PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Hansen: The Nature of World 97shown to be joined by moral action. Within the text, Vessantar’s act ofmoral purity triggers a response of awe and astonishment with itsimagery of the earth shaking, a reaction that it also wants to project ontoits audience:Then the Bodhisat who had brought prosperity to the kingdomof the Sivis gave his two children, Jåli and Ka√håj∆nå, to thebrahmin. Then, the prince, with his heart glad, gave his twochildren, Jåli and Ka√håj∆nå, to the brahmin, for children are thevery best gift. Because of this, you should feel awestruck; yourskin should be crawling and your hair standing on end becauseof that moment in which the prince gave his two children as agift and the earth trembled and shook. The reason why youshould be awe-struck with your skin crawling and your hairstanding on end is because the prince who brought prosperityto the kingdom of the Sivis, with his hands together [in a gestureof respect], offered his two thriving and happy children as a giftto the brahmin. 45The enormity of this moment, with its cosmic reverberations, is reiteratedagain in terms that extend to and include the celestial world of the TraiBh¥m cosmography as well, delighting the gods, as Vessantar’s wifeMadd∆ recounts:My Lord [Bra© Açg] has caused the earth to reverberate, yourfame 46 reaching all the way to the deva-world, unusual lighteningspreading across the sky of the Hemavånt Forest, an echoing voiceresounding as if from the mountains [themselves].Gods in both realms, Nårada and Pabbata, together with Bra©Indr and Bra© Brahm, Pajåpati and Soma, King Yama and KingVessavă√, all rejoice because of you; all the gods who were born inthe Tåvatiµsa heaven, together with Bra© Indr, rejoice. 47Again, in this scene, in which Vessantar’s perfection of dåna causes thecelestial beings to rejoice and the earth itself to quake and rumble, theimages employed by the text offer a glimpse of its assumptions about theunderlying nature of reality: Vessantar’s act has moral reverberations forall other beings, because moral action gives meaning and order to theuniverse. Because the practice of Dhamma (the teaching that Vessantar willgive once he is a buddha) shapes the nature and passing of time, theimplications of this moment extend into and influence beings in the futureand the past as well.