A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.84

v2.c19.s6.t3.84

A man comes to the monastery, and desires to be admitted into the order. The disciple Śāriputra examines him, and finds that the man can-not claim to have done even the slightest good deed in any of his existences throughout æons, and he therefore declares him unworthy of being admit-ted into the order. Weeping, the man leaves the monastery. Then he meets Lord Buddha himself, whose heart is full of pity, and who desires to convert that man "like a mother, who loves her son." He lays his hands on the head of the rejected one, and asks: "Why do you weep?" The man tells him that Śāriputra has rejected him. Then the Buddha comforts him "with a voice that sounded like distant thunder," and declares that Śāriputra is not omniscient. The Lord himself brings the man back into the monastery, and before the assembled monks he tells of the Kar-man, the good deed which has entitled the man to liberation. Once in a former birth this person was a poor man, wandering about on the wooded hills to gather wood, when a tiger rushed upon him. Full of terror, he cried: "Honour to the Buddha!" For the sake of these words, the man shall participate in liberation. Buddha himself ordains him as a monk, and he soon becomes an Arhat.²