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Angulimala paritta:
Benefits to pregnant mothers and unborn babies The concept
of mother (mata ), in an age of pre-test-tube babies, looms large
in Buddhist thinking. Mata mittam sake ghare : The mother is the
friend in one's own home says the Samyutta Nikaya (SN. 1. 37). This
respect for motherhood in a civilized social set-up has directed
Buddhist thinking to prepare for the preliminaries of maternity
care. Physical ease and comfort of a pregnant would-be mother and
her clinical mental grooming for motherhood are very much part and
parcel of a well-run household with well-meaning in-laws. Sri Lanka
of more than 50- 60 years ago knew of many miniature domestic ceremonies
of the white magic type which were quietly carried out in the home
for the security and well-being of expectant mothers. The morn to
evening day-time ceremony of Mati-ata-perima , Ata-gaha-metirima
or Ambakola-atten-metirima were delightful rituals carried out in
our village homes on the advent of the arrival into the family of
new-born babies. We all rejoiced over it. Besides these,
there is also maternity care coming (to the Sri Lankan Buddhists
) via religious considerations. In the category of Buddhist parittas,
we have the Angulimala Sutta ( M.II. 97 - 105), the use of which
for this purpose appears to date back to the time of the Buddha
himself. This sutta tells that Angulimala, the erstwhile bandit,
after his ordination as a disciple under the Buddha, reported to
Him of a woman whom he had seen during his alms round, suffering
severe pains owing to her pregnancy. Seeing Angulimala's
anguish and concern, the Buddha admonished him to go to that woman
in pain and through the asseveration of his personal purity to wish
her well and pray for the safety of her unborn baby. Angulimala
immediately pointed out to the Buddha his pre-ordination crimes
and the Buddha promptly advised him to make the asseveration from
the time of his admission to the noble order (ariyaya jatiya jato
). Angulimala acted accordingly and she is said to have been immediately
relieved ( Atha kho sotthi itthiya ahosi sotthi gabbhassa. op. cit.
p. 103 ). It is undoubtedly the spiritual prowess of Angulimala
that did it. All that happened is described as sotthi itthiya ahosi
-To the woman there was security and well-being. There is not a
word about the delivery of the baby. The Sri Lankan
tradition as contained in the commentary to the Sutta discloses
the manner in which the Angulimala paritta appears to have developed
itself to a high-powered pregnancy (or we should say child-delivery
) paritta. In the Angulimala paritta as recited today, there are
ten additional lines as a preface to what Angulimala himself recited
under the direction of the Buddha. Whosoever shall
recite this paritta, the seat on which he sits, The water with
which it is washed shall eliminate all labour pains. With ease shall
there be delivery, that very moment it shall be done. This paritta
which the Lord-of-the-World had given unto Angulimala is one of
great majesty which shall keep its efficacy for a whole eon. The growth
of this legendary process is witnessed in the commentary to the
Angulimala Sutta MA. 111. 337 . The commentary elaborates it in
this manner. Angulimala learnt this asseveration procedure or saccakiriya
from the Buddha and went to the woman to provide her comfort and
security. As males were not allowed within the labour room, the
monk was accommodated behind a curtain from where he chanted. That
very moment the woman is said to have delivered her baby with perfect
ease. With due deference
to the traditions of both the Theravada and the Mahayana on this
subject, we therefore wish to add to this collection of parittas
the text of the Angulimala, indicating what the original canonical
version was and how it was used as a simple pre-natal mother-and-child
protective chant (sotthi te hotu sotthi gabbhassa) as well as its
apparently more developed easy deliverance concept (sotthina gabbha-vutthanam
yan ca sadheti tam khane), with its true parallel in Koyasu Kwan-non
of Japan. We are more inclined to popularise what we consider to
be the earlier canonical tradition of pre-natal care of the mother
and the child (sotthi te hotu sotthi gabbhassa ) which can quite
harmlessly begin from the earliest indications of pregnancy, thus
building up confidence and comfort in the mind of the would-be-mother.
That kind of religious solace, the presence of comforting religious
grace of the tisarana must necessarily come to all areas of life
in society, well before the outburst of crisis situations. This
would eliminate the not very honourable last minute rush to wayside-shrine-divinities
for guard and protection through the local bãra-hãra
type of supplication. Yato ' ham
bhagini ariyaaya jatiya jato nabhijanami 1.The original
text with which the Buddha is said to have commissioned Thera Angulimala
to go to the pregnant woman in pain and make an asseveration [ sacca-kiriya
] to relieve her of her agony consists only of the eighteen words
given above, beginning with Yato ' ham... and ending with gabbhassa.
(See M.II. 102 and MA. III. 337 f. ). These alone reveal to us Thera
Angulimala's pre-arahant spiritual prowess in not having consciously
destroyed any form of life ever since he became a Buddhist disciple
( ariyaya jatiya jato). It is thereby that he was able to provide
comfort (sotthi ) to the woman in pregnancy pain. The ideas expressed
in the apparently later composed preface reduces the force of the
directly communicated power of the sacca-kiriya and brings it down
to the level of a water-powered ritual. |
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