15.



Ubbiri was reborn in the dispensation of the present Buddha at Savatthi, in the family of a wealthy householder, and she was exceedingly beautiful and fair to see. When she reached womanhood, she was conducted to the house of the king of Kosala, and after a few years had passed, obtained an only daughter. To the latter they gave the name Jivanti, or Living. The king, seeing her daughter, was pleased at heart, and conferred upon Ubbiri the ceremonial sprinkling of a queen.

But when her daughter was old enough to walk and to run hither and yon, she died. Every day the mother went to the burning-ground where her body was laid, and wept. One day she went to the Teacher, saluted him, sat down for a short while, and then departed. Standing on the bank of the river Aciravati, she wept for her daughter.

Seeing her, the Teacher, just as he sat in the Perfumed Chamber, manifested himself to her, and asked her: "Why do you lament?" "I lament for my daughter, Exalted One." "In this burning-ground have been burned eighty-four thousand daughters of yours. For which one of these do you lament?" And pointing out the spot where this one had been burned, where that, he uttered the first half of a stanza:

"You cry in the wood: 'O Jiva dear!'
Come to yourself, O Ubbiri!
In all, eighty-four thousand
Daughters of yours named Jiva.
Have been burned in this burning-ground.
For which one of these do you lament?"

After the Teacher had taught her this lesson, she extended her knowledge in conformity with the lesson, laid hold on Insight, and both by the charm of the Teacher's lesson and by her own accumulation of causes in previous states of existence, became established in the highest of the Fruits, Sainthood. And having attained Sainthood, she made known the Specific Attainment she had attained by uttering the second half of the stanza:

"Ah! he has drawn out the arrow,
So hard to find, that was in my heart.
For when I was overcome with sorrow,
He banished my sorrow for my daughter.

"I here to-day am one from whom an arrow has been drawn,
I am cut off from the world, I am gone to Nirvana.
I seek refuge in the Sage,--the Buddha,
And in the Doctrine, and in the Order."