Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2757

v2.c31.2757

Soon after the Buddha’s first vassa, Māra approached him and asked him not to teach the monks regarding the highest emancipation, he himself being yet bound by Māra’s fetters. But the Buddha replied that he was free of all fetters, human and divine.¹¹ On another occasion Māra entered into the body of Vetambarī and made him utter heretical doctrines.¹² The Māra Samyutta¹³ contains several instances of Māra’s temptations of the Buddha by assailing him with doubts as to his emancipation, feelings of fear and dread, appearing before him in the shape of an elephant, a cobra, in various guises beautiful and ugly, making the rocks of Gijjhakūṭa fall with a crash; by making him wonder whether he should ever sleep; by suggesting that, as human life was long, there was no need for haste in living the good life; by dulling the intelligence of his hearers.¹⁴ Once, when the Buddha was preaching to the monks, Māra came in the guise of a bullock and broke their bowls, which were standing in the air to dry; on another occasion he made a great din so that the minds of the listening monks were distracted. Again, when the Buddha went for alms to Pañcasālā, he entered into the brahmin householders and the Buddha had to return with empty bowl. Māra approached the Buddha on his return and tried to persuade him to try once more; this was, says the Commentary, a ruse, that he might inspire insult and injury in addition to neglect. But the Buddha refused, saying that he would live that day on *pīti*, like the Ābhassara gods.¹⁵ Again, as the Buddha was preaching to the monks on Nibbāna, Māra came in the form of a peasant and interrupted the sermon to ask if anyone had seen his oxen. His desire was to make the cares of the present life break in on the calm and supramundane atmosphere of the discourse on Nibbāna. On another occasion he tempted the Buddha with the fascination of exercising power that he might rescue those suffering from the cruelty of rulers. Once, at the Sākyan village of Silavatī, he approached the monks who were bent on study, in the shape of a very old and holy brahmin, and asked them not to abandon the things of this life, in order to run after matters involving time. In the same village, he tried to frighten Samiddhi away from his meditations. Samiddhi sought the Buddha’s help and went back and won arahantship.¹⁶ Māra influenced Godhika to commit suicide and tried to frighten Rāhula in the guise of a huge elephant.¹⁷ In the account of Godhika’s suicide,¹⁸ there is a curious statement that, after Godhika died, Māra went about looking for his (Godhika’s) consciousness (*paṭisandhicitta*), and the Buddha pointed him out to the monks, “going about like a cloud of smoke.”¹⁹ Later, Māra came to the Buddha, like a little child (*khuddadārakavaṇṇī*),¹⁹ holding a *vilva*-lyre of golden colour, and he questioned the Buddha about Godhika. (This probably refers to some dispute which arose among the monks regarding Godhika’s destiny.)