The Venerable Aniruddha’s name means “never poor”, because in limitless eons past he made an offering to a Pratyekabuddha. At the time he made the offering he did not know the mendicant was a Pratyekabuddha. The Pratyekabuddha, who lived in the mountains, had vowed to come down and beg only once every seven days at only seven houses. If he obtained no food, he would simply return and go hungry for another week. On this particular round, having obtained no food, he was returning carrying his empty bowl anticipating another week of hunger.
Aniruddha knew this and was pained at heart. Times were hard and famine was rampant. Families had trouble supporting themselves, and had nothing left over to give those who had left home. Aniruddha a poor farmer who scraped his living out of the soil, ate the very coarsest, cheapest kind of unhusked rice, which he carried to the fields with him each day. When he saw the Bhikshu, he said, “That a cultivator such as yourself should have to undergo starvation is too pitiful. Won’t you accept my offering of coarse rice? If it’s not unacceptable, you may have it.”
“If you wish to give it, I’ll accept it,” said the Pratyekabuddha, “but what will you eat?”
“I can skip lunch today,” said Aniruddha. “It doesn’t matter.”
When the Pratyekabuddha had finished eating, he revealed his spiritual powers by manifesting the Eighteen Miraculous Changes which include things like emitting water from the upper part of one’s body and fire from the lower part, and emitting water from the lower part of one’s body and fire from the upper part, and ascending into space–things which Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas can do but which ordinary people find most unusual. After that, he said, “I accepted your offering and from now on, in every life, you will never again be poor,” then he left.
Aniruddha continued to work in the fields when along hopped a rabbit. Strangely enough, it jumped and frisked around and around Aniruddha as tamely as a horse, dog, or cat. “Don’t bother me,” Aniruddha finally said, “I’m working and I don’t have time to play with you.”
Then the rabbit jumped up onto Aniruddha’s back. No matter how hard Aniruddha tried to brush it off, it wouldn’t budge. It was as if it had grown roots right into Aniruddha’s shoulders. Aniruddha continued working, but he was getting worried. “What’s going to become of this rabbit on my back?” he wondered. As poor as he was, he still had a wife. When he returned home that evening, he asked her to knock the rabbit off his back. As she did so, the rabbit died and turned into gold! Aniruddha broke off its front leg and exchanged it for a large sum of cash. To his surprise, the front leg grew back again! The same thing happened whenever he broke off one of the back legs. He had struck it rich! No one knew how much he was worth because he could always break off part of the golden rabbit. Not only was he a rich man in that life, but throughout ninety one eons he was wealthy, honored, and never poor again.
When he made the offering, he did not know the Bhikshu was a Pratyekabuddha. After the Pratyekabuddha accepted it, he transferred merit to him, so that Aniruddha received the retribution of never being poor.
Aniruddha, the Buddha’s first cousin, liked best to sleep. In fact, every time the Buddha lectured on the Dharma Aniruddha would doze off with his head resting on the table snoring like thunder. Once the Buddha scolded him saying:
Hey! Hey! How can you sleep,
Like an oyster or a clam?
Sleep, sleep for a thousand years,
But you’ll never hear the Buddha’s name.
After the reprimand, in a burst of vigor Aniruddha decided never to sleep again but to truly dedicate himself to studying the Buddhadharma. He went for seven days and seven nights without sleeping and as a result he went blind. Shakyamuni Buddha, knowing that he had gone blind because of his great vigor in studying the Buddhadharma took pity on his little cousin and taught him the Vajra Bright-illumination Samadhi.
Thereafter, Aniruddha cultivated according to Dharma and obtained the Penetration of the Heavenly Eye. In fact, his Heavenly Eye covered half of his head, enabling him to view the world system of three thousand great thousand worlds just as we would regard an amala fruit or an apple in our hands. Thus Aniruddha was foremost in possessing the Heavenly Eye.