The Story of Moggallana

Sariputta and Moggallana were themselves enlightened. They were arahants and being so powerful as they were how was it that such tragedy could befall Moggallana? Arahants do not "suffer" anymore but the physically mortal being is subject to the ripening of whatever remaining karma and in Moggallana's case, the karmic product of killing his blind parents in his past life was more powerful than his supernatural skills. Did he try to use his supernatural powers to avert death? How did he die?

Moggalana and Sariputta were the most excellent disciples of the Buddha. They were both older than the Buddha and both passed away half a year before the Buddha's Parinibbana. They were 84 years old. While Sariputta passed away peacefully on the full moon of October, Moggallana's death, on the following new moon of November was tragic.

Moggallana was the master of supernatural skills. Many monks had developed certain supernatural skills but Moggallana accomplished the most.
He was capable of :-
Penetrating and reading the minds of others (Telepathy)
Hearing voices and receiving messages from other beings eg gods, devas, spirits, etc. divine ear (Clair-audience)
Vision over long distance, seeing other beings and seeing the workings of Karma in others. This is the power of the divine eye (Clairvoyance) He often communicated and received instructions from the Buddha even though they were far apart.
Astral travel. Being able to leave his form and appear in other realms, he often travelled to the heavenly realms and interacted with gods.
Telekinesis. Being able to move things without having to touch it or with unusual ease. He even shook the heavenly palace of Sakka to teach him a lesson.

Both Sariputta and Moggallana were themselves enlightened. They were arahants and being so powerful as they were, how was it that such tragedy could befall Moggallana? Arahants do not "suffer" anymore but the physically mortal being is subject to the ripening of whatever remaining karma.In Moggallana's case, the karmic product of killing his blind parents in his past life was more powerful than his supernatural skills. Did he try to use his supernatural powers to avert death? How did he die?

Apparently, an ascetic order of the Jains faith were angry when they heard that Moggallana, using his clairvoyance discerned that virtuous practitioners of the Dhamma gained favourable rebirths, while the followers of other faiths were not so fortunate. Evil members of these faiths hired killers to get rid of Moggallana who was then living alone in a forest hut. Mara himself tried to claim Moggallana's mortal frame by entering through the latter's lower bowels. Moggallana calmly ordered Mara out of his body. Mara was taken aback at the speed at which Moggallana could detect his presence and exited from Moggallana's mouth. Standing in front of him, Mara asked Moggallana how he knew. Moggallana related that he knew much more than that. In a distant past life, Moggallana revealed that he was in fact Mara himself. Even Maras are subjected to the realms of Samsara. Subjected to birth and death. During the time of the first of five Buddhas that were to appear, Moggallana was the chief of demons, lord of the underworld by the name of Mara Dusi who had a sister by the name of Kali. The Mara who stood before him was in effect, the son of Kali which made him Moggallana's "nephew".

After the encounter with Mara, Moggallana felt that the time was near for his parinibbana. After attaining sainthood, he felt his mortal body as a burden and obstruction and allowed impermanence to take its course. But when hired killers went for him in his hut, he made himself invisible. For six days, hired killers went to his hut and could not find him on every occasion. Moggalana knew that the action of the killers would result in very bad karma for each and every one of them. So although he knew of the impending karmic force, he nevertheless used his powers to make himself invisible , because of his compassion for the would-be-killers.On the seventh day, the killers' persistence paid off as Moggallana was stricken by the ripening of the bad karma just as one would suddenly be stricken with illness. Moggallana's powers failed him and the killers smashed his every limb and left him dying in a pool of blood. Killing an arahant of such power is never easy. Moggallana, with great physical and mental strength did not succumb to the injuries but instead, managed to drag himself a great distance to breathe his last serene breath in front of the Buddha. When the monks inquired as to why such an excellent arahant could die in such a brutal way, the Buddha explained that even Moggallana could not stop the workings of karma. In one of his previous existence, he had killed both his parents who were blind. Following bad advice, he put them in a cart and took them into the forest and beat them to death pretending that they were attacked by robbers. Killing one's parents is considered one of the top five worst action ever.