THE GREAT CHRONICLE OF BUDDHAS
1296
the air and he could not read other people's minds. He had heard that although a master in
his own way, his art belonged to the lower grade, and that when someone, who had
mastered the art of a higher grade, happened to come near him or within his range, he
would meet with a waning of his own powers. He bethought himself: ‚That statement I had
heard from the teacher's teachers must be true, for, since Samana Gotama came to
RÈjagaha, my art has been visibly impaired. Samana Gotama certainly must be a master of
the higher art. It were well if I approached SamaÓa Gotama and learn his art.‛ He then
went to the Buddha and said: ‚O Venerable Bhikkhu, I wish to learn a certain art from
You. May the Venerable One agree.‛
The Buddha said: "If you wish to learn the art, you are to become a
bhikkhu
.‛
Pilindavaccha thought that becoming a
bhikkhu
was the preliminary step in the learning the
art that he had in mind, and he agreed to become a
bhikkhu
. The Buddha gave
Pilindavaccha the meditation subject which suited his temperament and he, being endowed
with the sufficing condition for enlightenment, gained Insight and soon attained arahatship.
(The Commentary to the
UdÈna
).
Pilindavaccha's Habit of using Harsh Words
The Venerable Pilindavaccha had a unique habit of calling other persons ‘rascal’ (
vasala-
samudÈcara
), in such manners as: ‘Come, you rascal’, or ‘Go, you rascal’, or ‘Bring it,
rascal’ or ‘Take it, rascal’, etc.
The
bhikkhus
referred this strange habit of the Venerable Pilindavaccha to the Buddha.
They asked: ‚Venerable Sir, do
ariyas
use harsh language?‛ And the Buddha said:
‚
Bhikkhus
,
ariyas
do not use harsh words in derision. Yet, due to ingrained habit that had
been acquired in successive past existence, harsh words may come to be used quite
inadvertently.‛ The
bhikkhus
said: ‚Venerable Sir, the Venerable Pilindavaccha, when
speaking to other persons, whether with lay persons or
bhikkhus
, would always call the
other person ‘rascal.’ What is the reason for this?‛
‚
Bhikkhus
, Pilindavaccha, in his previous five hundred successive existence, was born a
high class brahmin who was used to calling every other person ‘rascal’ (
vasala
). That habit
has become ingrained in him. He does not mean what he says in using the word ‘rascal’.
He has no evil intent. His word, though harsh to hear, is harmless. An
ariya
, being without
a trace of malice, incurs no blame for using such habituated harsh language.‛ Further, the
Buddha, on that occasion, spoke the following stanza:
AkakkasaÑ viÒÒÈpaniÑ,
giraÑ saccam udÊraye;
YÈya nÈbhisaje kaÒ ci,
tam aham br|mi BrÈhmaÓaÑ.
He who speaks gently, informative and true words and who does not offend
anyone by speech, him I call a BrÈhmana (
arahat
).
—— Dhammapada, v. 408 ——
At the end of uttering this stanza by the Buddha, many hearers gained enlightenment at
various levels, such as
sotÈpatti-phala,
etc. (It should be remembered that the word ‘rascal’
is harsh for someone to be used against him, but since Venerable Pilindavaccha had no
malice in using it, it is not called a form of demeritorious speech.)
The Changing of Cubeb into Rat's Droppings
One day, in the course of collecting alms-food in RÈjagaha, the Venerable Pilindavaccha
met a man entering the city with a bowl full of the cubeb, and asked him: ‚What is that in
your bowl, you rascal?‛ The man was offended. He thought: ‚How inauspicious, early in
the morning to be called a ‘rascal’. This
bhikkhu
deserves rude language to match his
rudeness.‛ So thinking, he replied: ‚It is rat's droppings, Venerable Sir.‛
(Herein, Venerable Pilindavaccha used a harsh word without malice but in a
friendly attitude, spoken out of sheer habit only; hence his word ‘rascal’ does not