Verse 225

Dhammapada Verse 225

The Story of the Brahmin who had been the 'Father of the Buddha'

Once, the Buddha accompanied by some bhikkhus entered the town of Saketa for alms-food. The old brahmin, seeing the Buddha, went to him and said, "O son, why have you not allowed us to see you all this long time? Come with me and let your mother also see you." So saying, he invited the Buddha to his house. On reaching the house, the wife of the brahmin said the same things to the Buddha and introduced the Buddha as "Your big brother" to her children, and made them pay obeisance to him. From that day, the couple offered alms-food to the Buddha every day, and having heard the religious discourses, both the brahmin and his wife attained Anagami Fruition in due course.

The bhikkhus were puzzled why the brahmin couple said the Buddha was their son; so they asked the Buddha. The Buddha then replied, "Bhikkhus, they called me son because I was a son or a nephew to each of them for one thousand five hundred existences in the past." The Buddha continued to stay there, near the brahmin couple for three more months and during that time, both the brahmin and his wife attained arahatship, and then realized parinibbana.

The bhikkhus, not knowing that the brahmin couple had already become arahats, asked the Buddha where they were reborn. To them the Buddha answered:

"Those who have become arahats are not reborn anywhere; they have realized Nibbana."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Ahimsaka ye munayo
niccam kayena sarmvuta
te yanti accutam¹ thanam
yattha gantva na socare.

Verse 225: The arahats, who do not harm others and are always restrained in their actions, go to the deathless Nibbana, where there is no sorrow.

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1. accutam: changeless; deathless. It does not mean immortality.