Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c23.27

c23.27

**Monk’s duty of nursing the Sick Brethren.** The duty of nursing the sick among them was laid upon all the Bhikkhus. The texts relate an interesting story regarding the origin of this rule. Once a certain Bhikkhu having a disturbance in his bowels lay fallen in his own evacuations, unattended by any one because he was of no service to the Bhikkhus. The Buddha, going round the sleeping-places of the Bhikkhus with Ānanda, noticed the sick Bhikkhu in that condition and asked Ānanda to fetch some water. He himself poured the water over that Bhikkhu while Ānanda wiped him down. Then "the Blessed One taking hold of him at the head and the venerable Ānanda at the feet, they lifted him up and laid him down upon his bed". Afterwards, the Buddha convened a meeting of the Saṁgha at which he rebuked the Bhikkhus thus: "Ye, O Bhikkhus, have no mothers and fathers who might wait upon you! If ye, O Bhikkhus, wait not one upon the other, who is there indeed who will wait upon you? Whosoever, O Bhikkhus, would wait upon me, he should wait upon the sick." He then prescribed detailed regulations on the whole question of nursing the sick. The duty of nursing the sick Bhikkhu lay primarily upon his immediate associates, his Upajjhāya, Āchāriya, Saddhivihārika, Antevāsika, a fellow-Saddhivihārika or a fellow-Antevāsika as the case might be.