5.3 The Story about the Rich Man Ānanda
Ānandaseṭṭhivatthu

“Sons are mine, and riches are mine,” [29.115] {2.25} this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while at Sāvatthī with reference to the rich man Ānanda.

3a The Miserly Rich Man

At Sāvatthī, we are told, lived a rich man named Ānanda. He had 800 million of treasure, but he was a great miser. Every fortnight he would gather his kinsfolk together and admonish his son Mūlasiri on these three points: “Do not think that these 800 million of treasure are a large sum. What one possesses one should never give away. One should always be acquiring more. For if one lets coin after coin slip through his fingers, slowly but surely his substance wastes away. Therefore it is said:

Seeing collyrium fade,
termites accumulating,
and (bees) gathering honey,
the wise one lives in his home.”

Some time afterwards, after showing his son his five great stores of treasure, he died, given over to pride and stained with the stains of avarice.

Now in a certain village near the gate of that city lived a thousand families of Caṇḍālas, {2.26} and Ānanda was conceived in the womb of one of these Caṇḍāla women. The king, learning of his death, sent for his son Mūlasiri and appointed him to the post of Rich Man.

3b Sequel: An Unlucky Fellow in the House

These thousand families of Caṇḍālas, who made their living by working for hire in a body, from the day of his conception received no more wages and had not a morsel of rice to sustain them. They said to each other: “Although we are now working, we receive no food. There must be an unlucky fellow amongst us.” So they divided into two groups and made a thorough investigation while his mother and father were absent, and coming to the conclusion: “An unlucky fellow has arisen in this house,” they removed his mother. From the time of his conception she had been able only with great difficulty to procure sufficient food to sustain her. Finally she gave birth to a son.

His hands and feet and eyes and ears and nose and mouth were [29.116] not where they should have been. Monstrosity that he was, he looked like a mud Pisācaka and was exceedingly repulsive. In spite of this, however, his mother did not abandon him, for great is the love of a mother for the child she has carried in her womb. She had great difficulty in feeding him. If she took him with her when she went out, she got nothing. But if she left him at home and went out alone, she received food to support her.

When he was old enough to get a living by begging alms, she placed a bowl in his hand and sent him away, saying to him: “Dear son, because of you we have been brought to great distress. Now we can support you no longer. In this city meals are provided for poor folk and travelers. Get your living by begging alms in the city.” {2.27}

He went from house to house, finally coming to the house where he had formerly lived in his existence as the rich man Ānanda. Remembering his former existence, he entered his own house. He went through three chambers, and no one noticed him. But when he entered the fourth chamber, the young sons of the rich man Mūlasiri took fright and burst into tears. The rich man’s servants came in and said to him: “Leave, unlucky one!” So saying, they beat him and pulled him and dragged him out and threw him on the dust-heap.

As the Teacher was going his rounds for alms, accompanied by the Elder Ānanda as the bhikkhu following him, he came to this very place. The Teacher looked at the elder and, in response to a question, told him what had happened. The elder sent for Mūlasiri, and a great company of people assembled. The Teacher, addressing Mūlasiri, asked him: “Do you know that man?” – “I do not.” – “He is your father, the rich man Ānanda.” Mūlasiri would not believe it. So the Teacher said to the rich man Ānanda: “Ānanda, point out your five great stores of treasure to your son.” He did so, and Mūlasiri believed and sought refuge in the Teacher. The Teacher, instructing him in the Dhamma, pronounced the following verse:

62. “Puttā matthi, dhanam-matthi,” iti bālo vihaññati,
attā hi attano natthi, kuto puttā, kuto dhanaṁ?

“Sons are mine, and riches are mine,”
so the fool suffers vexation,
when even self is not his own,
how then sons, and how then riches?

At the end of the teaching 84,000 living beings penetrated the Dhamma, and there was benefit for many people from the teaching.