The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [469]
14. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘Other women give birth after carrying the child in the womb for nine or ten months, but not so the Bodhisatta’s mother. The Bodhisatta’s mother gave birth to him after carrying him in her womb for exactly ten months.’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
15. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘Other women give birth seated or lying down, but not so the Bodhisatta’s mother. The Bodhisatta’s mother gave birth to him standing up.’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
16. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘When the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, first gods received him, then human beings.’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
17. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘When the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, he did not touch the earth. The four young gods received him and set him before his mother saying: “Rejoice, O queen, a son of great power has been born to you.”’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
18. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘When the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, he came forth unsullied, unsmeared [123] by water or humours or blood or any kind of impurity, clean, and unsullied. Suppose there were a gem placed on Kāsi cloth, then the gem would not smear the cloth or the cloth the gem. Why is that? Because of the purity of both. So too when the Bodhisatta came forth…clean and unsullied.’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
19. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips : ‘When the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, two jets of water appeared to pour from the sky, one cool and one warm, for bathing the Bodhisatta and his mother.’ This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
20. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘As soon as the Bodhisatta was born, he stood firmly with his feet on the ground; then he took seven steps facing north, and with a white parasol held over him, he surveyed each quarter and uttered the words of the Leader of the Herd: “I am the highest in the world; I am the best in the world; I am the foremost in the world. This is my last birth; now there is no renewal of being for me.”’1165 This too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.
21. “I heard and learned this from the Blessed One’s own lips: ‘When the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, then a great immeasurable light surpassing the splendour of the gods appeared in the world with its gods, its Māras, and its Brahmās, in this generation with its recluses and brahmins, with its princes and its people. And even in those abysmal world interspaces of vacancy, gloom, and utter darkness, where the moon and the sun, mighty and powerful as they are, cannot make their light prevail—[124] there too a great immeasurable light surpassing the splendour of the gods appeared. And the beings reborn there perceived each other by that light: “So indeed, sir, there are other beings reborn here!” And this ten-thousandfold world system shook and quaked and trembled, and there too a great immeasurable light surpassing the splendour of the gods appeared.’ That when the Bodhisatta came forth from his mother’s womb, then a great immeasurable light surpassing the splendour of the gods appeared…this too I remember as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Blessed One.”
22. “That being so, Ānanda, remember this too as a wonderful and marvellous quality of the Tathāgata: Here, Ānanda, for the Tathāgata feelings