"Bhikkhus who have spent the rainy seasons in various places will
come, Lord, to Sāvatthi to visit the Blessed One. And on coming
to the Blessed One they will ask, saying: 'Such and such a
bhikkhu, Lord, has died. What, now, is his destiny?' Then will
the Blessed One explain that he has attained the fruits of
conversion; that he has attained arahatship or has entered
Nirvāna, as the case may be. 21
"And I, going up to them, will ask, 'Was that brother, Sirs, one
of those who had formerly been at Sāvatthi?' If they reply to me,
'He has formerly been at Sāvatthi,' then shall I arrive at the
conclusion, 'For a certainty did that brother enjoy either the
robes for the rainy season, or the food for the incoming
bhikkhus, or the food for the outgoing bhikkhus, or the food for
the sick, or the food for those that wait upon the sick, or the
medicine for the sick, or the constant supply of rice-milk.' 22
"Then will gladness spring up within me; thus gladdened, joy will
come to me; and so rejoicing all my mind will be at peace. Being
thus at peace I shall experience a blissful feeling of content;
and in that bliss my heart will be at rest. That will be to me an
exercise of my moral sense, an exercise of my moral powers, an
exercise of the seven kinds of wisdom! This, Lord, was the
advantage I had in view for myself in asking those eight boons of
the Blessed One." 23
The Blessed One said: "It is well, it is well, Visākhā. Thou hast
done well in asking these eight boons of the Tathāgata with such
advantages in view. Charity bestowed upon those who are worthy of
it is like good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance
of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the
tyrannical yoke of the passions are like seed deposited in a bad
soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were,
the growth of merits." 24