An ogress becomes a goddess
Hariti with another ogress - Ajanta Cave 2 A woman runs through the streets of Rajagriha in the dead of the night. She is frantic. She is in search of something. She has opened every cradle in the city. She has looked under beds, in granaries, behind the water pots, inside caves. Her hands, which have killed countless little babies, are trembling now like any ordinary mother’s hands. She is looking for her youngest son. Pingala. Her baby. Her little darling. After much search and panic, she finds herself standing in front of the Buddha, the Enlightened One. Buddha smiles at her. “Hariti, the child-eater, what brings you to me, an aging man?” “I lost my son Pingala.” Hariti sobs. “How many women in this city have lost their little darlings because of you?” Buddha asks. Hariti was an ogress. Children were her food. She had hundreds of children of her own and she needed a lot of food to feed them all. Her children ate the flesh of other little children. They drank the other ...
