5.12 The Story about the Snake Peta
Ahipetavatthu

“A wicked deed that has been done,” {2.64} this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Veḷuvana with reference to a certain snake Peta.

For on a certain day, in the midst of a thousand ascetics wearing matted hair, the venerable Elder Lakkhaṇa and the Elder Mahā Moggallāna descended from Vulture’s Peak with the intention of making an almsround in Rājagaha. The venerable Elder [29.138] Mahā Moggallāna, seeing a snake Peta, smiled. Thereupon Elder Lakkhaṇa asked him the reason for his smile, saying: “Friend, why do you smile?” Elder Mahā Moggallāna said: “Friend, it is not the proper time for you to ask that question. Wait until we are in the presence of the Fortunate One and then ask me.” When they had completed their rounds for alms in Rājagaha and had come into the presence of the Teacher and had sat down, Elder Lakkhaṇa asked Elder Moggallāna: “Friend Moggallāna, as you were descending from Vulture’s Peak, you smiled; and when I asked you the reason for your smile, you said: ‘Wait until we are in the presence of the Teacher and then ask me.’ Now tell me the reason.”

The elder said: “Friend, I smiled because I saw a snake Peta. This is what he looked like: His head was like the head of a man, and the rest of his body was like that of a snake. He was what is called a snake Peta. He was twenty-five leagues in length. Flames of fire started from his head and went as far as his tail; flames of fire started from his tail and went as far as his head. Flames of fire starting from his head played on both sides of his body; flames of fire starting from his sides descended on his body. There are two Petas, they say, whose length is twenty-five leagues, the length of the rest being three-quarters of a league. But the length of this snake Peta and of this crow Peta was twenty-five leagues.” So much for the snake Peta.

On another occasion Moggallāna saw a crow Peta enduring torment on the summit of Vulture’s Peak. And he asked the ghost about his former deed, pronouncing the following verse: {2.65}

Your tongue is five leagues long,
your head is nine leagues long,
your body rises very high,
twenty-five leagues above the earth,
what was the deed you did
to meet with such suffering as this?

The Peta, answering his question, said:

Venerable Moggallāna, from
the mighty sage Kassapa, I
carried away what I desired,
food that was brought to the Saṅgha.

12a Story of the Past: The Crow Peta

Venerable Sir, in the dispensation of the Buddha Kassapa, a company of bhikkhus entered a village for alms. When the villagers saw the elders, they received them cordially, provided seats for them in a rest-house, furnished them with rice-porridge, gave them hard food, and bathed their feet and anointed them with oil. And while waiting for the time to come to give alms, they sat and listened to the Dhamma. [29.139] At the conclusion of the teaching of the Dhamma they took the elders’ bowls, filled them in their several houses with food flavored with various choice flavors, and returned with them.

At that time I was a crow, perched on the ridge-pole of the rest-house. When I saw what was happening, I filled my mouth thrice out of the bowl taken by one of those villagers, taking three mouthfuls of food. Now that food did not belong to the company of bhikkhus, nor was it given and handed over to the company of bhikkhus. It was simply and solely the remains of food taken by the bhikkhus which the villagers would have carried to their own houses and eaten, and was brought forth merely on the occasion of the visit of the bhikkhus. Well, I took three mouthfuls; that was the extent of my misdeed in a former state of existence. As the result of that misdeed, when I died, {2.66} I suffered torment in the Avīci Hell; and thereafter, because the fruit of my wicked deed was not yet exhausted, I was reborn on Vulture’s Peak as a crow Peta. Now as the fruit of my wicked deed, I endure this suffering.

At this point, then, the elder said: “I smiled because I saw a snake Peta.” Straightaway the Teacher arose and witnessed to the truth of Moggallāna’s statement, saying: “Bhikkhus, what Moggallāna says is the truth. I myself saw this very Peta on the day I attained Awakening. But out of compassion for others, I did not say: ‘As for those who will not believe my words, may it be to their disadvantage.’”

According to the Lakkhaṇa Saṁyutta, AJ: SN 19. when Mahā Moggallāna saw the ghost, the Teacher became his witness and told twenty stories.

When the bhikkhus heard what he said, they enquired about his deed in a former state of existence. Thereupon the Teacher related the following

12b Story of the Past: The Snake Peta

It seems that in times long past men erected a hut of leaves and grass on the bank of the river near Bārāṇasī for a Paccekabuddha. During his residence there the Paccekabuddha regularly went to the city for alms, and the residents of the city, in the evening and in the morning, took perfumes and garlands in their hands and went and ministered to the Paccekabuddha. Now a certain resident of Bārāṇasī was plowing a field near the wayside, and as the multitude passed by in the evening and in the morning to do service to the Paccekabuddha, they trampled his field. The farmer tried to prevent them [29.140] from doing so, saying to them: “Do not trample my field,” but in spite of his best efforts, was unable to do so. Finally the following thought occurred to him: “If the hut of the Paccekabuddha were not in this place, they would not trample my field.” Accordingly, when the Paccekabuddha had entered the city for alms, the farmer broke all of his vessels for eating and drinking and set fire to his hut of leaves and grass. {2.67}

When the Paccekabuddha saw his hut burned down, he wandered forth at his own good pleasure. When the multitude drew near with perfumes and garlands and saw the hut of leaves and grass burned down, they said: “Where can our noble teacher have gone?” Now the farmer also had gone with the multitude, and standing among them, said: “It was I who burned down his hut of leaves and grass.” Then the multitude cried out: “Seize him; seize him. All because of this wicked man, we have lost the privilege of seeing the Paccekabuddha.” And they beat him with sticks and stones and deprived him of life. He was reborn in the Avīci Hell. After suffering torment in this Niraya Hell until the great earth was elevated a league, he came out thence; and because the fruit of his wicked deed was not yet exhausted, he was reborn on Vulture’s Peak as a snake Peta.

When the Teacher had related his misdeed in a former state of existence, he said: “Bhikkhus, as for a wicked deed, it is like milk. Even as milk does not turn as soon as it is drawn, even so a wicked deed does not at once ripen. But when it has once ripened, that moment it brings with it suffering such as this.” And joining the connection and teaching the Dhamma, he pronounced the following verse:

71. Na hi pāpaṁ kataṁ kammaṁ, sajju khīraṁ va muccati,
ḍahantaṁ bālam-anveti, bhasmacchanno va pāvako.

A wicked deed that has been done,
like milk, does not turn all at once,
smouldering, it follows the fool,
like a fire covered with ashes.

At the end of the teaching many became Stream-enterers and so on.