After arriving in Shravasti, the Buddha stayed in the house of a girl called Saga, who was the mother of Mrigarmata. Saga went in front of the Buddha wearing beautiful ornaments. But no sooner did she feel ashamed, then she removed everything, wrapped it all up and gave it to the girl. Then she started listening to the Dharma. The girl saw a jasmine flower and went to pluck it, leaving the ornaments. She plucked the flower and offered it to the Buddha. After the teaching, they returned, forgetting the ornaments. But fortunately, Ananda saw the ornaments and kept them in a safe place. A little later, Saga remembered the ornaments and asked her daughter about their whereabouts. She replied, “I forgot them at the place of the Buddha.” “Go and get it,” commanded the mother. Meanwhile, her boys heard the conversation. They asked, “Is it in the treasury?’’ “It is inexhaustible wealth,” Saga replied.
The girl went back and approached Ananda. She said that she came to fetch her mother’s ornaments. “They are over there and you can take them,” Ananda replied. The girl took them and gave them back to her mother. Later, Saga announced, “Boys! These are the ornaments. Didn’t I mention that my wealth was inexhaustible?” Suddenly the boys asked Mrigarmata who found the ornaments. “Ananda,” she replied. “It was lucky to be found by Ananda. If it were found by the six disciples (dissenting monks), they would have asked for a reward.”
In order to check if the wealth was truly inexhaustible, the boys secretly threw their mother’s ring in a well. She said, “Fetch me water, I want to take a bath.” The boys fetched the water in buckets, and accidently the ring got inside a bucket. It fell on the mother’s lap when she was bathing. Then she showed it to her boys. Again, they threw the ring in a holy river where a fish swallowed it. Later, a servant accidently bought that fish. Saga found the ring inside the fish’s belly and showed it to the boys. In order to convince them again, a pouch made of weasel’s skin was filled with dinara and placed at the junction of four paths. Surprisingly, even the passers-by who walked through that junction did not take it, thinking that it was a snake. The boys said to them, “There is a pouch filled with dinara, don’t you want to take it?” But they replied, “It is a snake, not a pouch filled with dinara.” Finally, the boys were convinced that their mother indeed had inexhaustible wealth and this became well known to everyone.
The reason that Saga possessed inexhaustible wealth was that during the mahaparinirvana of Buddha Kashyapa—when the lifespan of people was two thousand years—the king Triki built a mile-long stupa out of four precious jewels. That spring, when the king went for a stroll in the garden along with his queens, he suddenly sneaked away to Varanasi. But the queens remained bathing with a string of pearls hanging on the branch of a jasmine tree. However, the queens came to know that the king was missing and immediately followed him to Varanasi, forgetting the pearls on the tree. But an old upasika (female lay practitioner) saw the pearls and safely tied them on a bamboo. A day after, the queens realized the pearls were missing, and informed the king. The king sent his men to search for them. They saw the string of pearls hanging from a bamboo near an old lady’s house. They asked, “Who hung this on the bamboo?” “I did,” she replied and gave it to them. When they offered it to the king, he asked, “Where did you find it?” They replied, “It was on a bamboo, hung by an old lady.” “Bring me the lady,” commanded the king. They brought her in front of the king where he asked, “They said that you hung the string of pearls on a bamboo. Is it true?” “Yes, it is,” she replied. He again asked, “You had a desire to keep it, didn’t you?” She explained, “As I am an upasika of Buddha Kashyapa, how can I have a desire for others’ wealth?” The king was delighted and gave it to her. She then offered these pearls to the stupa of Buddha Kashyapawith the aspiration to be reborn with inexhaustible wealth in her next life. So, that old lady is none other than Saga, the mother of Mrigarmata at present.
By Lopon Cheki Dorji
Padma Mani Translation Committee, NNI
