How King Virudhaka Annihilated the Shakya Clan - by Venerable Master Miao-Lien
Buddhist teachings state that the Law of Cause and Effect applies to both good and bad karma. As the saying goes,
"Karma persists through hundreds of thousands of eons; when causes and conditions come together, one cannot escape
their karmic retribution." The effects of today's actions are not necessarily felt today, because causes and their effects are not simultaneous events. In other words, if you commit a bad deed today, you will not necessarily experience karmic retribution the very next day, or even innumerable lifetimes later. However, you can be certain that the karmic effects will eventually come into play. There are many examples of this, such as the one in this story that I will be telling you.
Our Original Teacher Shakyamuni, the World-Honored One, was born into an Indian royal family. There are four classes of people in India:
the highest class is the Brahmana (the priestly class), next is the Ksatriya (the military and political class), then Varisya (the farming, manufacturing and merchant class), and finally, there is the lowest class, the Sudra (or serfs). Shakyamuni, the World-Honored One, belonged to the royal family of Kapilavastu. There was a country nearby called Kosala whose king, Prasenajit, wanted to marry a woman of his same class. He found the Shakya clan and wanted to forge a connection with them through marriage. By that time, Shakyamuni, the World-Honored One, had already left home to become a monk and was leading a peaceful and serene life.
Although King Prasenajit was also from a royal family, the Shakya clan still thought of themselves as the most noble and were unwilling to be associated with him through marriage. However, they did not want to offend King Prasenajit because they were afraid of his great power. Consequently, they chose a female slave from their kingdom
to pretend to be a princess and marry him. Although the slave was of lowly descent, she was very beautiful and kind-hearted. Her name was Mallika, and she later gave birth to
Prince Virudhaka.
This prince not only became the king of Kosala, but he also annihilated the Shakya clan. Shakyamuni Buddha wanted to save
them, but because their karma was so heavy, they could not be saved.
Why did King Virudhaka want to destroy the Shakya clan?
There was an immediate cause and an underlying cause. The immediate cause was that when Prince Virudhaka was young, he once went to Kapilavastu to learn archery. At that time, the Buddha's newly built lecture hall was about to be inaugurated. When the prince came to visit, the Shakya clan thought that, as a slave's child, he would stain their holy ground, so he was told to go home. Workers were then ordered to excavate seven feet of earth from wherever his feet had touched the holy ground, and to replace it
with pure soil. After suffering such a humiliation, the prince swore a hateful vow: "When I become king, I shall annihilate the
Shakya clan!"
That was the immediate cause, but what was the underlying cause of the Shakya clan's destruction? It goes back to a time eons ago, to a village that had a large pond. During a time of severe drought and famine, the pond almost entirely dried up, and one by one the fish floated up to the surface, which made it very easy for the hungry villagers to catch them for food. Since there had been no harvest, and the starving people had only roots to eat, how could they have resisted eating the fish? One day, the villagers caught an extremely large fish and displayed it beside the pond, and many people came
from far and wide to see it.
At that time, Shakyamuni Buddha was a young child in the village. He had a stick in his hand and had moved to hit the enormous fish three times on the head with it; he was just a child, and it seemed like a bit of fun for him! Later, the villagers killed the fish and ate it, planting the negative cause that ultimately resulted in the retribution they were to suffer at King Virudhaka's hands. As his karmic retribution for striking the fish, Shakyamuni Buddha suffered from a headache for
three days. But the villagers were later reincarnated as the people of the Shakya clan, and the hefty fish they had killed and eaten was reborn as Prasenajit's son, who later became King Virudhaka! King
Virudhaka's hatred of the Shakya clan came from that time in the distant past when he had been killed, cooked and eaten by the
villagers. This underlying cause, along with the immediate cause of Prince Virudhaka's humiliation by the Shakyas, was what moved
him to massacre the entire Shakya clan. The massacre occurred because of cause and effect, and definitely not by coincidence.
When the Shakya clan was facing demise, Shakyamuni Buddha had already achieved Buddhahood, and because Kapilavastu was his native country and the Shakya clan was his home tribe, of course he wanted to save them! But there was no way he could help,
because the force of karmic retribution is immutable. The Law of Cause and Effect governs all situations. Supernatural powers
cannot arbitrarily save people from karmic retributions; only the cultivation of merits can counteract negative causes. If the villagers
had been vegetarian and had not eaten the fish, they would not have had to suffer such a severe retribution.
Hence, we hope that everyone who is not yet a vegetarian will change and become one, and not create unwholesome causes anymore. Otherwise, when they suffer the effects of their bad karma in the future, nothing will be able to help them!
Related info.
https://jewelryprison.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-famous-war-in-buddhism.html?m=1
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