Mogharaja The Etadagga : His Good/Bad Deeds [Wisdom Library] He belonged to a brahmin family and studied under Bavari as an ascetic. He was one of the sixteen pupils sent by Bavari to the Buddha. When Mogharaja had asked his question of the Buddha and had received the answer, he attained arahantship. He then attained distinction by wearing rough cloth which had been thrown away by caravaners, tailors, and dyers, and the Buddha declared him foremost among wearers of rough clothing. Later, through want of care and former kamma, pimples and the like broke out over his body. Judging that his lodging was infected, he spread a couch of straw in the Magadha field and lived there even during the winter. When the Buddha asked him how he fared in the cold, he replied that he was extremely happy. In the time of Padumuttara Buddha, Mogharaja first resolved to win the eminence which was his. In the time of Atthadassi Buddha he was a brahmin teacher, and one day, while teaching his students, he saw the Buddha, and having worshipped him with great solemnity, he uttered six verses in his praise and offered him a gift of honey. Later, after sojourn in the deva worlds, he became a minister of King Katthavahana, and was sent by him, with one thousand others, to visit Kassapa Buddha. He heard the Buddha preach, entered the order, and lived the life of a monk for twenty thousand years. Mogharaja is given as an example of one who attained arahantship by the development of investigation (vimamsam dhuram katva). The Apadana contains two sets of verses in reference to Mogharaja. They seem to be parts of the same Apadana which have become separated. The first set gives an account of the meeting of Mogharaja with Atthadassi Buddha (see above) and includes the verses uttered by Mogharaja in praise of the Buddha. The second set contains an account of his meeting with Padumuttara Buddha and the resolves he made before him. It further mentions that, for one thousand years, in a later birth, Mogharaja suffered in hell, and that for five hundred births he suffered from skin diseases. This was because he had lighted a fire in the Buddhas cloister and had made the floor black. In his last birth, too, he suffered from a kuttharoga and could not sleep at night, hence his name (mogharajjasukham yasma Mogharaja tato aham). These verses also include the Mogharajamanava puccha.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 11:32:40 +0000
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