26c: The 8th Year (Pañcaggadāyaka)
After observing the eighth Rains Retreat (Vassa) and emancipating sentient beings, who were worthy of emancipation, by teaching the Discourse to Prince Bodhi (Bodhi-rāja-kumāra-sutta, MN 85) and other discourses in the Bhesakaḷā forest sanctuary, near the town of Susumāragiri, the Buddha left for Sāvatthī to take up residence in the Jetavana monastery.
The following story is drawn from the Anthology of Discourses (Sutta-nipāta) commentary, in its exposition of the Discourse about the Perfected One (Muni-sutta, Snp 1.12), which, however, is not in agreement with the exposition in the Dhamma Verses (Dhammapada, Dhp 367) commentary.
There was a Brahmin lay devotee by the name of Pañcaggadāyaka. He was so named because of his habit of offering the five kinds of foods that came first and foremost in the process of production:
1. He used to offer the first ears of corns, barley or oats from his fields to the Buddha and the Saṅgha in the form of gruel prepared with milk, in the belief that offering the first products will yield early benefits. This is the offering made of the first crop from the field.
2. When the grain was mature and ripe, he had the grains put in a heap after threshing and winnowing and prepared them into meals and offered them first to the Buddha and the Saṅgha. This is the offering made of the grains from the first part of the harvest.
3. After storing the harvested crops in many granaries, when the first granary was opened, he had some grains from the first lot taken out and prepared them as meals for offering to the Buddha and his Saṅgha. This is the offering made of the grains from the granaries.
4. The cooked food collected from each and every cooking pot was first offered to the monastics. Until such an offering had been made to the Saṅgha, no one was permitted to partake of the food from the pots. This is the first offering made from the cooking pots.
5. He never took his breakfast before collecting a certain amount for offering to the Buddha and his Saṅgha in the morning. In the afternoon he collected a certain amount from his dining table for offering to the poor, in whose absence, the collected food stuff was given to the dogs. This is the offering made before he took his meals.
Thus he came to be known as Pañcaggadāyaka, “one who made offerings of five kinds on the first occasions.”
One early morning, the Buddha looked into the world with the knowledge of underlying tendencies (āsayānusaya-ñāṇa) and the knowledge of others’ dispositions (indriya-paro-pariyatta-ñāṇa) and perceived the supporting conditions of Pañcaggadāyaka and his wife to be established in Stream-entry (Sotāpatti-magga), and so he had himself tidied up and he stayed in his chamber on that particular morning.
All the monastics in the monastery used to assemble at the Buddha’s chamber at the time of going for alms round every morning. They always went for receiving alms in the town with the Buddha leading. But the Buddha used to remain in the chamber behind closed doors whenever he wanted to be all alone. On such occasions, monastics went on alms round all by themselves after circumambulating the scented chamber with the tacit understanding that the Buddha would not go with them for reasons known only to himself.
On that day the Buddha remained in his chamber, behind closed doors, at the time of going for receiving food. He came out only when it was time for Pañcaggadāyaka to have his meal.
He entered the city of Sāvatthī all by himself and the citizens knew that someone would be blessed by him that day, and so they did not come out as usual to invite him for alms offering.
The Buddha went along the route from door to door, and stopped at the door of Pañcaggadāyaka at the time when the Brahmin was holding a bowl of food to be eaten and his wife was in a state of preparedness to fan her husband while he was enjoying the food. His wife was the first person to notice the Buddha standing in front of their house. She tried to keep the Buddha out of sight of her husband by keeping the fan in between the Buddha and her husband. She knew that if her husband saw the Buddha, he would offer all the food in his bowl to the Buddha, thereby requiring her to make a fresh preparation of food for her husband.
At the same time, she was assailed with confusion and irreverence. The Buddha knew all about it and directed the radiance from his body towards the couple. When the husband saw the golden coloured radiance, he asked her: “What’s this?” He looked around and he saw the Buddha standing at the door of the house. Whereupon, the wife dropped the fan, hastened to the Buddha and paid homage and worshipped him, in accordance with the time-honoured tradition. The Buddha uttered a verse in praise of her while she was in the act of standing up, as warranted by the favourable circumstance (Dhp 367):
Sabbaso nāma-rūpasmiṁ, yassa natthi mamāyitaṁ,
asatā ca na socati, sa ve bhikkhū ti vuccati.
One who has cut off clinging to mind and matter (nāma-rūpa) without holding the erroneous views of I, my own, he or she is free from sorrow and lamentation. Because of the cessation of mind and matter, he has penetrated the dark mass of defilements and deserves to be regarded as a holy, noble monastic.
The wife of the Brahmin was established in the fruition stage of Stream-entry (Sotāpatti) at the conclusion of this verse.
The Buddha was invited by the Brahmin into his house and offered a seat. He then offered him his share of the food, pouring water as a token of dedicating food to the Fortunate One, and saying: “Most exalted Buddha, you are the most Arahat person in the world with its Devas and humans. May you receive my offer of food with the alms bowl.” The Fortunate One fulfilled his request by receiving the food offered in his bowl and partaking of it. The Fortunate One then uttered the following verse after his meal, noting that the time was appropriate (Snp 219):
Yad-aggato majjhato sesato vā,
piṇḍaṁ labhetha para-dattūpajīvī,
nālaṁ thutuṁ no pi nipacca-vādī,
taṁ vāpi dhīrā muni vedayanti.
A monastic lives on food enthusiastically offered by supporters, either from the
Pañcaggadāyaka attained the fruition stage of Stream-entry (Sotāpatti) at the conclusion of the discourse.