No. 489.

SURUCI-JATAKA.

"I am," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling hard by Savatthi in the mansion of Migara's mother , how she, Visakha the great lay Sister, received Eight Boons. One day she had heard the Law preached in Jetavana, and returned home after inviting the Buddha with his followers for the next day. But late in that night a mighty tempest deluged the four continents of the world. [315] The Blessed One addressed the Brethren as follows. "As the rain falls in Jetavana, so, Brethren, falls the rain in the four continents of the world. Let yourselves be drenched to the skin: this is my last great world-storm!" So with the Brethren, whose bodies were already drenched, by his supernatural power he disappeared from Jetavana, and appeared in a room of Visakha's mansion. She cried, "A marvel indeed! a thing mysterious! O the miracle done by the power of the Tathagata! With floods running knee deep, aye, with floods running waist-deep, not so much as the foot or the robe of a single Brother will be wet!" In joy and delight she waited upon the Buddha and all his company. After the meal was done, she said to the Buddha, "Verily I crave boons at the hands of the Blessed One." "Visakha, the Tathagatas have boons beyond measure ." "But such as are permitted, such as are blameless?" "Speak on, Visakha." "I crave that all my life long I may have the right to give to the Brethren clokes for the rainy season, food to all that come as guests, food to travelling priests, food to the sick, food to those who wait on the sick, medicine to the sick, a continual distribution of rice gruel; and to the Sisters all my life long robes for bathing in." The Master replied, "What blessing have you in view, Visakha, when you ask these eight boons of the Tathagata?" She told him the benefit she hoped for, and he said, "It is well, it is well, Visakha, it is well indeed, Visakha, that this is the benefit you hope for in asking the eight boons of the Tathagata." Then he said, "I grant you the eight boons, Visakha." Having granted her the eight boons and thanked her he departed.

One day when the Master was dwelling in the Eastern park, they began to talk of it in the Hall of Truth: "Brother, Visakha the great lay Sister, notwithstanding her womanhood, received eight boons at the Dasabala's hands. Ah, great are her virtues!" The Master came in and asked what they spoke of. They told him. Said he, "It is not now the first time this woman has received boons from me, for she received such before"; and he told them a story of the past.