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Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

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Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 194<br />

Bhadrikā, who had been a cow in her former birth, came from<br />

heaven.<br />

68. She, the daughter of the gods, smiling with her companions, thus<br />

addressed the Jina, bringing him a garment of rags, dependent from a<br />

bough:<br />

69. ‘I beg to bring to thy notice – what O Buddha! – accept this<br />

garment of rags, <strong>by</strong> whose influence I am now a daughter of heaven<br />

named Bhadrikā.’<br />

70. ‘By the further development of this merit thou shalt become a<br />

Bodhisattva’ – uttering this blessing the Teacher accepted the rags.<br />

71. Beholding the tattered rags, the gods, crowding in the sky, filled<br />

with wonder, and uttering cries of hī hī, flung down upon him<br />

garments of heavenly silk.<br />

72. ‘These are not fit for a religious mendicant,’ – so saying, he did<br />

not accept even one of them, – only thinking in his calm apathy,<br />

‘these are fit for imperial pomp and a householder’s luxury.’<br />

73. He desired a stone slab and some water in order to wash the dirt<br />

away, – Śakra at that moment dug out a great river full of water;<br />

74. And four stones are brought to him <strong>by</strong> the four Mahārājas, – on<br />

one he himself sat, on another he performed the washing;

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