Chapter 43
bowl to Vedeha. ‚Please come into my house,‛ said Vedeha, ‚the Exalted One is still seated
there.‛ ‚It is unbecoming to get into the house,‛ the Venerable replied. So the devotee filled
the bowl with food and offered it to him.
After sending off the noble Venerable and returned home, Vedeha took his seat near the
Buddha and said: ‚Exalted Buddha, although I told him that the Exalted Buddha was still in
my house, he did not want to come in. Does he possess virtues that are greater than
Yours?‛
Never has a Buddha
vannamacchariya
, reluctance to speak in praise of others.
Accordingly, the Buddha gave His reply as follows immediately after the lay devotee had
asked:
‚Donor, expecting food, we are seated in your house. But Nisabha never sits,
waiting for food. We occupy a dwelling near a village. But Nisabha stays in a
forest dwelling. We stay under a roof. But Nisabha dwells only in open air. These
are Nisabha's unusual attributes.‛
The Buddha elaborated the Venerable’s virtues as though He filled the ocean with some
more water. As for Vedeha, he developed greater faith with greater satisfaction as though
more oil is poured into the lamp that is burning with its own oil. So he came to a
conclusion: ‚What use is there for me, by human and divine luxuries? I shall resolve to
become foremost among
dhutavÈda
monks who themselves practise
dhuta~ga
austerities
and advise their co-residents to do so.‛
Again, the lay devotee Vedeha invited the Sangha headed by the Buddha to his food for
the next day. In this way, he offered a great
dÈna
and on the seventh day, he distributed, in
charity, three-piece robes to the monks. Then he fell at the feet of the Buddha and told of
his wish as follows:
‚Exalted Buddha, with the development of deed accompanied by loving-kindness
(
mettÈ
-
kÈyakamma
), word accompanied by loving-kindness (
mettÈ
-
vacÊkamma
), and
thought accompanied by loving-kindness (
mettÈ
-
manokamma
), I have performed
acts of merit for seven days such as this
mahÈ-dÈna
. I do not long for the bliss of
devas, the bliss of Sakka nor the bliss of BrahmÈ as a result of my good work but
may it be some wholesomeness that will enable me to strive for becoming foremost
among those who practised the thirteen
dhuta~ga
practices in the lifetime of a
coming Buddha, similar to the position that has been achieved now by the
Venerable MahÈ Nisabha.‛
Buddha Padumuttara surveyed Vedeha’s future with his psychic power, wondering
‚whether he will achieve it or not, for it is so great an aspiration‛ and he saw the man's
wish would definitely be fulfilled. So the Buddha said prophetically as follows:
‚Donor, you have expressed your wish for the position you love. In future, at the
end of a hundred thousand aeons, a Buddha by the name of Gotama shall arise.
You shall then become the third Disciple, named MahÈ Kassapa, of the Buddha
Gotama!‛
Having heard the prophecy, lay devotee Vedeha was happy as though he was going to
attain that position even the following day, for he knew that ‚a Buddha speaks only the
truth.‛ For as long as he lived, Vedeha performed various sorts of charity, kept the precepts
and did other wholesome deeds and on his death, he was reborn in a divine abode.
Life as EkasÈÔaka Brahmin
From that time onwards, the devotee enjoyed luxury in the divine and human worlds.
Ninety-one aeons ago, Buddha VipassÊ appeared and was staying in the Deer Park called
KhemÈ, with the City of BandhumatÊ as His alms-resort. The lay devotee, former Vedeha,
then passed from the divine world and took rebirth in an unknown poor brahmin family.
Buddha VipassÊ used to hold a special convocation, once in every seven years and gave
discourses. In so doing, He held day and night sessions so that every being might be able to
attend. For the day session, He preached in the evening and for the night-session, He spent