Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t3.9

c8.s1.t3.9

In the sacred texts the type of a female votary of Buddha, as she ought to be, with her indefatigable zeal as a giver and as a helper, is the honourable matron Visâkhâ. She is a rich citizen commoner at Sâvatthi, the chief town of Kosala, the mother of many blooming children, the grandmother of countless grandchildren. Every one invites Visâkhâ to sacrificial ceremonies and banquets, and has the dishes offered to her first; a guest like her brings luck to the house. It is Visâkhâ, who is represented to have made the first liberal preparations on a large scale to provide for Buddha's disciples who came to Sâvatthi, the chief necessaries of life. I here insert the narrative in point;* it gives at once an intelligible picture of what people in the young brotherhood thought as to giving and receiving and as to which of the two is the more blessed: the only benefactor, who must be thanked, is not he who gives anything to Buddha and his order, but Buddha who accepts the gift and thereby puts the giver in the position to practice the virtue of charity and to become partaker of that reward, which is promised to this virtue.