Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

great Kasyapa was in his hermitage with many of his
followers and the Blessed One came to visit him. The
Lord preached to them all and Indra, a king of the gods
with hosts of attendants, came to listen. The whole
grove was alight with the radiance of these devas.
Kasyapa was very much surprised, though still proud,
and it took many mighty wonders performed by the
Buddha with Indra's help to finally subdue his pride. At
last, becoming humble, he took the Refuges and
bhiksu's precepts from the Lord.
Also, we should not forget that after the Bodhisattva
(Buddha-to-be) had married, he then renounced all and
fled from his palace. According to some accounts, the
gods greatly assisted him. They appeared to him as the
four great warnings: an aged man, a sick man, a corpse,
and a wandering religious man. Gods showed
Siddhartha his woman attendants asleep in disgusting
and repulsive attitudes, and his servant was a god
disguised, another god took on the form of a horse and
conveyed him beyond the city, after which the horse's
form disappeared and that god arose again to his
heaven.
I have gathered from many sources all the occasions
when the gods helped the Buddha, and I have written a
long hymn on this subject. The question is: Why did
they help him? Both as a Buddha and bodhisattva,
sakyamuni had far more merits than the gods, yet in
every lifetime they served him. It is because many gods
630