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| Sunday, 22 May 2005 |
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Aggidatta
and his followers
Sunday parable by Sunanda Mahendra "I have served Your Majesty for such a long time and now I feel that the time has come for me to serve myself," said the Chief Advisor to King Kosala.
"The time is ripe for me to retire and find inner peace through meditation" "Does it mean that you are going to leave this worldly life?" "Yes my Honour, I want to lead a life of an ascetic." The king kept silent, as he knew the ways of Aggidatta, He was pious, honest and reliable. He would never give an adverse selfish advice to the king, in order to win his favour. As such the king felt sad to lose a duty-minded advisor and then thought to himself. "This advisor of mine is a noble human being and an incomparably good man. He is truthful and quite peaceful in his attitude towards Royal duties." The king knew that Aggidatta had a good number of followers who obeyed and listened to him. When they came to know of Aggidatta's retirement from, they came to see him with gifts. Then Aggidatta said, "I am not in need of these gifts, but I am grateful to you all for thinking about me. "Please take them with you, I am going to a forest to meditate." "We like to join you, will you allow us to join you?" Some of them asked Aggidatta. Aggidatta thought for a while and said, "You may come with me, but see that you are a group and at the same time meditate as individuals. As such it is a serious process where one has to be diligent and honest with one's own conscience. "On a full moon day, Aggidatta left the kingdom of Magadha, to the kingdom of Kuru amidst which situated a sanctified forest abode. There were five hundred followers of Aggidatta who were seen walking slowly and silently. When they rested after a long and strenuous walk, people from various parts of the place, brought fruits and other suitable eatables as offerings to the hermits. "Inner purification is the main intention," said the hermit aggidatta, maintaining discipline among his retinue. "Look, that's the environment where we are going to be for sometime and see that you make the best use of the surroundings. And the birds and beasts will have to live in harmony with us. If you harm them they will in turn harm you, therefore, let them live the way they wish to," said Aggidatta. It was one of the items in the forest hermitage to discuss problems. "Sometimes we find it difficult to meditate, as we get all sorts of adverse obstructive ideas simmering in our minds," said some of the followers of Aggidatta. Aggidatta thought for a while and said, "there is one thing that you can do in order to prevent you from undesirable thoughts." "What's that?" they asked. "When you have an ill feeling or an adverse desire or some such emotion, get up from the meditative mood and go over to that sandy area and get a handful of sand bring it back to that place over there." "He showed a particular place, "then drop the handful of sand and in this manner, whenever you get that kind of feeling that obstructs your meditation, repeat that action." The followers, who listened to Aggidatta acted accordingly. Very soon there happened to be a big mound of sand in the form of a molehill. This helped them to gauge the intensity of desires that they may have had in their minds which prevented them from meditation. The pilgrims and well wishers who came to pay homage to Aggidatta and his followers also saw this mound of sand. They saw the hermits bringing handsfulls of sand and making a mound. But for what apparent reason they did not understand. One day, a snake in the forest crept into the sand mound and made a place for it to live safely. The pilgrims saw this snake and thought that it was sacred. They not only worshipped it but also gave it various food like milk and eggs. The snake would come out of the sandy hole and partake of the food, as if trying to help the well-wishers. Some people asked for various help from the snake, while placing food. Some offered flowers and garlands in honour of the snake which they deemed as a 'mini god' who would help fulfil their wishes. While this was happening some of the disciples of the Buddha with the leadership of the great disciple, Venerable Mugalan passed by. They saw what was happening in the forest hermitage of Aggidatta and found that snake worship had not been disapproved by Aggidatta and his retinue. They had just been silent about it. Venerable Mugalan with his powers of intuition helped the people understand, the futility of this act and convinced the hermit leader that they should listen to Buddha and follow his path of freedom. The Buddha knew that Aggidatta had inherent powers to reach a higher level of mindfulness, when he came to know of the act of proclamation of Mugalan. The Buddha appeared before Aggidatta and the five hundred followers and declared: "Most people in fear, find refuge in mountains, forests, holy abodes, trees, and shrines. But this is the height of futility and will not yield any solace or sanctity. Following this path will not lead you to a higher goal." Having said thus the Buddha added that in order to have inner peace and the highest goal of self emancipation would be to realise the four noble truths chaturarya satya. |
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"What exactly do you mean Aggidatta?" the king asked the advisor 
