Page Text
________________
411
difficulty about their safe keeping. So she decided to take them back and put them to some worthy use for the monks. So she asked the maid to get them back.
She decided to
Visakha did not use the ornaments. sell them. The jewellers who were called into make the valuation stated at fabulous price of nine crores, with an extra one lakh for their making. She asked the jewellers to sell them for her, but they expressed difficulty about finding a suitable customer for such costly things. So she bought them herself. She loaded nine crores and one lakh coins on heavy trunks, arrived at the vihara, saw the Buddha, bowed before him and said,
"Bhante! My ornaments had been touched by the hands of Sthavira Ananda. So I could not use them any more, I decided to make a gift of them to the monks. But monks have no use with ornaments. So I decided to sell them so that the money could be used for the benefit of the monks. But the next problem was to find a buyer of such costly things. So I decided to repurchase them myself which I have done, and I have brought the wherewithal to pay for them. Please direct me on which one of the four objects used by the monks I may spend this money".
The Tathāgata directed her to erect a.shelter at the eastern gate of the city. Visakha at once started preparations to give effect to the suggestion. She purchased a plot of land for nine crores and the construction work was taken on land.
The Buddha's routine was to beg at Visakha's house and to return to his camp at Jetavana by the southern gate. The day he received food at the house of Anathapindika, he went out of the city by the eastern gate and lived in the shelter in the east. But when he turned his steps to the northern gate, that was an indication to the people that the Buddha was moving out from the city on his carikā mission. One day, Visakha observed that the Buddha had turned his steps in the direction of the northern gate. At once, she hurried after him, bowed before him and asked him with deep anxiety,
1
| SR No. | 022804 |
| Book Title | Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nagaraj Muni |
| Publisher | Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers |
| Publication Year | 1986 |
| Total Pages | 804 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 19 MB |