人必獲大安。即在空中廣現神變。爾時母人見此踊躍。一心長跪遙視迦葉。迦葉告曰。母今意中所願何等。即啟迦葉。願以微福得生天上。於是迦葉忽然不現。老母數日壽終即生忉利天上。威德巍巍震動天地。光明挺特譬如七日一時俱出。照曜天宮。帝釋驚悸。何人福德感動勝吾。即以天眼觀此天女福德使然。即知天女本生來處。爾時天女即自念言。此之福報緣其前世供養迦葉所致。假令當以天上珍寶種種百千施上迦葉。猶尚未報須臾之恩。即將侍女持天香華。忽然來下。於虛空中散迦葉上。然後來下五體投地禮畢却住。叉手歎曰。

At that time, hearing the verse, the old woman rejoiced. She thought of the foul rice water from the previous day; if she gave it, it could not be drunk. From afar, she addressed Kāśyapa, 'Will you take pity on me and accept it?' Kāśyapa replied, 'Excellent!' The woman crawled through the cave to retrieve it; being naked, she could not carry it out, but leaned and stooped over the fence to present it. Kāśyapa accepted it, and with his venerable mouth pronounced a blessing so that she would receive bliss and well-being. Kāśyapa thought: 'If I take it away to drink elsewhere, the woman will not believe me, thinking that I discarded it.' He then drank it before the woman, rinsed the bowl, and placed it back in his bag. Thereupon, the old woman gave rise to exceptionally true faith. Kāśyapa thought to himself: 'I should manifest supernatural powers so that this woman will certainly attain great peace.' He then broadly displayed supernatural transformations in the air. At that time, seeing this, the woman leaped with joy, knelt upright single-mindedly, and looked up at Kāśyapa from afar. Kāśyapa asked, 'What wish is now in your heart, mother?' She addressed Kāśyapa: 'I wish that by this slight merit I may be born in heaven.' Thereupon Kāśyapa suddenly disappeared. A few days later, the old woman's life ended, and she was reborn in Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. Her majestic virtue was towering, shaking heaven and earth, and her light was extraordinary, like seven suns rising all at once, illuminating the heavenly palace. Śakra was startled and awestruck: 'Whose merit can move and surpass mine?' He then used the divine eye to observe that this was brought about by the merit of this heavenly maiden, and came to know where she had originally come from. At that time, the heavenly maiden thought to herself: 'This retribution of merit is due to having made offerings to Kāśyapa in my previous life. Even if I were to offer hundreds of thousands of various heavenly treasures to Kāśyapa, it still could not repay an instant of his grace.' She immediately led her maidservants, carrying heavenly incense and flowers, and suddenly descended, scattering them over Kāśyapa from the sky. Afterwards she came down, bowed with five limbs to the ground, stood to one side, folded her hands, and praised him: