In Jeta’s Grove near Shravasti, when the Buddha was giving profound and vast teachings to his retinue, he spoke this brief narration:
“There is no greater master than the father who raised us in our life and there is no more superior god than our mother, for she carried us in her womb. Therefore, our parents are like our masters, objects of worship and respect. If we respect them, it thoroughly increases our merit as this is a noble practice. But if we sadden them, we will suffer with immense pain just as if thunderbolts were falling on our heads.
“As for me, once in a prior life, in Varanasi, there was a landlord called Zawo and he had a wife known as Norzinma. She gave birth to several baby boys but they died right away. After a few years, a graceful son was born and, out of fear of losing him, they gave the child a girl’s name: Dzawoi Bumo. After that, the father went seafaring, where he died and never returned. The mother protected their child like a treasure and brought him up with great love and care. When he grew up, his mother let him open a small business in his hometown instead of going seafaring, which had been their family profession. On the first day, their profit quadrupled; on the second day it increased eightfold; the next day it increased sixteenfold; the day after that thirty-two-fold and so on. On presenting all these profits to his mother, she became very happy. Soon after, Dzawoi Bumo came up with the idea of going out to sea. His mother earnestly tried to stop him but he didn’t listen and started to depart. His mother fainted out of immense suffering but he ignored this and even kicked her in the head on the way out.
“While Dzawoi Bumo was sailing, unfortunately his ship wrecked. He slowly made it to land, however, by holding on to a fragment of the wreckage. He thought, ‘In the beginning, my parents must have been so happy to have a son and the rain of praise continuously fell. Secondly, they adored me and with great expectation cared for me with loving-kindness. And finally, when I was grown up, I broke their command by showing off my bravery and saddened them. I didn’t even listen to my mother and made her suffer. Now this must be the retribution I am going through.’ He stayed in the forest for a long time with these thoughts.
“Eventually, Dzawoi Bumo came to a town known as the Town of Feasts and Parties, endowed with ornaments made of gems, beautiful mansions, pools, pleasure groves, thrones, wealth and so on. There, he was welcomed and treated well by four beautiful goddesses who offered him all their belongings. He became attached to them and stayed with them, enjoying every pleasure. Though all these goddesses urged him never to go towards the south, he didn’t listen and went anyway, reaching a town called Constant Deeds of Madness. There, too, he was entertained and offered even more than in the previous place, by eight elegant goddesses for a long period. They also told him not to go towards the south. Despite their attempts to stop him, he went and came to a town known as Ga Jed where he received an even greater amount of offerings than at the earlier places, presented by sixteen goddesses. They also tried to stop him from going to the south but he didn’t listen and came to a land called Best of Brahma where thirty-two goddesses treated him even more specially than before. They too tried to stop him from going towards the south but he didn’t listen to them either.
“At last, he arrived at a town amid naturally fierce iron houses in which he was trapped behind closed doors with no way to escape. There on the ground was a man surrounded by blood, and drinking pus and blood that came from his own head, which itself was being pulverized over and over by an iron wheel. Seeing this, Dzawoi Bumo asked the man out of compassion, ‘What deed did you commit to undergo such unbearable suffering?’ The man replied, ‘It was the karmic result of hurting my mother.’ Hearing this, Dzawoi Bumo got so scared, thinking that he was also a person who had harmed his mother. He thought about how he had come there, leaving behind all the luxurious items offered by the goddesses, and that it must have been by the rope of misdeeds that he was pulled there. While he was thinking this, a voice came from the sky, saying, ‘Now the time has come. Release the earlier one and bind the new one.’ As soon as the voice resounded, the first man was freed. Then Dzawoi Bumo’s body was tied up and the iron wheel fell upon his head which tormented him with unbearable pain.
“Dzawoi Bumo, in this state, said to the other man, ‘I have saddened my mother; I brought this suffering upon myself. Will there be others who suffer like this?’ The man replied, ‘Once you are here, everyone must go through the same suffering for sixty-six thousand years. Furthermore, many such people who hurt their mothers are sure to come here.’ Hearing this, Dzawoi Bumo, with utmost compassion, made this aspiration from the core of his heart: ‘May all the suffering of such beings who have to undergo this be ripened only upon me, and may they be free from such karmic suffering!’
“By the power of such great bodhichitta for the benefit of sentient beings, the iron wheel upon his crown was removed and he passed away to be reborn into the realm of the gods. Thus, if we break our mothers’ word we will experience such hellish suffering, but if we worship our mothers with offerings then we will receive the merit of offerings from the goddesses. That is why worshiping, respecting and bowing down at the feet of our parents is considered sublime conduct.”
The Buddha said, “I was Dzawoi Bumo at that time.” There and then, all the retinue practised loving-kindness towards their mothers out of gratitude, and cultivated within themselves the morality of respecting and worshiping their parents.
By Sonam Dolma
Final Year, NNNI
