Chapter 33
lotus stalks and stems.
NB: Through the supernatural power of ogres, a human body, including its hair,
etc., turns into a lump of butter
Those who escorted the convict and the food for the ogre saw ΀avaka devouring the
man, became frightened and told their intimate friends of the matter. From that time
onwards the news that ‚the King catches thieves and gives them to the ogre‛, spread and
people abstained from stealing.
At a later time, as there were no new thieves and old ones were all gone, the prisons
became empty. Then the minister reported the matter to the King, who had his gold and
silver dropped on all the main roads of the city, thinking that somebody might want to pick
it up. But nobody touched it even with his foot lest they should be accused of theft.
When the King of ΀avaka failed to get new recruit of thieves in this way, he discussed it
with his ministers, who advised, saying: ‚We shall make people send one aged person from
each household in serial order. An aged person means one who by himself is about to enter
the mouth of death.‛ But the King rejected the advice saying that people would then be
terrorized with the thought ‘the King has the heart to send my father to the ogre!’ or ‘He is
cruel enough to send my grandfather to the ogre!’ I do not prefer that plan."
Then the ministers presented their alternate idea thus: ‚In that case Great King, make
people send their children who are lying on their backs in their cradles, each day. Such
children have no such affection as ‘This is my mother’ or ‘This is my father.’ Upon this the
King agreed and let him do so. The minister started executing the plan.
From the city, mothers fled with their children, and pregnant women fled too. After
bringing up their children in another country, they brought back their young children to the
city.
In this manner the daily feeding of the ogre took place for twelve long years. One day,
when the royal servants roamed about the city looking for children, they found not a single
child. So they reported to the King: ‚Leaving aside your son, Prince ŒÄavaka, in the palace,
there are no children in the city.‛ The King replied: ‚As I love my son, so do all these
people love their respective sons. But in this world there is none more lovable than one's
own self. Go, men, save my life by giving my son to the ogre!‛
At that time, the Queen, mother of Prince ΀avaka, had her son bathed with scented water
and adorned with ornaments. She was sitting with her son wrapped in soft white pieces of
cloth and placed him at her bosom to let him sleep. Under the command of the King, the
royal servants went there, and while the Queen and sixteen thousand female attendants
were crying, they took away the chief nurse and the prince, declaring that the little prince
would become food for the ogre.
The Buddha's Visit to ŒÄavÊ
On that day the Buddha rose early in the morning and engaged in
mahÈ-karuÓÈ-samÈpatti
in the Fragrant Chamber inside the Jetavana monastery. And when He surveyed the world
by His two-fold Buddha eyes, (consisting in
ÈsayÈnusaya-ÒÈÓa
and
indriya-paropariyatti-
ÒÈÓa
) He saw in His vision three significant things:
(1) the past merit of Prince ΀avaka that would lead him to
anÈgÈmÊ-phala
,
(2) the past merit of the ogre ΀avaka that would lead him to
sotÈpatti-phala
, and
(3) the past merit of eighty-four thousand beings that would lead them to the realization
of the Eye of the Dhamma (
dhamma-cakkhu
), the penetration of the Four Truths, at
the end of His discourse.
Accordingly, at daybreak He performed His morning duty. Before He could finished His
afternoon undertakings, at sunset on that new moon day, He set out on foot alone and
unaccompanied, taking His bowl and robe, on a journey of thirty
yojanas
from Savatthi,
and entered the precinct of the ogre's residence.
Now where did the Buddha stay? Did He stay in the ogre's mansion that was invisible to