A story about Nanda

As long as you have strong renunciation and diligent mind, even if you are as lustful as Nanda, you will still have proven yourself and achieve Arahantship. As long as being able to confess sincerely, you can wash out your guilt. Master Nagarjuna said that No matter who it is, even who accumulated boundless karma, after training of diligence and complete purification, the hidden buddha wisdom will be revealed naturally. Nagarjuna also provided several examples of confession for guilt purification. In Buddhist stories, Nanda is famous for strong lust. That is so-called romantic attachment now. He is the younger brother of Sakyamuni’s with same father but different mother. His mother is the aunt of Buddha’s. His wife, Bunariga, is the princess of another nation as well as the beauty in fame at that moment. He loves and sentimentally attached to his wife a lot. They are in love with each other very much, and do not want to be apart even only for a second. Once, Sakyamuni Buddha knew that it was time to enlighten Nanda. He carried out mendicancy purposefully at Nanda’s. Nanda took over the bowl that Buddha held, put in some food, and was ready to give it back to Buddha. Instead of taking the bowl back, Buddha turned around and left. Nanda wanted to pass the bowl to Ananda next to him. However, the Ananda asked him to return it to Buddha himself. Without no other way to deal with it, Nanda went out to chase after Buddha himself. While he was ready to leave, his wife, Bunariga, kissed him on his hand and said, “You shall come back before my saliva dries out; otherwise, it means that you do not love me.” He was worried about it would dry very shortly and went out in a rush. However, he was not able to catch up with Buddha. He chased after Buddha to the vihara. Buddha knew that Nanda was too attached to his wife and knew that it was time to enlightened him. He preached the pain of six realms of reincarnation and the suffer of desire. He became a monk after that. After becoming a monk, Nanda still missed his wife a lot. He failed to learn religious discipline and was not delightful for the law of Buddhism. The only thing he wanted to do was giving up being a monk and run back home to see his wife. Buddha of course understood Nanda’s situation and asked him deliberately, “Do you want to visit a place?” He asked, “Where is it?” Buddha said, “Hold my kasaya and close your eyes.” After closing his eyes, he felt wind brushing through. Buddha has brought him to a forest in the Himalaya mountains. Nanda saw a female monkey with wrinkles all over her body and was old and ugly. Buddha asked him, “Comparing the monkey to your wife, Bunariga, who is better looking?” He said, “Is it a question? My wife is the most beautiful woman in the entire India. This is an ugly monkey.” Buddha then took him to the heaven. He walked around and Saw many splendid palaces. The son of heaven in each palace was surrounded by many heavenly nymphs and enjoyed various happiness freely. Each heavenly nymph was with curvy figure and beautiful. They were much prettier than his wife. However, one palace was with a shining chair decorated by jewelry in the center and surrounded by hundreds of heavenly nymphs. The only thing missing was the son of heaven. He asked the nymph whose the seat was. The nymph said, “This is the seat for Shakyamuni Buddha’s younger brother, Nanda. He is now cultivating himself according to a religious doctrine as a monk and accumulating the blessing due to the insistence on the doctrine. He will have his life here after death. It is his palace, we will be his wives and concubines then.” When hearing it, Nanda was very excited. He went to find Buddha immediately and Hoped to return to human world as soon as possible. He wanted to follow Buddha and became a monk. Buddha asked him, “Compared your wife with the heavenly nymphs, who is prettier?” He said, “Of course the heavenly nymphs. My wife looks just like the monkey.” His lust towards his wife was eliminated. After returning to the human world, Nanda started to implement pure precepts. However, he found no matter where he sat, the person sat next to him would stand up and walked to the other side. No one wanted to talk to him, either. He found it was very strange. He thought Ananda was his cousin, and he shall not ignore him. He went over to sit next to Ananda. Before he sat down, Ananda has stood up and walked to the other side. He felt so sad and asked Ananda why he treated him like this. Ananda said that it was the instruction from Buddha. Nanda went over to ask Buddha, “Why do they not want to sit with me?” Buddha said, “They chose to become monks for the purpose of releasing from the bonds of births-and-deaths nirvana. No one is like you, who become a monk for the purpose of lust. Why will they want to sit with you?” He felt deeply affected after hearing it. Buddha then asked him, “Do you want to go to the hell to see the situation there?” Nanda said yes. Buddha brought him to hell and asked him to go around himself. As far as his eyes could see it was burning land everywhere. People were killed, fried, and chopped. You could hear sad and shrill wailing everywhere. No matter where you were, the only thing you could see was the terrifying scene. His hairs stood up, and he was so scared. He then saw a big oil pot with raging flames underneath the pot. The iron fluid in the pot has been boiled but no being is cooked in the pot. There was a servant standing by the oil pot and holding the lid. He looked at the sky and Seemed to wait something falling down. He asked, “what are you doing?” The servant said, “I am waiting Buddha’s younger brother, Nanda. He is now a monk because of the happiness in the heaven. He receives and upholds the precepts for the purpose of the lust and joy in the heaven. When he uses up his blessing and terminates his time in the heaven, he will fall off to hell. He thinks that he can enjoy his time in the heaven for thousands of million years, and it is a long time. However, for us, it is just the time to open the lid and close the lid. When I put the lid on, it is the end of his time in heaven.” He was so frightened when he heard it. “I thought being a monk, I can enjoy my future life in heaven. However, I will be cooked here in the end!” No mentioning to be thrown into the oil pot physically, his soul flew and scattered when thinking about it. He ran back to Buddha immediately and Held Buddha tightly and said, “From now on, I will never leave you. I am determined to have good spiritual practice.” He finally realized that even though he could enjoy his life in heaven, after using up the blessing, he would be sent to hell. It was meaningless to pursue joy in reincarnation. In the end, he had real renunciation and really wanted to get rid of six realms of reincarnation. Moreover, after seeing the miserable situations in hell, he was so worried to be sent to hell and suffer due to any mistakes. Therefore, when returning to the human world, he followed and implemented the precepts very carefully. He never violated any of them no matter how small it was. He was called the first disciple of “in harmonious proportion”. Due to his strong desire in renunciation and reincarnation, he was especially diligent in practicing. He received the phala of Arahant within a very short amount of time.