Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seed

Kisa Gotami was a young woman whose only child died just as he was learning to walk. Half-mad with grief, she refused to accept his death. She carried the little boy's lifeless body from house to house in her village, begging for medicine that could bring him back to life. People pitied her or mocked her, calling her insane.

Finally, a wise man directed her to the Buddha. Still clutching her child, she approached the Awakened One and pleaded, 'Lord, do you have the medicine to cure my boy?'

The Buddha looked at her with infinite compassion. 'I know the medicine,' he said softly. 'But to make it, I need a handful of mustard seeds.'

Kisa Gotami's heart leapt with hope. She turned to run to the village, but the Buddha stopped her. 'There is one condition,' he added. 'The mustard seeds must come from a house where no one has ever died—no parent, no child, no spouse, no servant.'

Hopeful, she went to the first house. They gladly offered her mustard seeds. 'But wait,' she asked, 'has anyone died in this house?'

'Oh, yes,' they replied sadly. 'We lost our grandfather last year.'

She moved to the next house. 'The living are few, but the dead are many,' they told her.

She went from door to door, walking through the entire village. By evening, she had not found a single house untouched by death. Sitting by the edge of the forest, the reality finally pierced through her delusion. She realized that her suffering was not unique; death is the universal law for all born things.

With her mind suddenly clear, she gently laid her child's body in the forest, said goodbye, and returned to the Buddha. 'Did you bring the mustard seeds?' he asked.

'The work of the mustard seeds is done, Lord,' she replied. She asked to be ordained, and soon after, attained enlightenment.