Chapter 31
So happy and elated with the news that he had been permitted to become a monk, Sudinna
got up, dusting his body with his hands, and tried to regain his strength for one or two
days; thereafter he approached the Buddha, bowed his head in adoration, sat down at a
suitable place and requested:
‚Exalted Buddha, permission has been granted to me by my parents. May the
Exalted Buddha make me a monk!‛
The Buddha asked a nearby monk who was practising
piÓÉapÈta-dhuta~ga
, ‚Monk, as has
been requested by Sudinna thus, you, dear son, grant him ordination as a novice and then
ordination as a monk!‛ ‚Very well, Exalted Buddha,‛ replied the
dhuta~ga
practicing
monk, and taking Sudinna, his co-residential (
saddhivihÈrika
) pupil entrusted by the
Buddha, he made him a novice and then a monk.
Soon after becoming a monk, the Venerable Sudinna engaged in the following
dhuta~ga
practices, the means of shaking off mental defilements,
ÈraÒÒika
-
dhuta~ga
, dwelling in a
forest monastery,
piÓÉapÈtika
-
dhuta~ga
, eating food obtained by going on alms-round,
paÑsuk|lika
-
dhuta~ga
, putting on robes made of rags,
sapadÈnacÈrika
-
dhuta~ga
, collecting
food from houses serially. Thus he dwelt with an unknown small village as his resort for
food.
At that time, the country of VajjÊ was short of food. It was hard to live there. There were
white bones. People had to live by food tickets. It was not easy for monks to get enough
food going round with alms-bowls in their hands. Then it occurred to the Venerable
Sudinna:
‚Now VajjÊ country was short of food. It was hard to live there. There were white
bones. Lots had to be drawn for food. It was not easy for monks to get enough
food by going round with alms-bowls in their hands. I have a large number of
relatives in the city of Vesali who are prosperous (with wealth), who possess plenty
of (hidden) treasures, who are endowed with abundance of riches, abundance of
gold and silver, abundance of delightful articles and gems (for daily use) and a
large quantity of goods and grains (for trading and exchange). What if I were to
live, depending on my relatives. On account of me they would make offerings and
do things of merit. And material gains will accrue to monks. Monks, I too will not
be troubled by food.‛
With this idea, Venerable Sudinna packed his bedding and headed for VesÈlÊ, taking his
bowl and robe. On his arrival at VesÈlÊ, he stayed at a monastery with a peaked roof
(
k|ÔagÈra
) in MahÈvana (Great Forest) near VesÈlÊ.
Getting the news that ‚the Kalanda merchant's son, Sudinna, is said to have been in
VesÈlÊ, his relatives sent sixty pots of food as offering to him. (Each pot contained food for
ten monks.) Then (according to his previous plan) he offered the sixty pots to (six hundred)
monks, and (as for himself), being an observer of
piÓdapÈta
-
dhuta~ga
of the highest kind,
he adjusted his garment, took his bowl and robe and entered the village of Kalanda for
food. While going round and stopping in front of the houses, one after another he
happened to have approached the gate of the house belonging to his father, the (Kalanda)
merchant.
(N.B. The events after his return from the country of Vajji began to take place only
in his eighth year as a
bhikkhu
(i.e. when the Buddha was in the twentieth year of
His ministry). Here the events are told continuously in order to keep the sequence
of the events uninterrupted.)
At that moment, a female slave to kinsmen of Sudinna was coming out of the house to
throw away barley cakes that had become stale for having been kept overnight, (so stale
that it was impossible for male slaves, workers and cattle to eat). Then Sudinna said to her:
‚Sister, if you are to throw away those cakes, please put them into my bowl!‛
While she was putting the stale cakes into the Venerable Sudinna's bowl, she could not
recognize him as the son of her master, for Sudinna had been away for eight years; but
taking note of the features of his hands and feet and also his voice, she went to Sudinna's