The Play in Full
Trapuṣa and Bhallika

Monks, while the Thus-Gone One was being praised by the gods after he had reached perfect and complete awakening, he stared at the king of trees without blinking and without getting out of his cross-legged position. Seven days passed in this way while he was at the foot of the Bodhi tree experiencing bliss from the sustenance of concentration and joy.

Then, once the seven days had passed, the gods from the desire realm approached the Thus-Gone One, carrying tens of thousands of vases containing scented water. The gods from the form realm also approached the Thus-Gone One, carrying tens of thousands of vases containing scented water. When they arrived, they bathed the Bodhi tree and the Thus-Gone One with the scented water. Innumerable gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, demigods, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas anointed their own bodies with the scented water that had come into contact with the body of the Thus-Gone One. This engendered among them the intention set on unexcelled, perfect, and complete awakening. Even after the gods and the others had returned to their respective realms, they did not part from the scented water and desired no other scent. [370] Through the joy and the supreme joy that are born from respectfully taking to heart the Thus-Gone One, they became irreversible from unexcelled, perfect, and complete awakening.

Monks, then a god named Samantakusuma, who had joined in that very audience, bowed down to the feet of the Thus-Gone One, and with palms joined said to him, “What, O Blessed One, is the name of the absorption in which the Thus-Gone One remained for seven days without moving from the cross-legged position?”

Monks, thus addressed, the Thus-Gone One answered the god, “Array of the food of joy, O divine son, is the name of the meditative absorption in which the Thus-Gone One remained for seven days without moving from the cross-legged position.” [F.177.b]

Monks, the god Samantakusuma then praised the Thus-Gone One with these verses:

Monks, the perfect and completely awakened Thus-Gone One thus sat for the first seven days on that very seat, thinking, “Here I have reached unexcelled, perfect, and complete awakening. Here I have brought an end to the sufferings of beginningless birth, old age, and death.” During the second week, the Thus-Gone One wandered far and wide throughout the entire trichiliocosm. During the third week, the Thus-Gone One gazed at the seat of awakening without blinking and thought, “Here I awakened to unsurpassable, perfect and complete buddhahood, bringing an end to the sufferings of beginningless birth, old age, and death.” Then, during the fourth week, the Thus-Gone One took a walk, but not as far, this time traveling from the eastern ocean to the western ocean. [F.180.b] [B16]

Then Māra, the evil one, approached the Thus-Gone One and said, “Since the time has now come for the Blessed One to pass into parinirvāṇa, may the Blessed One pass into parinirvāṇa! May the Well-Gone One pass into parinirvāṇa!”

Monks, to these words of Māra the evil one, the Thus-Gone One replied, “Evil one, I will not pass into parinirvāṇa until my elder monks have become restrained, lucid, proficient, courageous, and learned; until they have embarked on the Dharma in an authentic way and become masters themselves; and until they can overcome opponents in concordance with the Dharma and teach the Dharma in conjunction with miracles. Evil one, I will not pass away into parinirvāṇa until the tradition of the Buddha, his teaching, and his community are well established in the world; and until infinite bodhisattvas are prophesied to reach unexcelled, perfect, and complete awakening. Evil one, I will not pass away until all four of my assemblies become restrained, lucid, proficient, and courageous, and can teach the Dharma in conjunction with miracles.” [378]

As soon as Māra, the evil one, had heard these words, he stepped aside and stood there anguished and depressed. Dejected, with his head hung low, he wrote on the ground with a stick, “He has gone beyond my range!”

Then three of Māra’s daughters‍—Rati, Arati, and Tṛṣṇā‍—spoke this verse to Māra, the evil one:

But Māra, the evil one, replied:

Even though the girls had already experienced the deeds of the Bodhisattva and the power of the Thus-Gone One, out of their fickleness they did not listen to their father’s words. They transformed into girls in the prime of youth, who had just reached maturity and, in order to bewilder the Thus-Gone One, they went before him, summoning all their womanly guiles. However, as the Thus-Gone One paid them no heed, they were transformed into decrepit old ladies. The girls then went before their father and said:

Māra, the evil one, told them:

So the daughters went and asked the Thus-Gone One for forgiveness, saying: “Well-Gone One, please forgive our offense! Blessed One, forgive the offense that we childish, stupid, uncultivated, unskilled, ignorant women committed with the wish to insult the Blessed One!” [F.181.b]

The Thus-Gone One spoke to them with these verses:

“Why is that? Because it is an advancement in the training of the noble Dharma to understand a fault to be a fault, to confess it, and to vow to abstain from it henceforth.”

Monks, during the fifth week, the Thus-Gone One dwelt in the domain of the nāga king Mucilinda. Since the weather that week was intemperate, the nāga king Mucilinda, worried that the Blessed One’s body would be harmed by the cold and the wind, came out of his abode, coiled his body around that of the Thus-Gone One seven times, and shielded him with his hoods. From the east as well, several more nāga kings arrived. Worried that the cold and wind would harm the Blessed One’s body, they too coiled their bodies seven times around the body of the Thus-Gone One and shielded him with their hoods. Just like the nāga kings from the east, nāga kings from the south, west, and north [380] also came, worried that the cold and wind might harm the Thus-Gone One’s body. They too coiled their bodies around the Thus-Gone One’s body seven times and shielded him with their hoods. That pile of nāga kings loomed at a height like that of Meru, king of mountains. Those nāga kings had never before known such bliss as during these seven days and seven nights, because of being close to the Thus-Gone One’s body.

When seven days had passed, the nāga kings understood that the bad weather had let up, and so they unfurled their bodies from the Thus-Gone One’s body. They then bowed their heads at the feet of the Thus-Gone One, circumambulated him three times, and returned to their respective homes. The nāga king Mucilinda also bowed his head to the feet of the Thus-Gone One, circumambulated him three times, and then set out for his domain. [F.182.a]

During the sixth week, the Thus-Gone One proceeded from the nāga king Mucilinda’s domain to a banyan tree of a goat herder. On the way, on the bank of the Nairañjanā River between the nāga king Mucilinda’s domain and the goat herder’s banyan tree, the Thus-Gone One was spotted by some carakas, parivrājakas, vṛddhaśrāvakas, gautamas, nirgranthas, ājīvikas, and others as well. They asked him, “Blessed One, did Gautama fare happily during the unseasonable seven-day storm?”

Monks, at that time the Thus-Gone One spoke these meaningful words:

Monks, seeing the world ablaze with birth, old age, sickness, death, anguish, lamentation, suffering, discontent, and strife, the Thus-Gone One next uttered this meaningful verse: [381]

During the seventh week, the Thus-Gone One sat at the trunk of a bodhi tree. During that time, two learned and clever merchant brothers from the north, Trapuṣa and Bhallika, were traveling back from the south, after having gained much profit, with a caravan of five hundred fully loaded carts carrying many kinds of merchandise.

They had two bullocks called Sujāta and Kīrti. These two bulls had no fear of being waylaid, and thus they could be employed where no other bullocks would pass. Wherever there was a threat, they would stand as though fastened to stakes. [F.182.b] They could not be goaded by a whip, but only by handfuls of lotus flowers, or garlands of jasmine flowers.

When this caravan of merchants approached the Bodhi tree, a goddess who lived in a forest of milk trees enchanted all the carriages, thus rendering them motionless. All the parts of the carriages, such as the harnesses and the rest, tore and split, and the wheels of the carriages sunk into the ground up to their axles. Even with everyone making great effort, the carts would move no farther.

Shocked and frightened, the members of the caravan thought, “Why have the carriages stopped here on this plain? What has happened?”

They brought out the two bullocks Sujāta and Kīrti, but they also would move no farther, even though they were goaded with bunches of lotuses and garlands of jasmine. So the merchants thought, “Since even these two animals will not move, there certainly must be some threat up ahead.”

Thus they dispatched scouts on horseback. When the scouts returned, they reported, “There is no threat whatsoever.”

The goddess then revealed her form and consoled the members of the caravan, saying, “Do not fear!” [382]

Now the two bullocks could lead the carts to where the Thus-Gone One was. When they arrived, they saw the Thus-Gone One blazing like the god of fire, well adorned with the thirty-two marks of a great being, shining with splendor, like the sun just after dawn.

Seeing him, the merchants were amazed and thought, “Is this Brahmā who has come here? Or is it Śakra, lord of the gods? Or is it Vaiśravaṇa, or perhaps the sun or the moon? Or is it some mountain god, or some river god?”

The Thus-Gone One then revealed his saffron robes, and so the merchants said, “This person in saffron-colored robes is a renunciant, so he is no threat to us.” They had in fact developed devotion to him, and so they said among themselves, [F.183.a] “It must be mealtime for this renunciant. What morsels do we have?”

A few members of the caravan said, “There is honey, gruel, and stripped sugar cane.”

So, carrying the honey, gruel, and stripped sugar cane, they went to where the Thus-Gone One was seated, bowed down their heads to his feet, circumambulated him three times, and stood to one side. Then they requested the Thus-Gone One, “Please regard us with compassion and accept these alms!”

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then wondered, “It would not be appropriate for me to take these alms with my hands. What vessel did the previous perfect and complete awakened ones use to accept alms?” Right then the answer dawned on him.

Monks, knowing that it was time for the Thus-Gone One to eat, at that very moment the Four Great Kings appeared from the four directions carrying four golden alms bowls. They offered them to the Thus-Gone One, saying to him, “Please regard us with compassion and accept these four golden alms bowls!”

Thinking, however, that those bowls were not appropriate for a monk, the Thus-Gone One did not accept them. [383] So the four kings came back with four alms bowls made of silver, four made of beryl, four made of quartz, four made of coral, four made of emerald, and four made of every gem. They offered them to the Thus-Gone One, but he declined, thinking that these were all inappropriate for a monk.

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then wondered what kind of alms bowls the previous thus-gone ones had used to accept alms. He understood that it was alms bowls made of stone, and so that thought dawned in the Thus-Gone One’s mind.

Then the great king Vaiśravaṇa said to the three other great kings, [F.183.b]“Friends, when the gods of the blue class gave us four stone alms bowls, we thought that they were for our use. But a god of the blue realm called Vairocana told us the following:

Then the four kings, together with their kinfolk and retainers, went to the Thus-Gone One holding those alms bowls in their hands and carrying flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands, and unguents, playing cymbals and gongs, and singing songs. Having paid homage to the Thus-Gone One, they filled the alms bowls with divine flowers and offered them to the Thus-Gone One. [384]

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then thought, “These four devoted great kings are giving me four stone alms bowls. But four are too many for me. Yet if I were to accept only one, the other three would be upset. So I will take all four alms bowls and transform them into one.”

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then extended his right hand and spoke to the great king Vaiśravaṇa in verse:

Monks, the Thus-Gone One [F.184.a] then accepted the alms bowl from the great king Vaiśravaṇa, regarding him with compassion. Having thus accepted it, he then spoke in verse to the great king Dhṛtarāṣṭra:

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then accepted the begging bowl from the great king Dhṛtarāṣṭra, regarding him with compassion. Having accepted it, he spoke in verse to the great king Virūḍhaka:

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then accepted the alms bowl from the great king Virūḍhaka, regarding him with compassion. Having accepted it, he spoke to the great king Virūpākṣa in verse: [385]

Monks, the Thus-Gone One then accepted the alms bowl from the great king Virūpākṣa, regarding him with compassion. When he had accepted it, he transformed all four alms bowls into one through the power of his wish, and then said this meaningful verse:

On this topic, it is said:

Monks, at that time the herd of cows belonging to the merchants Trapuṣa and Bhallika was grazing at a neighboring village. There the cows were milked and yielded clarified butter, which the herdsmen brought to the two merchants, Trapuṣa and Bhallika, saying, “O my lords, please advise us! When we milked all your cows, they yielded clarified butter. Is this auspicious or not?”

Some priests, who were gluttonous by nature, said, “It is inauspicious, so a grand offering of this butter should be made to the priests.” [F.185.a]

Monks, at that time, however, a priest named Śikhaṇḍī spoke. He had been a kinsman of the merchants Trapuṣa and Bhallika in a previous life. He had been reborn in the Brahma realm, and now manifested among them in the form of a young brahmin. He spoke the following verses to the merchants:

On that occasion, the Thus-Gone One delighted the merchants Trapuṣa and Bhallika tremendously with these verses: