Nanda- Buddhist FigureMortal"Foremost in Guarding the Senses"

The Wedding Day

Nanda was the Buddha's half-brother, the son of King Suddhodana and Mahapajapati Gotami. He was called Sundarananda, "Handsome Nanda," and he was about to marry Janapada Kalyani, the woman the Shakya kingdom considered its most beautiful. On the day of the wedding, the Buddha came to the palace. He handed Nanda his alms bowl. Nanda took it, expecting to hand it back, but the Buddha turned and walked toward the monastery. Nanda followed, still holding the bowl. He was ordained before he understood what had happened.

He sat in the monastery and stared toward the palace. He could not stop thinking about Janapada Kalyani.

The Celestial Nymphs

The Buddha took Nanda by the arm and flew him to the heavens. There he showed Nanda the celestial nymphs: five hundred of them, radiant, moving through gardens of light. The Buddha asked how they compared to Janapada Kalyani. Nanda said his bride looked like a mutilated monkey beside them. The Buddha made him a deal: practice well, and you will be reborn here among these nymphs.

Nanda returned to the monastery transformed. He meditated with ferocious discipline. But the other monks heard why, and they laughed. They called him a hired laborer, a man practicing the holy life for wages.

The Turn

The mockery cut deep. Nanda looked at what he was doing and saw it clearly: he had traded one desire for a larger one. The nymphs would age. His time in heaven would end. He let go of the bargain as he had let go of his bride, and practiced without conditions. He attained arhatship. The Buddha declared him foremost among monks in guarding the senses.

Ashvaghosha retold the story in the Saundarananda, a second-century verse epic that follows Nanda from the wedding through the heavens to the quiet of his liberation.