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“Monks, in times gone by, during King Brahmadatta’s reign in the city of Vārāṇasī, a certain poisonous, extraordinarily venomous nāga appeared in Kāśi and emptied both the villages and the countryside. King Brahmadatta heard that it was headed in the direction of Vārāṇasī, and upon hearing this he flushed with terror. He armed the four divisions of his army and ordered them, ‘Go, kill the poisonous nāga!’

Then he looked and saw that in the great ocean there were some nāgas who were even more wretched than they were, but nāga sand wasn’t raining down on their bodies. Seeing this, he asked his parents, “Mother, Father, are you telling me that these are all nāgas of great renown, and that because of their great renown nāga sand isn’t raining down on their bodies? For there are some here who are even more wretched than we are. Why then, if nāga sand isn’t raining down on their bodies, is it still raining down on ours?”Now it is characteristic of the nāgas that three times each day and three times each night the nāga sands rain down on their bodies. This causes them to undergo dreadful suffering and extreme, excruciating, unbearable agony. Until the day the child came into his own, the nāga sands never rained down on his body. But once he had grown and come into his own, the nāga sands rained down on him too and caused him dreadful suffering and extreme, excruciating, unbearable agony, so he asked his parents, “Mother, Father, how long must I undergo such suffering?”“Though they are more wretched than we are,” explained his parents, “nonetheless they take refuge and maintain the fundamental precepts. That’s why nāga sand doesn’t rain down on their bodies.”

The young nāga looked and saw that the nāga sands didn’t rain down on the bodies of other nāgas. Seeing this he asked his parents, “Mother, Father, I think we have fallen into a lower realm. For if the nāga sands don’t rain down on those high nāgas there, why do they rain down on our bodies?”

“Mother, Father,” the young nāga requested, “please, permit me to go take refuge and maintain the fundamental precepts, by whose power nāga sand will no longer rain down on my body.”

“The child centered himself in love, and looked up at the poisonous nāga with love. No sooner had he cast this gaze than the poison disappeared. Then the boy picked up the nāga-snake in his two hands and set it down in a region where no people lived.

“Afraid of the two garuḍas, the two nāgas fled, traveling down to the base of the universe, where they remained. The nāga kings Āśvāsa and Mahā­śvāsa liked the doctrine of the totally and completed awakened Buddha Kāśyapa, so both went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts. Having [F.125.b] taken refuge and the fundamental precepts, the nāga kings were no longer vulnerable to the garuḍas, so they emerged from the waters of the great ocean completely at ease.