Monday, May 12, 2014

STORY OF KING AKSAOK AND THE QUEEN AKSANTHIMETTA

There were many wise people residing on Kunthameat Mountain. One among the wise people suffered from a wound. Meanwhile, another wise person went to find honey to be used as a remedy. The aforesaid wise person flew down and stopped at a riverbank and saw a female pottery worker come to draw water. "Does anyone here have honey? I would like to beg for some honey to be used as remedy to cure the Wound of a wise person living on Kunthameat mountain over there", the wise person said. The female pottery worker pointed and said, “The honey seller's house is over there. You can go to ask for honey there. Whether you got it or not, please let me know.”

When the wise person reached the honey seller's house, he asked to be offered the honey. The seller was generous and offered him the honey. While he saw that the honey offered overflowed from the bowl to the ground, drenching the ground and spreading the smell through the air, the honey seller made a wish: "with the generous overflowing honey drenching the ground and scenting the air, in the next life may I become a powerful king spreading 16 kilometres under the ground and 16 ki lometres into the air".

The wise person expressed joy at this generosity. Then, he returned to tell the female pottery worker. "When the honey seller offered you the honey, what did he wish for?" asked the woman. The wise person said "he wished that he would become a powerful king spreading 16 kilometres under the ground and 16 kilometres into the air”. She asked the wise person to wait for a moment. Then, she brought out a new cloth and offered it to the wise person so that he could use it to wrap the wound of the suffering wise person, wishing, "May I become the queen of the honey seller when he becomes the king".

In the next life, the honey seller truly became King Dhammasaok in the Middle Kingdom of Bat Libotra, around 200 years after Buddha reached nirvana, and the King of the central continent of the seven continents surrounding Mount Meru had power that spread 16 kilometres under the ground and 16 kilometres into the air. The nagas living in the sea and the deities living in the sky brought various offerings to give to the King, the main supporter of Buddhism.

The female pottery worker then became the Queen, Aksanthimetta, of the King, Dhammasaok. Due to the power of her generosity, since she had pointed to show the direction where the wise person would find honey, she was very beautiful with smooth, straight and clean arms. Since she had straight and clean arms, she was called QueenAksanthimetta. When the Maharajah King Aksaok was reigning, he had not yet appointed any of his concubines to be his queen.

One day, [when she was still just the] princess, Aksanthimetta looked through the window and saw a deity bringing sugarcane from Himalayas forest to offer her. While she was eating the sugarcane, King Dhammasaok entered the room, saw her eating the sugarcane, and asked her: "Why do you eat the sugarcane with hard flesh?" The queen replied: "I try to eat this sugarcane because it came from my good deed."When the king heard that the sugarcane came from her gooddeed, he was very angry and said:

"If so, tomorrow morning, I will invite 500 monks to eat in the royal palace, and I will offer three pieces of clothing for each monk, but I order you to find the monks' clothing madefrom your good deed to offer to the 500 monks. If tomon'ow you cannot find enough pieces of monks' clothing to be offered to the 500 monks, I will kill you". When she heard that, she could not sleep. She stayed near the window and prayed using her faith in her good deeds from the previous life.

At that moment, from the power of her generosity for offering the cloth to the wise person so that the wise person brought it to bind the wound of another suffering wise person in the previous life, so the Indra felt hot, the Indra therefore ordered a male divinity to bring her a small magic box full of pieces of clothing. Then, the male divinity opened the box slightly and took out the hem of the clothing to show her and said: "this is the box of pieces of clothing made from your good deed, when you, as a femal e pottery worker, offered the clothing to the wise person so that he could use it to bind the wound of the suffering wise person. You can take out three pieces of clothing each time to offer to each monk until you have done this for 500 monks, and if you want to take out more than this number, you can do it if you wish". She received that magic box with the greatest pleasure.

The next morning, the King ordered his servants to be prepared to invite 500 monks to eat at the royal palace. After the 500 monks finished eating, the King ordered Princess Aksanthimetta to bJing three pieces of clothing to offer to each monk. She held the small magic box, taking out three pieces of clothing for the King to offer to each monk. The King offered three pieces of clothing to each of 500 monks. Then she took ou one cloth and one shirt for each royal personage as well as all the officials attending the general meeing. When the King saw this miraculous event, he officially appointed Princess Aksanthimeta as his queen.

After that, the King realized that his other concubines in the palace were very jealous, so he ordered his special servant to make cakes consisting of a piece of sugar wrapped in a layer of sticky rice flo ur as per the number of his concubines. He put those cakes on a large plate. Then, he hid a precious ring inside one cake putting it the top, but letting no concubine know about this. The King ordered the other concubines each to pick a cake fi rst until the remaining one was for Princess Aksanthimetta. The King ordered all the concubines to open their cakes at the same time during the gathering. Those concubines opened the cakes without any ring, whereas Princess Aksanthimetta opened her cake and saw the bright ring indside.

As the King clearly could clearly see the predestined fate of Princess Aksanthimetta through this experiment, he declared during the general meeting: "this is the predestined good fortune of Aksanthimetta that she made in her previous life, so she deserves the title of my queen, so please, other concubines, believe in her fate and do not be jealous of her."

After her coronation as the queen, Queen Aksanthimetta enjoyed the bliss of royal wealth under the shelter of the accumulated goodness of Maharajah King Dhammasaok, the King of the central continent of the seven continents surrounding Mount Meru, until her death, before her next incarnation in heaven.

- The END-

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