The Buddha and His Stepbrother Nanda

Two days after the arrival of the Buddha in Kapilavatthu, Prince Nanda, the son of Queen Pajapati Gotami, was celebrating his consecration ceremony, marriage ceremony, and the house-warming ceremony. It was on the occasion of these three festivals that the Buddha visited the palace.

The Buddha handed the bowl to Prince Nanda and uttering a Blessing rose to go without taking the bowl. The Prince followed Him. Princess Janapada Kalyani seeing Nanda following the Buddha said:-"Return quickly, O noble Lord!" Prince Nanda was deeply moved by these words that fell from the mouth of his fiancée, but with deference to the Buddha he could not return the bowl to Him. So, bowl in hand, he went to the park with the Buddha and was asked to join the Order.

With reluctance he entered the Order out of respect for Him as a Buddha and as an elder brother of his; but he was constantly thinking of his fiancée. The Buddha reading his thoughts devised a means to set him on the right path. With the object of showing him celestial nymphs the Buddha using His psychic powers, took him to a heavenly plane. On the way Nanda Bhikkhu was shown a singed she-monkey clinging to a burnt-up stump in a scorched field.

Reaching heaven Nanda Bhikkhu beheld the celestial nymphs and was so much fascinated by them that he compared his charming fiancée to the old she-monkey.

"Would you like to have them, Nanda?" the Buddha questioned him.

"Yes, Lord!" he childishly replied.

"Well, then, I guarantee that you will possess them if you persevere as I bid you."

Hearing that Nanda Thera was living the Holy Life with the object of winning heavenly nymphs, the Bhikkhus ridiculed him, calling him ‘hireling’. Eventually he became ashamed of his base motive, and by striving diligently attained Arahantship.