February 14, 2023
 
We journeyed joyfully through sacred sites such as Bodhgaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment, and Varanasi, where He delivered the sutta ‘Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dhamma’ (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta), opening a new Buddhism page in the history of gods and humans. We also visited many other places where the Buddha propagated the dhamma and helped save the people who shared kammic bonds with Him from suffering.
 
Today, we visited a place of great pain for the Sakya clan. In the early morning, we arrived at a foggy lake surrounded by rolling hills and trees shrouded in mist, which is the historical lake Sagarhawa that is also marked the destruction of the Sakya clan. Storks stood motionless, waiting for prey, while birds chirped and flew under the vast sky. As the sun’s first rays cast a red hue across the sky, the scenery became even more breathtaking, like a masterpiece painted by a talented artist.
 
However, little did we know that behind this beautiful scenery lies a tragic story born from a hateful thought.
 
King Pasenadi of the Kosala kingdom was a descendant of the lineage of the Warrior (Khattiya), and he was also the ruler of the Sakya kingdom. However, the Sakyans belonged to the Solar Race and were considered a higher caste. The people of Sakya were very proud of their noble class, and even though King Pasenadi had conquered their kingdom, he was still considered lower class. For this reason, it made King Pasenadi extremely angry, as he felt that despite his conquest, he was still inferior to the Sakya regarding bloodline.
 
Since then, he had wanted to marry a Sakya princess and become equal to the Sakyans. However, the Sakyans gave King Pasenadi a slave-woman and claimed she was a princess. Prince Viṭaṭūbha was born, and when he turned sixteen, King Pasenadi learned the truth. The prince was mocked as the son of a maidservant. His anger and resentment grew until he eventually seized the throne from his father. The prince sent an army to kill the Sakya lineage on his mother’s side. The Buddha intervened three times, but on the fourth occasion he knew that the kammic consequences for the Sakyans had ripened, and so he did not intervene any further.
 
As a result, a massacre of the Sakya clan occurred, leaving only Mahānāma and a few others as survivors. The site of the massacre is now the lake I described earlier.
 
After the massacre, King Viṭaṭūbha and his army continued their journey back to Savatthi and reached the Aciravatī River as darkness fell. They camped for the night on the riverbank, and while everyone was sleeping, a sudden flood swept in from the riverbed, washing away Viṭaṭūbha and his army into the ocean and killing them.
 
In Buddhism, we understand kamma and its consequences to be very just. Whether good or bad, every action will inevitably produce a corresponding result. Depending on the weight of the kamma, the fruit may ripen sooner or later. If we do not wish to experience the consequences of our actions, we must guard our minds day and night and not allow afflictions to lead us to create unwholesome kamma, as happened to Viṭaṭūbha.
 
(Certain passages excerpted from https://thichvannang.blogspot.com/2013/09/vi-sao-vuong-quoc-sakya-bi-tieu-diet.html)

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Source: Dhammacetiya