Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/153

Rh nor did his heart swerve a hair's breadth from its purpose. And hence we see that as regards almsgiving the Bodhisattas can have no satiety. Therefore this Bodhisatta also thinking, "I ought to give alms for seven days to a million million priests," seated them in that hall, and for a week gave them the alms called gavapâna. Men alone were not able to wait upon them, but the angels themselves, taking turns with men, waited upon them. A space of fifty leagues or more sufficed not to contain the monks, yet they seated themselves each by his own supernatural power. On the last day, having caused the bowls of all the monks to be washed, and filled them with butter clarified and unclarified, honey and molasses, for medicinal use, he gave them back to them, together with the three robes. The robes and cloaks received by novices and ordained priests were worth a hundred thousand. The Teacher, when he returned thanks, considering, "This man has given such great alms, who can he be?" and perceiving that at the end of two asankheyyas and four thousand cycles he would become a Buddha named Gotama, addressing the Bodhisatta, made this prediction: "After the lapse of such and such a period thou shalt become a Buddha named Gotama." The Bodhisatta, hearing the prediction, thought, "It seems that I am to become a Buddha, what good can a householder's life do me? I will give up the world," and, treating all this prosperity like so much drivel, he received ordination at the hands of the Teacher. And having embraced the ascetic life and learnt the word of Buddha, and having attained the supernatural Faculties and the Attainments, at the end of his life he was reborn in the Brahma heavens. The city of Mangala Buddha was called Uttara, his father was the khattiya Uttara; his mother was Uttarā, Sudeva and Dhammasena were his two chief