Buddhist Stories: The Past Lives of the First Five Disciples (Part 1 of 4) August 14, 2015

“‘Praised be the World Honored One, the five persons under Kaundinya, the five persons with him, what did they do in a former life in order to have thus merit that they became your first and foremost disciples? Please tell us.’ So the Buddha said, ‘Ananda, you should know. These five people in their former life, they ate my flesh first. And then they became healthier. Because of that, in this lifetime, they became my first disciples and were liberated first.’” “Ananda, it was also on this planet Earth. There was a king who ruled a big country. His name was Sudolagarne.” “At one time, suddenly, under his dynasty, some comet appeared. And then many of the, not astrologers, the one who observes, the scientist, the star scientist at that time came and told the king thus: ‘Your Majesty, the comet appeared. It is not very favorable for us. There’s going to be a big drought soon. It will continue for twelve years, the drought. Your Majesty must think ahead about what to do so that the citizens won’t die of hunger.’ The king heard that and was very, very sad, very worried, so that he didn’t even want to eat his meals. At night, he couldn’t sleep.” “Then he knelt down all by himself, and said into the space like this, ‘Praises be all the Buddhasin the ten directions. At the moment, my citizens are dying in numbers because of hunger. I want to sacrifice this body so that I can be reborn as a big, big, big, great fish, like a giant whale, so that I can have my body as meat for my citizens to eat so that they become at least satisfied for a while.’ After he said like that to all the Buddhas, he went, he climbed to a very high tree and dropped down to die. And then it was as he wished. He reincarnated into, as a big, big, very big fish. His body was as long as 500 miles long.” “There were five carpenters. They were taking their axe to go and chop some trees, axe down some trees. And then the fish saw them. The great fish saw these five persons, five carpenters and said, ‘If you are hungry, eat my flesh. Please, please tell everyone in the country to come and eat my flesh.’” “Ananda, you should know the King Garne at that time was my past incarnation. And the five carpenters that ate my flesh first that was the Kaundinya, the group of Kaundinya right now. All the citizens of that time, now they are 80,000 heavenly beings and all the disciples that I have saved, that I have initiated.”