Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c32.153

v2.c32.153

1. Yasa Thera.—He was the son of a very wealthy treasurer of Benares, and was brought up in great luxury, living in three mansions, according to the seasons and surrounded with all kinds of pleasures. Impelled by antecedent conditions, he saw one night the indecorum of his sleeping attendants, and, greatly distressed, put on his gold slippers and left the house and the town, non-humans opening the gates for him. He took the direction of Isipatana, exclaiming: “Alas! what distress! Alas! what danger!” The Buddha saw him in the distance and called to him, “Come Yasa, here is neither distress nor danger.” Filled with joy, Yasa took off his slippers and sat beside the Buddha. The Buddha preached to him a graduated discourse, and when he had finished teaching the Truths, Yasa attained realization of the Dhamma. To Yasa’s father, too, who had come in search of his son, the Buddha preached the Doctrine, having first made Yasa invisible to him.¹ At the end of the sermon he acknowledged himself the Buddha’s follower,² and Yasa, who had been listening, became an arahant. When, therefore, Yasa’s presence became known to his father, who asked him to return to his grieving mother, the Buddha declared that household life had no attractions for Yasa and granted his request to be admitted to the Order. The next day, at the invitation of Yasa’s father, he went, accompanied by Yasa, to his house, and there, at the conclusion of the meal, he preached to Yasa’s mother and other members of the household, who all became his followers, thus becoming the first tevācikā upāsikā. When Yasa’s intimate friends, Vimala, Subāhu, Puṇṇaji and Gavampati, heard of Yasa’s ordination they followed his example and joined the Order, attaining arahantship in due course, as did fifty others of Yasa’s former friends and acquaintances.³