Pv 35Insulting the Relics Puja

– Khuddaka Nikāya

– Petavatthu

– The Small Chapter

35. Insulting the Relics Puja

Monk:

While you are floating in the air, a bad smell comes out of you. Worms are eating your mouth. What evil deed did you do in your previous life?

Afterwards, a group of ghosts slice your mouth with knives. They slice again and again placing salt on the wounds. What evil deed did you commit by body, speech, or mind in your previous life? What is that the result of?

Ghost:

In the city of Rajagaha I was an extremely wealthy person. One day my wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law were ready to go to worship a stupa that held relics of the Buddha. They had prepared lotus flowers, garlands made of flowers, and incense. I stopped them from going there. That was the evil deed I did.

There are about eighty-six thousand ghosts here suffering each in their own way. They all committed the same evil deed of insulting the worshipping of the Buddha’s relics. We are suffering intensely in this ghost world as if we were in hell.

If one criticizes worshipping the relics of the Supreme Buddha, that person loses a great meritorious opportunity.

Look at those female deities travelling in the sky, decorated with garlands and flowers. They enjoy this great happiness as a result of offering flowers to the relics of the Supreme Buddha. Having seen this marvelous, amazing, and hair raising result of merit, wise people salute and pay homage to the great sage, the Buddha.

When I am released from this ghost world and reborn in the human world, I will diligently worship again and again the stupas of the relics of the Supreme Buddha.

Translated by: Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thera

According to Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thera's translation from the Pali.

Stories of Ghosts from the Petavatthu © 2018 Mahamegha Publications.

For more information visit mahamevnawabm.org .

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