Many a refuge do they seek
on hills, in woods, to sacred trees,
to monasteries and shrines they go.
Folk by fear tormented.
Explanation: Human beings who tremble in fear seek refuge in mountains, forests, parks, trees, and shrines.
The Story of Aggidatta (Verses 188 – 192)
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke these verses, with reference to Aggidatta, a brahmin.
It appears that Aggidatta was the house-priest of Maha Kosala. When Maha Kosala died, his son King Pasenadi Kosala, out of respect for Aggidatta since he had been his father’s house-priest, reappointed him to the same post. Whenever Aggidatta came to wait upon the king, the king would go forth to meet him and would provide him with a seat of equal dignity with himself and say to him, ‘Teacher, pray sit here’ After a time, however, Aggidatta thought to himself, “This king pays me very great deference, but it is impossible to remain in the good graces of kings for good and all. Life in a king’s household is very pleasant for one who is of equal age with the king. But I am an old man and therefore had best become a monk” Accordingly Aggidatta asked permission of the king to become a monk, caused a drum to be beaten throughout the city, spent all of his wealth by way of alms in the course of a week, and retired from the world, becoming a monk of an heretical order. A great number of men followed to become monks.
Aggidatta with his monks took up his residence on the frontier of the country of the Angas and Magadhas and the country of the Kurus. Having so done, he addressed his monks as follows, “Friends, in case any one of you should be troubled with unlawful thoughts, whether lustful, malevolent, or cruel, let each one of you so troubled fill a jar with sand from the river and empty the sand in this place” “Very well”, said the monks, promising to do so. So, whenever they were troubled by unlawful thoughts, whether lustful, malevolent, or cruel, they did as he had commanded them to do. In the course of time there arose a great heap of sand, and Ahic-chatta, king of the nagas (dragons), took possession of it. The dwellers in Anga and Magadha and the dwellers in the kingdom of the Kurus, month by month, brought rich offerings in honour of those monks. Now Aggidatta admonished them as follows, “So surely as you seek refuge in a mountain, so surely as you seek refuge in a forest, so surely as you seek refuge in a grove, so surely as you seek refuge in a tree, even so surely will you obtain release from all suffering.” With this admonition did Aggidatta admonish his disciples.
At this time the future Buddha, after going forth on the great retirement, and after attaining complete enlightenment, took up his residence at Jetavana Monastery near Savatthi. Surveying the world at dawn he perceived that the brahmin Aggidatta, together with his disciples, had entered the net of his knowledge. So he considered within himself, “Do all these living beings possess the faculties requisite for arahatship?” Perceiving that they possessed the requisite faculties, he said in the evening to Venerable Moggallana, “Moggallana, do you observe that the brahmin Aggidatta is urging upon the multitude a course of action other than the right one? Go and admonish them.” “Venerable, these monks are very numerous, and if I go alone, I fear that they will prove to be intractable; but if you also go, they will be tractable.” “Moggallana, I will also go, but you go ahead.”
As the Venerable proceeded, he thought to himself, “These monks are both powerful and numerous. If I say a word to them when they are all gathered together, they will all rise against me in troops.” Therefore by his own supernatural power he caused great drops of rain to fall. When those great drops of rain fell, the monks arose, one after another, and each entered his own bower of leaves and grass. The Venerable went and stood at the door of Aggidatta’s leafy hut and called out, “Aggidatta!” When Agidatta heard the sound of the Venerable’s voice, he thought to himself, “There is no one in this world who is able to address me by name; who can it be that thus addresses me by name?” And in the stubbornness of pride, he replied, “Who is that?” “It is I, brahmin.” “What have you to say?” “Show me a place here where I can spend this one night.” “There is no place for you to stay here; here is but a single hut of leaves and grass for a single monk.” “Aggidatta, men go to the abode of men, cattle to the abode of cattle, and monks to the abode of monks; do not so; give me a lodging.” “Are you a monk?” “Yes, I am a monk.” “If you are a monk, where is your alms vessel? What monastic utensils have you?” “I have utensils, but since it is inconvenient to carry them about from place to place, I procure them within and then go my way.” “So you intend to procure them within and then go your way!” said Aggidatta angrily to the Venerable. The Venerable said to him, “Go away, Aggidatta, do not be angry; show me a place where I can spend the night” “There is no lodging here.” “Well, who is it that lives on that pile of sand?” “A certain naga-king.” “Give the pile of sand to me.” “I cannot give you the pile of sand; that would be a grievous affront to him.” “Never mind, give it to me.” “Very well; you alone seem to know.”
The Venerable started towards the pile of sand. When the naga-king saw him approaching, he thought to himself. “Yonder monk approaches hither. Doubtless he does not know that I am here. I will spit fire at him and kill him.” The Venerable thought to himself, “This naga-king doubtless thinks, I alone am able to spit smoke; others are not able to do this” So the Venerable spat fire himself. Puffs of smoke arose from the bodies of both and ascended to the World of Brahma. The puffs of smoke gave the Venerable no trouble at all, but troubled the naga-king sorely. The naga-king, unable to stand the blasts of smoke, burst into flames. The Venerable applied himself to meditation on the element of fire and entered into a state of trance. Thereupon he burst into flames which ascended to the World of Brahma. His whole body looked as if it had been set on fire with torches. The company of sages looked on and thought to themselves, “The naga-king is burning the monk; the good monk has indeed lost his life by not listening to our words.” When the Venerable had over-mastered the naga-king and made him quit his misdoing, he seated himself on the pile of sand. Thereupon the naga-king surrounded the pile of sand with good things to eat, and creating a hood as large as the interior of a peak-house, held it over the Venerable’s head.
Early in the morning the company of sages thought to themselves, “We will find out whether the monk is dead or not” So they went to where the Venerable was, and when they saw him sitting on the pile of sand, they did reverence to him and praised him and said, “Monk, you must have been greatly plagued by the naga-king.” “Do you not see him standing there with his hood raised over my head?” Then said the sages, “What a wonderful thing the monk did in conquering so powerful a naga-king” And they stood in a circle about the Venerable.
At that moment, the Buddha drew near. The Venerable, seeing the Buddha, arose and saluted him. Said the sages to the Venerable, “Is this man greater than you?” The Venerable replied, “This is the Buddha; I am only his disciple.” The Buddha seated himself on the summit of the pile of sand. The company of sages said to each other, “If such is the supernatural power of a mere disciple, what must the supernatural power of this man like?” And, extending their clasped hands in an attitude of reverent salutation, they bestowed praise on the Buddha. The Buddha said to Aggidatta, “Aggidatta, in giving admonition to your disciples and supporters, how do you admonish them?” Aggidatta replied, “I admonish them thus, Seek refuge in this mountain, seek refuge in this forest, or grove, or tree. For he who seeks refuge in these obtains release from all suffering” The Buddha said, “No indeed, Aggidatta, he who seeks refuge in these does not obtain release from suffering. But he who seeks refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, he obtains release from the round of suffering.”
At the conclusion of the lesson all those sages attained arahatship, together with the superhuman faculties. Thereupon they saluted the Buddha and asked to be admitted to the Sangha. The Buddha stretched out his hand from under his robe and said, “Come, monks! Lead the religious life.” That very instant they were furnished with the eight requisites and became as it were monks of a hundred years.
Now this was the day when all the dwellers in Anga and in Magadha and in the country of the Kurus were accustomed to come with rich offerings. When, therefore, they approached with their offerings, and saw that all those sages had become monks, they thought to themselves, “Is our brahmin Aggidatta great, or is the monk Gotama great?” And because the Buddha had but just arrived, they concluded, “Aggidatta alone is great.” The Buddha surveyed their thoughts and said, “Aggidatta, destroy the doubt that exists in the minds of your disciples.” Aggidatta replied, “That is the very thing I desire to do.” So by superhuman power he rose seven times in the air, and descending to the ground, he saluted the Buddha and said, “Venerable, you are my Teacher and I am your disciple.” Thus did Aggidatta speak, declaring himself the disciple of the Buddha.