Sujãtã, her maid, and Prince Gautama Before Reaching Enlightenment

Sujãtã, her maid, and Prince Gautama Before Reaching Enlightenment

Buddhism, Watt Munisotaram

The group of statues refers to the story of Sujãtã, a daughter of a rich man, who prayed to the tree-spirit of the Bodhi tree to have her first child be a son.1 Sujãtã's prayer was fulfilled, and she sent her maid to the Bodhi tree to clean up the area to make an offering to the tree-spirit in return. The maid found a starving man sitting under the tree, the Prince Gautama, and the maid ran back to tell Sujãtã that the tree-spirit had made himself visible to accept her offering. Sujãtã came to the tree with milk rice in a golden bowl and offered it to the starving man, saying, "may your wishes prosper like mine have", and then departed. Sujãtã later learned that the man attained Enlightenment, becoming the Great Bodhisattva after taking the milk rice offered by her and she was "overjoyed with the thought that she had made a noble deed to the greatest merit."

Will Yetvin

7/22/16

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