Petavatthu(Ghost stories)26

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Petavatthu>>NOT SINKING IN WATER

= BOOK III - Chulavaggo =

26. THE STORY OF NOT SINKING IN THE WATER(3.1)
While the Teacher was dwelling at Veluvana Monastery, he told this story.

West of Benares, beyond the Ganga river as you pass Vasabhagama, in a village called Cundatthila, there lived a hunter. He killed deer in the forest, cooked the best meat on the embers, ate of it and what was left he bound in a basket of leaves which he carried on a pole to the village. When the children saw him at the town-gate, they stretched out their hands and ran up to him, crying, "Give me meat, give me meat". So he would give to each one of them a little piece of meat. One day he took only flowers and gave each child a cluster. Dying, he was reborn a peta, Hungry, thirsty, he walked unsinking up the Ganga river seeking his native village and kin. King Bimbisara's chief minister, after subduing a rebellion, was going back by boat down the river, and he saw the peta going along and asked him:

1. "Without sinking in the water, you walk here upon the Ganga river ; you are naked; yet, as though free from your former lot, you bearing garlands are adorned. Where will you be going, peta? Where will be your dwelling? "

Now what was then spoken by the peta and Koliya is narrated in the following stanzas by the redactors:

2. The peta said: "I will go to Cundatthila between here and Vasabhagama, near Benares."

3. And when the minister renowned under the name of Koliya had seen him, he resolved to ascribe to the peta the merit of  barley meal and boiled rice and a suit.

4. Then he stopped his boat and caused  these to be given to a barber; when the barber was fed, the result in the peta was seen.

5· Thereupon clad in the garments bearing garlands and adorned, the peta stood there, (divine) gifts brought  upon him at once; for this reason one should again and again bestow gifts out of sympathy for the petas.

So Koliya, the minister felt sorry for the peta and gave him a gift in this prescribed fashion. He continued downstream and arrived at Benares at sunrise. The Lord Buddha, who had come through the air to welcome them, stood on the bank. Koliya, pleased and delighted, invited Lord Buddha to dine with him. The Lord Buddha in silence accepted the invitation. With a serene mind Koliya entertained the Buddha and the monks. Then a crowd being assembled, the Lord Buddha out of compassion made certain petas appear to them and tell how they came to be thus. This the redactors set forth:

6. Some dressed in rags & strips of cloth, others covered with their hair, the petas go in quest of food and roam from region to region.

7. Some set out for a far country and having nothing received, return hungry, fainting, staggering and sinking to the earth.

8. Some fell down there prone on the earth. They had not done meritoriou deeds in earlier life; they were as though consumed by fire in summer, saying :

9. "In earlier life, we were wicked wives and mothers of households. We did not provide a refuge for ourselves in the bestowal of given things.

10. "Yes, much food and drink were even thrown away, and we gave nothing to the assembled world-forsakers(ascetics/hermits),

11. "While we, willing wicked deeds, lazy, wilful, and eating much, bestowed only bit and morsels, we abused the alm-takers.

12. "Those houses and those hand-maidens, even, those ornaments of ours are now at the service of others, in our portion is only trouble,

13. "The clans of basket-makers are a reproach, and the carriage­makers are perfidious; the chandala women;   beggars and the bathers too again and again,

14- "Among such base and wretched families are they born. Such is the destiny of the miserly.

15. "They who in earlier life did  good deeds, were donors, open-handed. shall fill the bright world and light up Nandana Grove(of heaven)

16. "Rejoicing and delighting in pleasures, they shall shall possess palaces; passing from that, they are born in high and wealthy families.

17 . "In a building with pinnacles, even in a palace, upon a couch overlaid with a woollen coverlet, they who had subdued their bodies are born in a good family with all the comforts of life; each one has in his hand a peacock-fan.

18. "From place to place they go, bearing garlands and adorned; attendants stand by seeking (for them) pleasure both evening and morning,

19. "The sorrowless and charming Nandana Grove(of heaven), this great forest of the Thrice-Ten(angels) belongs not to those who did not earn merit(punya) ; but only to those who earned the merit.

20. "For those who have not earned merit, there is happiness neither here nor beyond; but for those who have so earned, comes happiness both here and beyond.

21 "Much good must be accomplished by those desiring companionship(of angels/gods/devas) ; for they who have earned merit rejoice in heaven, blessed with wealth.