POOR SOPAKA

Once there was a boy by the name of Sopaka belonging to a very poor family. When this boy was only seven years oldhis father passed away and his mother married another man who was very cruel, wicked and unkind. He always beat, scolded and shouted at small Sopaka who was very kind, innocent and good. The step-father always thought, "This boy is a nuisance. He is good-for-nothing. I hate him but Icannot do anything to him because his mother loves him very much. What shall i do about him?" One evening he said: "Dear son, let us go for a walk." The boy was surprised that his step-father spoke to him so kindly and he thought, " My step-father never talked to me so kindly. But now he seems to be very good. Perhaps my mother may have asked him to be kind to me." So he readily went with his step-father.
The step-father took him to a cemetery where there were many smelly dead bodies here and there, tied Sopaka to one of them and left him there while the boy was crying, "Father, please father, don't tie me to this smelly and dirty dead body. Please, father, please. I am frightened, father." Sopaka began to cry as loudly as he could. But his step-father went away without caring for him. As the night became darker and darker Sopaka's fear increased. There was nobody in the cemetery and the boy was so frightened that his hair stood on end and drops of sweat began to roll down from his body until he was fully wet with sweat. When he heard the noises of jackals, tigers, leopards and other wild animals he began to cry still louder. When he know that he was all alone and there was nobody in this terrible place to help him, he saw a shining, noble looking and most handsome person with a very bright light coming towards him and heard him speak in a most sweet voice: "Sopaka, don't cry. I am here to help you, fear not." And in a moment, Sopaka, broke his help and stood before the Buddha in the Jetawana Temple.
Sopaka could not belive his eyes and ears. Although the Buddha was staying very far away from the cemetery, yet he heard Sopaka's cry and, creating a very bright light, sent it towards the boy and made the ropes break by his power. When this poor boy came to the Temple the Buddha bathed him, gave him some food to eat, clothes to wera and consoled him.
When the wicked step-father returned home Sopaka's mother asked him, "Where is my son?"
"I don't know," said the wicked man, "he came home before me and i thoght he was sleeping." But the mother could not sleep the whole night. She was crying and crying, thinking of Sopaka. Next day early in the morning she thought, The Buddha knows all, past, future and present. I must so to the Temple and asked the Buddha where my son is. So crying and weeping she went to the temple. Then the Buddha asked her, " Why sister, are you crying?"
"O Lord," said the lady,"I have only one son. Since last evening he is missing. My husband took him for a walk when he returned home he said that he did not know what had happened to my son."
"Don't worry sister. Your son is safe. Here he is," and so saying, the Buddha showed her Sopaka, now a monk, not as a boy. The mother was very happy to see her son again. After listening to the Buddha's teaching she thanked him very much and went away as a follower of the Buddha.

PRINCESS YASODHARA

When the Buddha had taken his meal all who knew him as Prince Siddhartha except Yasodhara, came to talk and respect him. All of them were still suprised but were very happy to see their beloved prince now in an orange coloured robc, respected by everybody, loved and worshipped by everybody. But Yasodhara was in her room thinking,"Prince Siddhartha in now an Enlightenet One - a Buddha. He now belongs to the line of Buddhas. Is it right for me, to go to him? He does not, and cannot need me. Is it right for me to go to him? I think it is better to wait and see. If he comes here, After a while the Buddha asked, "Where is Yasodhara?" "She is in her room," said his father
"Come, Let us go there," said the Buddha and giving his bowl to the king went to her room. As he entered the room the Buddha said, "Let her pay me respect as she likes. Say nothing." When yasodhara knew that the Buddha was coming to her room, she ordered her servant girls to wear yellow robes and to welcome him. And as the Buddha entered her room and before he took his seat came quickly to him and holding his ankles, placed her head on his feet and cried and cried until his feet were wet with her tears. The Buddha kept quiet and nobody stopped her until she was very tired of crying. Then she cleaned the Buddha's feet and sat down respectfully.
When she had sat down, her father-in-law, king Suddhodana said: "Lord, when my daughter-in-law heard that you were wearing yellow robes, she also robed herself in yellow; when she heard that you were taking one meal a day, she also did the same; when she heard that you had given up lofty couches, she lay on a low couch; when she heard that you had given up garlands and scents, she also gave them up; when her relatives sent messages to say that they would maintain her, she would not even look at anyone. So virtuous was my daughter-in-law."
"Not only in this last birth O king, but in a previous birth, too, she protected me and was devoted and faithful to me," said the Buddha and told him the story of the Candakinnara Jataka - one of the previous Birth stories.

A DEAD BODY

On his return to the palace he was still very dissatisfied and was now thhinking more often. The king seeing him so changed became very sad. But once again the prince asked for his permission to go out of the palace to see more life in the city. The king agreed as it was of no use trying to stop his son. This time, wearing the clothes of noblemen the prince and Channa went out from the palace walking in many parts of Kapilavatthu. Then he saw a few people coming along the street crying while four men at the back were carrying a plank on which a very thin man lay flat and still. He was like a stone, never saying a word. Then the people went a little farther, rested the person down a pile of wood and set the wood on fire. The man did not move as the flames were burning the wood from all sides.
"What is this Channa? Why does that man lie there so still allowing these people to burn him up?" "he does not know anything. He is dead," replied channa. "Dead! Channa, Is this called death? And everyone has to be dead like that man?"
"yes, my dear prince, all living things must die someday. No one can stop death from coming," replied Channa. The prince was shocked and surprised and he could not say anything more. He thought that it was a terrible thing that such a thing called death should come to everybody, even kings, and sons of kings. Was there no way to stop it? He went home in silence and began to think in his own room in the palace the whole day. He was very sorry and sad and said. "everybody in the world must same day die; no one has found out how to stop it. O, there must be a way to stop it. I must find it out and help the whole world."