Buddha’s desire to meet Muni Arada

Sham S. Misri

One day with a desire to pursue other ways of renunciation, Gautama Buddha left Rajagraha to meet Arada Kalam. Having walked a long distance on his way he wanted to halt at sage Brighu's Ashram. Reaching near, he saw the hermitage of Brighu and entered it out of curiosity. The Brahmin inmates of the Ashram who had gone outside for the sake of fuel, having just come back with their hands full of fuel, flowers, and kusa grass, pre-eminent as they were in penances, and proficient in wisdom, went just to see him. That day they did not go to their cells.

Then, Buddha was suitably honored by those dwellers of the hermitage, and he turn paid his homage to the Elders of the Ashram. Buddha, the wise one, longing for liberation, crossed that hermitage. He saw those pious places, filled with the holy men desirous of heaven. He took a deep gaze at the strange type of penances the Brahmins were performing. Buddha, the gentle one, saw for the first time the different kinds of penances practiced by the ascetics in that sacred grove. Then the Brahmin Brighu, well-versed in the technique of penance, told Gautama all the various kinds of penances and the fruits thereof. " Uncooked food, growing out of water, and roots and fruits,—this is the fare of the saints according to the sacred texts ; but the different alternatives of penance vary. "

Further, Buddha saw that some holy men lived like the birds on collected corn, others grazed on grass like the deer, still others lived on air like the snakes, as if turned into ant-hills. There were some who won their nourishment with great effort from stones, others ate corn ground with their own teeth ; some, having boiled for others, kept for themselves what by chance may have been left. " Some had their tufts of matted hair frequently wet with water and would twice offer oblations to Agni with hymns. There were some who would plunge like fishes into the water and dwell there with their bodies scratched by tortoises. Buddha was told that by such penances the holy men would suffer for a time and thus they would attain heaven; for, such was their concept of happiness. On hearing this Gautama said : "Today I is my first sight of such a hermitage and I do not understand this rule of penance. "This is all I would say at the moment. This devotion of yours is for the sake of heaven— while my desire is that the ills of life on earth be probed and a solution found. With these words he took their leave.

Buddha actually wanted to learn the Sankhya Philosophy and train himself in the Samadhi marga. He wanted to see how it would help him and give him the solution of his problem. There was sorrow to him when he reflected that he had to depart, leaving those who were thus engaged. They were such a refuge who had shown such excessive kindness to him. And at last, he had to leave his close and dear ones behind. It was not any wrong conduct which made him to go away from those woods ; for there were great sages, standing fast in the religious duties which were in accordance with the practices of the former sages.

Finally, in the heart of hearts Buddha had decided to go to Muni Arada Kalam who was known to be the master of the subject, he planned to leave. Seeing his resolve Brighu, the chief of the hermitage, said : " Prince, brave indeed is your purpose, who, young as you are, having considered thoroughly between heaven and liberation have made up your mind for liberation, you are indeed brave! It was then that Brighu having realized the purpose of Buddha, suggested him to go quickly to Vindhyakoshtha ; the place where Muni Arada lived.

It was there where Buddha would gain an insight into absolute bliss. From him he would learn the path which Brighu had foreseen. The purpose of Buddha would be achieved, after having studied his theory. Gautama thanked him, and having saluted the company of sages he departed. The hermits also having duly performed to him all the rites of courtesy, entered again into the ascetic grove.