001.3 – Prophecy of Mangala Buddha
After Kuandinya Buddha abandoned his earthly body about one eon, there was a Buddha named Mangala.
In those days, our most recent Buddha was a Brahmin named Suruji. He went to see Mangala Buddha and invited Mangala Buddha, “My noble Buddha, tomorrow, could you and your disciples stay at my place, please?”
Mangala Buddha asked “So, how many monks do you want to invite?”
Suruji asked “My noble Buddha, how many monks do you have?”
Mangala Buddha replied “I have about one million millions monks.”
Suruji asked “My noble Buddha, I may invite you with all of your disciples to my place. Could you come to my place?”
“Sure, Brahmin” Mangala Buddha replied.
After Suruji arrived at his home, he thought “I can provide food and clothes for all guests; but ! how about trabeated house and seats?”
His thoughtfulness heated up the throne of Devaraj, the king of gods. Devaraj wondered who made this. He used his insight and found that Suruji had invited Mangala Buddha. Devaraj thought that he should make merit also, so he disguised himself as a woodsmith holding knife and axe, then appeared in front of Suruji.
“Anyone want to hire me?” Devaraj asked.
“What can you do?” Suruji asked.
“There is nothing about art that I don’t know,” Devaraj replied. “No matter what job I’ve been hired for, even a house or a temple, I know how to complete it.”
“Great ! I have a job for you.” Suruji said.
“So, what is your job ?” Devaraj asked.
“I have invited a million millions monks to our home,” replied Suruji. “Could you build trabeated house and seats for all of them ?”
“Yes, I can !” Devaraj replied.
“Great ! I hire you” Suruji said.
After that, Devaraj found a plain land which was big enough for building trabeated houses. He used his magical power to create a big beautiful trabeated crystal house. Then he use his magic to create a million millions seats and a millions millions boilers for all monks. When he finished, he walked to Suruji’s house and said “Brahmin ! Take a look ! I’ve finished my work.”
When Suruji saw beautiful trabeated house, he was much delighted. He thought “For this beautiful house, inviting the Buddha and all his disciples for only one day is not enough; I should invite them for one week.”
On the last day, Mangala Buddha thought that “This Brahmin has made a great alms, what will he be in next lives ?” He used his insight and saw that in two eons and one hundred thousand millions years, Suruji would be a Buddha named Guatama. So he called Suruji and told him.
Suruji thought that it was worthless being a layman if he would be a Buddha in the future. So he devoted into Mangala Buddha’s religious. After he had passed away, he was reborn in the realm of Brahman.