Goddess
The story of Nanda is an interesting one. If you care for visits to heavenly realms, of goddesses whose beauty makes your heart pumps and your throats dry or handsome gods who makes your knees weak and your heart flutters senselessly, this is one story like no other.
Nanda was the cousin of the Buddha. Well, most accounts of the Buddha concerns his cousins. Maybe Kapillavastu was a very small kingdom which explains why everyone is related one way or other.
Nanda loved the Buddha and was very much inspired to become a monk and live the homeless life. Unfortunately, he was married, to the lovely Pundarika. Her beauty had such a hold on Nanda that, much as he liked the Buddha’s message, he can’t bear to be away from his wife no more than a few hours, missing her soft skin and the fragrance of her body.
Understandable, since she was in every way equal if not better than the Bollywood screen sirens we see today. One flutter of those lovely large eye and we are undone. She too was very smitten with Nanda and used to put a drop of water on Nanda’s forehead whenever he goes out, bidding him to return to her arms before it dries.
Ah yes, where were we? Oh yes, Nanda. The Buddha knew what was going on so he asked Nanda to take a walk in the forest with him. Forests then were (still are) filled with monkeys. Pointing out one particular old mangy female monkey, Buddha asked Nanda whether this monkey or his wife was more beautiful. The answer was obvious.
Soon their walk took them to the heaven of Indra, the Trayatrimsa. Remember, he was the Buddha who had miraculous powers. Within those pearly gates of Indra’s heaven, the beautiful daughters sported with the fortunate divine gods. Their beauty and radiance are blinding and their seductiveness and sensuality is beyond us mere humans, not even in our weirdest dreams.
Oh, where are we again. Yes, within those pearly gates, sat the loveliest of all goddess. And she was alone. With his already bursting heart, the captivated Nanda asked her why she unlike the others was not sporting with some god or other.
“Why am I alone?” she replied. “I am waiting for my one true lover, Nanda, who will soon become a monk. Through his practice, he will gain this world and I can’t wait to show him all the delights of the sense and pleasures of the flesh beyond anything that he has ever known before!”
Oh, my goodness! Imagine you were Nanda! When asked, he told the Buddha that Pundarika (his wife if you have forgotten) looked like that monkey when compared to these daughters of the gods, screen siren or no screen siren that she was.
As the story goes, Nanda became a monk in no time and was tops in practice and meditation. His motivation was, how to say, rather un-monk-ly.
By and by, the Buddha came along. Nanda was getting lonely as the other monks knew what he was up to and isolated him. Off they went again for another walk. Amidst the pleasantries and ‘how is your practice getting along’, Nanda soon found himself led to the fearful infernal realms.
Ghastly tortures were taking place and the place was filled with chilling screams of pain which can turn your blood to ice. Steam hissed as the smell of roasted flesh and skin fills the air. Karmic offenders scream and writhe in pots of molten copper, unable to die or swoon as they were made to endure the sufferings in full awareness. Seems some have been here for centuries…
This Buddha tour soon arrived at the nethermost of hell. Fearsome looking engineers were at work on another hellish torture gadget. This one was so bizarre, a prize winning design engineered to extract the greatest juice that even the most fevered, sick maniacal human mind would not have been able to devise.
Upon being queried by the Buddha, in full hearing of Nanda who was by then cowering in fright and fear, the engineer replied, “The other apparatus are too friendly. This one is special and we are making it for a special guest. His name is Nanda and he is now practicing very hard at spirituality. His next life is in Indra’s heaven where he will enjoy eons of pleasure. When he has sported enough and his good karma has expired, this is his next stop. Please excuse us, we have to be ready and must hurry!”
If we are to talk about insight, to Nanda, this one was deep insight! He abandoned all attachment to worldly pleasures and in time became an Arhat.
I wonder what happened to Pundarika. I think a nice end to the story would be that she too obtained deep insight from her grief and realized the fragility of this world. She too took the homeless life and also attained liberation. What a wonderful couple.
