Buddha and the Young Mother

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Buddha and the Young Mother-Unknown Author

ONE day, as Buddha was sitting under a banyan tree, a young woman went

weeping to him with a dead child in her hands. 'Lord,' she said, 'my

first-born, my only child, is dead. Take pity on me and bring it back

to life.' And she wept as if her heart would break. The Blessed One

knew the futility of reasoning with her in her then frame of mind. So

he told her, 'Daughter, bring a handful of gingili seeds from a person

none of whose relations have died, and I shall bring your child back to

life.'

 

The young mother was overjoyed at this seemingly simple request She

put her dead child tenderly on the lap of the world-teacher and went to

the adjacent village. Her experience of the world was so little that

she did not know the impossible nature of her quest. She went first to

a house and knocked at the door. A young woman came.

 

'Will you please give me a handful of gingili seeds?' asked the young mother. Most willingly,' said the other and brought a

handful of gingili seeds. The young mother took them and, as she was

about to go, she said casually, 'I hope none of your relations have

ever died.' At that the other burst into a loud moan and said, 'Why do

you rake up my unhealed wounds? Don't you know that my only brother

died but a month ago and that my father died only a year ago? ' The

young mother said, 'I am very sorry for you, but I don't want your

gingili seeds.'

She went to another house. She found an elderly woman there and wanted

a handful of gingili seeds. The elderly lady brought them. Before

receiving them, the young mother said, 'I hope none of your relatives

have died' on which the other burst out into loud lamentations saying,

'My son, my only son, the boy whom I tended for twenty long years, he

died six months ago. Who are you that remind me of my misery? The young

mother said, 'I am very sorry, but I do not want your gingili seeds.'

She went to another house where she found a widow aged about sixty. The

young woman said, 'Mother, give me a handful of gingili seeds if none

of your relatives have died.' The old widow laughed and said,

'Daughter, I shall give you ten handfuls of gingili seeds if you want,

but, of course, several of my relations have died. Why, my dear husband

died thirty years ago. I felt it as an inconsolable loss then. But when

I come to think of it now I don't feel so sorry. Unless people die,

where is the room in this world for the babes who are born every day?

The world will become overcrowded like Hell. Where is your father, his

father, his father, and so on? Some of these must assuredly have died.

Death is the one universal event in the life of every man who is born.'

 

The young mother felt how impossible her quest was and so returned to

Buddha and told him about the fruitlessness of her search. 'Daughter,'

said Gautama, 'go, bury your child. This is the way of the world. None

can cure death here below.'

 

 

-- With Love,Ganesh Babahttp://kriyababa.blogspot.com/To get spiritual mails//spiritual_inspiration