| Ahimsaka kumara was born in the
family of Brahmin,—the chaplain of King Kosala and was known in
his young age as the Son of Mantani . He was educated at the Taxila
university and the Rector asked him to collect one thousand fingers as a
gratifying test. So the lad killed many men to cut the fingers which he made a
garland hanging around his neck. Hence he became notorious as the Robber with a
garland of fingers—Angulimala Cora.
Eventually the robber had collected the
required fingers except the last one. So he decided to cut the last finger from
anyone he saw that day. King Kosala publicly notified that the royal
army was going to annihilate the robber. Hearing this, Mantani, the
mother of the robber, hurried to her son to warn him. But the determined robber
chased after his mother to cut her finger.
Now the most Compassionate Buddha saved
the life of the helpless mother by standing between the runner and the chaser
at the risk of His life.
When the robber saw the Buddha, he
changed his mind from chasing his own mother and attempted to seize the Buddha.
But the Buddha performed a miracle so that the chasing robber could not catch
up with the slowly walking Buddha. Realizing the impossibility of the glory of
the Buddha, Angulimala robber became a convert and was ordained as a
monk. Thus he became a disciple by the name of Venerable Angulimala who
worked intensively and soon be came an Arahanta (Saint).
One day Arahanta Angulimala saw a
pregnant woman in difficult labour of child birth and reported the condition to
the Buddha. So the Buddha advised him to perform an oath of truth by declaring
that he had not intentionally killed any life from the time he had become an
Ariyan monk, This is a magical means for saving both lives of the mother and
the new child. He did so, and the lives of two beings were saved by this
paritta.
Since then the Burmese people used to
bless the water by reciting this paritta of three stanzas and sprinkle
on the head of the pregnant woman who is having difficulty in child-birth. And
usually it works well.
This is an evidence that the
Compassionate Buddha could convert a robber, who was killing thousands of
lives, to become a saint who could save innumerable lives of mothers and
children.
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