In this episode, we will conclude the story of Angulimala, the ruthless bandit who collected fingers from his victims. All because his professor asked him to.
If you haven’t heard the last 3 episodes, it might be a good idea to do that. Here’s a short summary anyway. Angulimala’s dad, a priest, and astrologer had predicted that his baby boy would grow up to be a terror. And not in the cute, affectionate way that some parents refer to their naughty children.
Through childhood, Angulimala’s parents felt their constant nudges were steering the boy away from a life of crime. Being academically gifted, he got to go to the best university – Takshashila, the Harvard or Cambridge or Oxford of the ancient world.
Angulimala did really well there, but his jealous classmates put him in a difficult spot, by tricking their professor into punishing the boy for nothing at all. Instead of charging tuition fees, like he did everyone else, the professor asked Angulimala to bring him a thousand fingers instead.
Angulimala tried, but no one would willingly donate fingers. So he took them force. He didn’t have to take their lives but he did. And he didn’t spare anyone, even younglings.
Parents are generally very supportive of their children when those children starts a rock collection, or a stamp collection, or a coin collection. But most parents would draw the line at a finger collection, especially when the means of collection were so violent.
Mantaani, Angulimala’s mother, believed that there was still good in her boy.
Even though, every single day the obituary column in the newspaper was full of all of her son’s victims.
She set out to confront the boy. We’ll continue the story right after the two met.
Angulimala was just one finger short of his goal of a thousand. And he had decided that the final finger would come from his own mother. It’s not that he didn’t recognize Mantaani.
He just didn’t care. He had been consumed by rage, violence, hatred, jealousy.
He raised his knife and advanced menacingly. Mantaani began to curse herself. She deserved this. Why couldn’t she have just stayed home safe? She had been thinking that by bribing him with his favorite dessert, she might evoke the good that she believed still lived in him. But the Gaajar ka Halwa was not that great.
Mantaani meanwhile grimaced and braced herself for the death blow.
The death blow at the hands of her own son. That was coming any minute now. Still waiting.
Carefully she looked out from the corner of her eyes, wondering if she was in Heaven. Or maybe hell.
But surprise, surprise. Angulimala had not actually attacked her. In fact he was running away. It was hard to believe that despite being the one holding the weapon, Angulimala was running away from a frail old woman. But soon it became clear.
A third person had entered the scene. Choosing to fight him instead of his own mother, Angulimala was rushing for this unknown gentleman in orange monk robes and what Mantaani could almost swear was a halo around his head.
Angulimala was running towards the monk in the orange robes. Even though the monk was only walking Angulimala was unable to catch up with him.
“Stop” he gasped, exhausted from all the running.
Had the ground turned into a treadmill?
The monk turned around and faced him. “Stop what, my child?” he asked.
He had such a soothing tone that it seemed to calm Angulimala down a bit.
Yet, he mustered up some rage to shout back. “Stop moving away so fast so I can rob you! Are you wearing roller skates under those robes?”
Just then, a lucky breeze exposed the monk’s feet beneath the long orange robes. There were no roller skates, or a skateboard, or a hoverboard.
Oblivious to Angulimala’s surprise, the monk replied “I’m not the one who is moving, child. You are.”
“Both literally and figuratively” he added when Angulimala looked at him quizzically.
“How figuratively?” asked Angulimala
“You are mind is in a constant struggle. All those emotions! Desire, which leads to attachment, attachment leads to grief, grief leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. If you realize this, you have the path to being at peace with yourself”
Angulimala processed this for a while and said “you know, at Takshashila, my master Yodha said something similar, but I think he left out some links in that chain. I liked your explanation so much better. And it …. It has calmed me. I don’t want to collect fingers. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I want to learn more. Can I come with you?”
“Of course!” said the monk. “But you must become a monk, like my other disciples”
This whole interaction may seem like a Deus Ex Machina moment in the story to prevent him from finishing his collection, but that was exactly what it was. Because the monk was really the Buddha himself!
The Buddha offered Angulimala orange monk robes, which Anguliamala gladly accepted. He asked if he’d be getting that cool halo around his head as well. Seriously how did he do that? Was it like a special floating light with some trick wires or something?
When the Buddha reminded him about what attachment leading to all those other things, Angulimala quickly apologized and promised to try harder.
And after that, he did try much harder! He attended to the tasks at the monastery with great diligence, being courteous to others, helping others in need, and hanging on to the Buddha’s every word. A few days passed. The change in Angulimala was dramatic.
One day, the King showed up at the monastery. He was there to consult with the Buddha. As the King and the Buddha were strolling through the monastery gardens, the King explained what he had in mind. He was finally going to react to his subjects’ pleas to rid their forests of the monster Angulimala. So far, the bandit was up 999-0 but this time, the King had his most elite army and they were sure they would win. Some of his soldiers would die, but that was a sacrifice the King was willing to make.
The Buddha said “let’s talk to him” and pointed out a monk who was nearby watering the plants.
When he introduced the monk to the King, the King was surprised. Is your name Angulimala too? I recommend changing it. Even if your parents had the best of intentions when they named you that, its an extremely unpopular name in the Kingdom now. Obviously you are nothing like the other Angulimala, but people may get confused.
Angulimala replied that he was indeed that Angulimala. He was the villanous guy. Now that he had the benefit of the Buddha’s teachings, he had seen the error of his ways. And he hadn’t just become a monk to escape punishment. He actually fully accepted responsibility for the atrocities he had committed and would willingly accept anything the King decided.
The King was shocked and took a while to even believe that this gentle person standing before him was number 1 on India’s most wanted list. This guy wouldn’t even hurt a fly.
Marveling at the Buddha’s powers of influence, he decided a punishment would not be necessary anymore. The problem that the King was trying to solve with the vast resources of his army, had been solved by just a few words from the Buddha.
Angulimala lived on at the monastery applying himself to learning from the Buddha and spreading his knowledge to others. He did not get a cool halo of his own yet, but on passing his freshman year tests, he did get a cool silver pet rabbit that followed him around everywhere. He called it R2D2.
He was still not fully at peace with himself though, as one might expect. But that changed soon enough.
One day, Angulimala and the Buddha were out for an evening stroll in a forest. Angulimala was actually not sure why. Maybe it was just a light form of physical exercise. Or maybe there were other bandits in the forest who were waiting to be converted.
They heard someone crying out in pain. When Angulimala and the Buddha reached the scene, they saw two women. One of them was in labor, but in great pain. The other was trying to help her. The helper lady immediately asked Angulimala and the Buddha to help. To do something to ease the pain.
Angulimala had no ideas. The mantra that the Buddha had told him about the attachment and grief and so on, did not apply here obviously. He was still wondering when the Buddha turned toward him and asked him: “Brother, you can ease her pain. All you have to do is to bless her and speak a truth.”
“Like a fact? Like snails have 14000 teeth?”
“No a deep truth about yourself” said the Buddha.
This presented a problem. Angulimala could easily admit something from his past life, but it was hard to put a positive spin on any of that. Ultimately he gently touched the lady’s forehead and said “Since my rebirth, I have not brought anyone any grief. If what I say is the truth may this ease your suffering”
What he referred to as his “rebirth” was his transformation by the Buddha. It did work! Soon, the lady experienced a pain free childbirth. She insisted that Angulimala bless her newly born twins, whom she had decided to call Luke and Leia.
Angulimala did, even if reluctantly. But he had come to terms with himself. He was more at peace with himself, given how his actions had helped the pregnant lady and probaby saved her life and her children’s lives.
He began to apply himself even harder to public service. Once when he was on a mission to spread the Buddha’s teachings in a town, he was recognized by one of his survivors back from his bandit life. The word quickly spread across town. Many people who had not been unable to accept the King’s verdict that Angulimala was no longer a threat, assumed the worst. They thought Angulimala had expanded his operations outside forests and had come into town to attack them!
Well, not if they attacked him first. And so they did. He did not resist a bit when the mob descended on him.
His last thoughts were simply that this mob was exactly the example of people who needed to hear the Buddha.
That’s all I have on the story.
Some notes on the show
Angulimala’s story is one of the best examples of the Buddha’s powers of influence. The Buddha is not a miracle worker. He had a way with words, and with explaining things in a way that made absolute sense to anyone who listened. The Jataka tales are a great example of this. We’ve covered Buddha and some Jataka tales before in previous episodes.
29.5 – Decanted
18 – Monkey Business
Episode 14 – Of Mice and Men
Some people include the Buddha as one of Vishnu’s avatars. Others believe it was Balram and not the Buddha. Well speaking from first-hand knowledge, I can say it’s both of them. And not just them, Vishnu has many many other avatars, way more than just 10, and with more to come.
I’ve been drawing comparisons with Star Wars throughout the last 3 episodes, and the similarities are not a coincidence. The Jedi order in the Star Wars universe teaches a similar philosophy similar to the attachment-grief chain. If you think about it, it actually contradicts the Jedi role as an elite special forces unit.
Angulimala most closely resembles Darth Vader. There were terrible prophecies about both, despite that both were raised by family, both left their homes at an early age to pursue an education. Both found the education process challenging, and conflicting – being asked to do one thing while being taught another. Both could be seen as then reacting to that conflict by adopting an extreme, with an utter disregard for human life. They both went through and almost hurt the one person who believed despite mountains of evidence to the contrary that there was still good in them.
Both transformed when presented by someone who understood the path back from the dark side to the light. And ultimately both lives were ended after they were at peace with themselves.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’re back into the Ramayana. We’ll see how to handle a proposal and what happens if you offend someone who has an extremely powerful brother. Spoiler alert it won’t end well for everyone.