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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: sonamdhargey on October 20, 2012, 08:29:48 AM
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A Story about a millionaire reborn as a beggar. Enjoy!
There was once a very wealthy man named Ananda in Savatthi. Although he possessed eighty crores, he was very reluctant to give anything in charity. To his son, Mulasiri, he used to say, "Don't think the wealth we have now is very much. Do not give away anything from what you have, for you must make it grow. Otherwise your wealth will dwindle away." This rich man had five pots of gold buried in his house and he died without revealing their location to his son.
Ananda, the rich man, was reborn in a village of beggars, not far from Savatthi. From the time his mother was pregnant, the income of the beggars decreased; the villagers thought there must be a wicked and unlucky one amongst them. By dividing themselves up into groups and by the process of elimination, they came to the conclusion that the pregnant beggar woman must be the unfortunate one. Thus, she was driven out of the village. When her son was born, the son proved to be extremely ugly and repulsive. If she went out begging by herself, she would get as before, but if she went out with her son she would get nothing. So, when the boy could go out by himself, his mother placed a plate in his hand and left him. As he wandered about in Savatthi, he remembered his old house and his past existence. So he went into the house. When the sons of his son Mulasiri saw him, they were frightened by his ugly looks and began to cry. The servants then beat him and threw him out of the house.
The Buddha who was on his alms-round saw the incident and asked the Venerable Ananda to fetch Mulasiri. When Mulasiri came, the Buddha told him that the young beggar was his own father in his previous existence. But Mulasiri could not believe it. So, the Buddha directed the beggar boy to show where he had buried his five pots of gold. Then only, Mulasiri accepted the truth and from that time he became a devoted lay-disciple of the Buddha.
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The above story shows that meanness is characterised by secrecy arising from jealousy regarding one’s property. Moreover, meanness makes one unhappy, discomfited, and mean if other persons have something to do with one’s possessions. One who is mean does not want another person to use his property. As is borne out by writers and what we see in life, a jealous husband or wife will frown on anyone who looks closely at his or her spouse: he or she is wretched and cannot bear the sight of his or her spouse speaking pleasantly to another person.
Not All Hoarding is Meanness
However, we should not call a man a miser simply because he does not give alms. A man may be called a miser only when he does not give alms although he can and should do so. The reluctance to offer to an immoral person something that was intended for a moral person is not a sign of meanness. When Ud?yi asked for the under-robe of Bhikkhun? Uppalavanna, the latter refused to give it. Her refusal was not due to her meanness, but due to the impropriety of the request. Likewise, it is not meanness to refuse to give a person anything that he does not deserve; nor is it meanness not to give away a thing that one adores for this is due to attachment.
The Karmic Effects of Meanness
It is meanness when one does not wish to give things when one has more than enough. Some people never give alms in spite of their affluence. They hoard up their wealth. They neither share it with their families, nor use it for themselves, and they prevent others from giving alms. This extreme meanness has grave karmic effects. According to the Buddha’s teaching in the C?lakammavibhanga Sutta, it makes one helpless in the next life, leading to hell and the lower realms. If one gains rebirth in the human world, it causes poverty and suffering. It is said in the same sutta that the liberal, alms-giving man attains the celestial realm and if reborn as a human being he is rich and prosperous.
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I wonder what happened to the beggar (previous life was Ananda) after that. Did the son actually accepted the beggar back into his family or did the son gave anything to the beggar and became generous to show that he finally know what it means to be giving and not to be stingy and possessive?
One also wonders what will Ananda's son take rebirth as because he is also not very generous and it was him who asked the father not to be generous and instead build on the wealth they have (which is not going to be enough) to even more money instead of thinking for the poor people.
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To eliminate suffering and obtain happiness, the most important thing is to have a good heart. This is the one answer to all problems. Whether or not you know about bodhicitta, the altruistic wish to achieve enlightenment, the answer to all problems is this loving compassionate thought. - Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
How true! To have the right motivation and positive thoughts for the happiness of others. One of the effects of selfishness is clearly shown in the story above. Because of Ananda's selfishness, he kept the location of the gold even till the day he died. From Ananda's actions, his son did the same thing and followed his footsteps. Hoarding onto wealth when clearly none can be taken away at the time fo death. How silly!
But I would say this, the son had such merits to meet the Buddha, received teachings and practiced it.
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So much dharma in a simple story like this ! Thank you for sharing.
It is very scary that without dharma and proper dharma understanding, not only we would suffer due to wrong views and unable to let go of our worldly attachment, we would teach our offsprings based on these same WRONG ideas and they in turn would suffer.
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Poor rich man, this Ananda. He already had so much money, yet he was all out to make more.
I wonder what would have happened had he not met Buddha ? And what about Mulasiri ? Would the two of them have reconciled the fact that they used to be father and son in a another life?
Like Brian asked, what happened after meeting Buddha?
Note to Brian --- It was Ananda who told his son to build on the family wealth and not the other way round.
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Thank you for sharing this interesting story. There is so much lessons from this short passage. One of it is that children would learn what they observe of their parents and surroundings. In this story, the young Mulasiri was brought up by his father to hold on to his wealth (not being generous) and not give any away and also at the same time to make his wealth grow.(wanting more, greed). Also all the riches one gets in this life can't be brought on to next life. Look at what happened to Ananda in the story. And all the gold that have been hidden underground did not do any good to anyone!
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From the story we know that the man is very possessive of his money where he discourage his son from giving any of them away. He increases his negative karma by influencing his son to be the same as him by not sharing wealth to others. He advised his son to keep the wealth and grow it. Indirectly he also suffered the effects of encouraging others to be stingy with wealth. He was reborn into a villages of beggar. His negative karma is so heavy that his mother was driven out by the villages. At end of the story the Buddha uses his skillful mean to make his son to realize the situation and becoming generous instead of creating the causes to being born in povery like his father by hoarding wealth.
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Due to miserliness we sometimes wish to hold onto our possessions forever, but since this is impossible we experience much suffering. If our possessions dwindle, or we are forced to give them away, we experience great pain. The more miserly we are, the more concerned we are about our possessions and the more worry and anxiety we suffer. There is no point to cling to our possessions as we will have to part with our possessions at the time of death. At the time of death if we have strong attachment to our possessions it may prevent us from taking a fortunate rebirth.
Although it may appear that miserliness is a prudent attitude that assures our material security in this life, from a long term point of view it is very foolish. By preventing the wish to practice giving from arising, miserliness causes poverty in future lives. So even though Ananda was a wealthy man, due to his miserliness he took rebirth as a beggar with ugly looks.
It is said that “Poor indeed is the rich man who won't part with a penny.”
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This story is really a good one for modern practitioners. In this day of materialism, hoarding and gratifying our attachments, we are increasing our attachments. Miserliness or hoarding, which may seem thrifty and some people may even think that they can save for a rainy day.
But the very attitude does encourages hoarding and miserliness. A hoarder may not be a miser and a miser may not be a hoarder but they would most likely share the same qualities. The scary part is that such qualities lead towards the lower rebirth as a hungry ghost or a spirit. That's the scary part and the sufferings of such an existence is unlike anything we can imagine.
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Stinginess is one of the greatest sins. This story is very accurate. If you are extremely stingy in your current life, you create the causes for you to live an extremely poor life in the future. You would also create the causes to have an ugly face. If I ever have wealth at the time of death, I would donate it to many charitable causes. Why? Because when I die, my money goes nowhere. I do not own anything upon death.
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Stinginess is the unwillingness to share something with others.It derives from the dualistic appearance of a seemingly concrete "me" as inherently more worthy of possessing something than a seemingly concrete "you" are a ner vous feeling that sharing with this "you" would threaten the security of this "me"often accompanies belief in the deceptive .
The Buddha said,'If beings knew ,as I know,the fruit of sharing gifts ,they would not enjoy their use without sharing them,nor would the taint of stinginess obsess the heart and stay there.Even if it were their last bit,their last morsel of food,they would not enjoy it's use without sharing it,if there weren't anyone to receive it. (Itivuttaka 18).
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What is a point to be a millionaire when we are not making use of what we have. Being a non-giver, living the life of a miser. It is utterly wasted and useless. Your wealth become like a pond possessed by demons, where no one can quench his thirst. In fact we can't bring our wealth with us when we pass on, we might think all the material are owned by us forever. This is so wrong, everything else is impermanent except our mind. At the point of death, all our possessions can't help us.
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This story reminds me of a story of a man who took his own aging father to a forest to abandon him there, which was witness by his young son. When the boy grew up he did the same to his father the man. Such is the simple karmic equation , children are a reflection of their parents. These stories simply show us in simple terms of how karma works.
I am also curious if this "Ananda" ever got back his pots of gold and what he did with it . In a way he is really lucky to have the Buddha help him realized his mistakes and with that realization at such a young age ( the beggar boy ) , he must be quite attained by adulthood.
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The story of the millionaire who was stingy and so attached to his wealth is eye opening. On one hand, I am wondering why he was not reborn in the three lower realms due to his overwhelming attachmnent to the money he had?
And then on another hand, it is remarkable he could actually remember his previous life and had enough merits to meet the Buddha when he was reborn as a beggar. Maybe the suffering that resulted from his previous life was his appearance and the cause of having him and his mother expelled from their village. Maybe the emotional suffering that he endured was enough to offset his previous karma.
What also struck me was that it takes wonders to "entice" people to believe and practise the Dharma, like for Mulasiri, who experienced a miracle in meeting the Buddha. The same is also applicable to today's society. Sadly, most people will gain strong faith when their expectations are met or experience a miracle.
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Thanks sonamdhargey for this beautiful story of one of the 6 paramitas - generosity/giving. Hence we should always make offerings. And making offerings to get the best results, we should offer without attachments to the offering, without expectations and wanting anything in return no even praise. Offerings that are without the 8 worldly concerns are of the best form as we accumulate the merits completely... Here another short story by the Buddha on offerings and the 3 kinds of merit!
Four Kinds of Merit
THERE was a rich man who used to invite all the Brahmans of the neighborhood to his house, and, giving them rich gifts, offered great sacrifices to the gods.
But the Blessed One said: "If a man each month repeat a thousand sacrifices and give offerings without ceasing, he is not equal to him who but for one moment fixes his mind on righteousness." The Buddha continued: "There are four kinds of offering: first, when the gifts are large and the merit small; secondly, when the gifts are small and the merit small; thirdly, when the gifts are small and the merit large; and fourthly, when the gifts are large and the merit is also large.
"The first is the case of the deluded man who takes away life for the purpose of sacrificing to the gods, accompanied by carousing and feasting. Here the gifts are great, but the merit is small indeed. Next, the gifts are small and the merit is also small, when from covetousness and an evil heart a man keeps to himself a part of that which he intends to offer.
"The merit is great, however, while the gift is small, when a man makes his offering from love and with a desire to grow in wisdom and in kindness. And lastly, the gift is large and the merit is large, when a wealthy man, in an unselfish spirit and with the wisdom of a Buddha, gives donations and founds institutions for the best of mankind to enlighten the minds of his fellow-men and to administer to their needs."
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Here is another opposite scenario from a stingy millionaire to a beggar woman making offering....
thought it was quite a nice to show the opposite... which is giving...
The Widow's Mite and the Three Merchants
THERE was once a lone widow who was very destitute, and having gone to the mountain she beheld hermits holding a religious assembly. Then the woman was filled with joy, and uttering praises, said, "It is well, holy priests! but while others give precious things such as the ocean caves produce, I have nothing to offer."
Having spoken thus and having searched herself in vain for something to give, she recollected that some time before she had found in a dung-heap two coppers, so taking these she offered them as a gift to the priesthood in charity.
The superior of the priests, a saint who could read the hearts of men, disregarding the rich gifts of others and beholding the deep faith dwelling in the heart of this poor widow, and wishing the priesthood to esteem rightly her religious merit, burst forth with full voice in a canto. He raised his right hand and said, "Reverend priests attend!" and then he went on:
"The poor coppers of this widow
To all purpose are more worth
Than all the treasures of the oceans
And the wealth of the broad earth.
As an act of pure devotion
She has done a pious deed;
She has attained salvation,
Being free from selfish greed."
The woman was mightily strengthened in her mind by this thought, and said, "It is even as the Teacher says: what I have done is as much as if a rich man were to give up all his wealth."
And the teacher said: "Doing good deeds is like hoarding up treasures," and he expounded this truth in a parable:
"Three merchants set out on their travels each with his wealth; one of them gained much, the second returned with his wealth, and the third one came home after having lost his wealth. What is true in common life applies also to religion.
"The wealth is the state a man has reached, the gain is heaven; the loss of his wealth means that a man will be reborn in a lower state, as a denizen of hell or as an animal. These are the courses that are open to the sinner.
"He who brings back his wealth, is like to one who is born again as a man. Those who through the exercise of various virtues become pious householders will be born again as men, for all beings will reap the fruit of their actions. But he who increases his wealth is like to one who practices eminent virtues. The virtuous, excellent man attains in heaven to the glorious state of the gods."
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Poor Ananda, wealth for him is a negative karma as it lead him to become more stingy and selfish which created the cause for him to take a rebirth as a beggar later and has suffering in life.
I like this quote :
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of The Art of Living Foundation, says: "Poor people fight for food. Rich people share their food. Richer are those who share power. Richer still are those who share fame. Richest of all are those who share themselves. A person's wealth is measured by his ability to share and not by what he hoards."
If we are follow what Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said then for sure there will not be another Ananda.
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I read with interest on The Stingy Millionaire. What i have learnt from Dharma is when we die, we cannot take anything with us (which we all know - we came 'naked ' and we leave 'naked' ).
However what Dharma has taught me is that we take EVERY BIT of Karma with us ! In this present day and age, though there is much emphasize on material wealth and possession , i believe in general people are becoming more aware of being spiritual too.
The other interesting part of the story is on the reincarnation of Ananda and how he still remembered where he kept his gold. Is his attachment to the gold being bought into his present life ? He could'nt recognise his son but he remembered the gold.