The Parable of the Mustard Seed, A Tale From India
Kisagotami is the name of a
young girl, whose marriage with the only
son of a wealthy man was brought about
in true fairy-tale fashion. She had one
child, but when the beautiful boy could
run alone, it died. The young girl, in
her love for it, carried the dead child
clasped to her bosom, and went from
house to house of her pitying friends
asking them to give her medicine for it.
But a Buddhist mendicant, thinking "She
does not understand," said to her, "My
good girl, I myself have no such
medicine as you ask for, but I think I
know of one who has."
"O tell me who that is," said
Kisagotami. "The Buddha can give you
medicine. Go to him," was the answer.
She went to Gautama, and doing homage to
him said, "Lord and master, do you know
any medicine that will be good for my
child?" "Yes, I know of some," said the
teacher. Now it was the custom for
patients or their friends to provide the
herbs which the doctors required, so she
asked what herbs he would want.
"I want some mustard seed," he said; and
when the poor girl eagerly promised to
bring some of so common a drug, he
added, "You must get it from some house
where no son, or husband, or parent, or
slave has died." "Very good," she said,
and went to ask for it, still carrying
her dead child with her. The people
said, "Here is mustard seed, take it."
But when she asked, "In my friend's
house has any son died, or husband, or a
parent or slave?" they answered, "Lady,
what is this that you say? The living
are few, but the dead are many." Then
she went to other houses, but one said,
"I have lost a son"; another, "We have
lost our parents"; another, "I have lost
my slave." At last, not being able to
find a single house where no one had
died, her mind began to clear, and
summoning up resolution, she left the
dead body of her child in a forest, and
returning to the Buddha paid him homage.
He said to her, "Have you the mustard
seed?" "My lord," she replied, "I have
not. The people tell me that the living
are few, but the dead are many."
Then he talked to her on that essential
part of his system -- the impermanence
of all things, till her doubts were
cleared away, and, accepting her lot,
she became a disciple and entered the
first path.
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