Angulimala was a bandit and a murderer who turned monk. His was a fascinating story. While on a pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India recently, I became better acquainted with the story. Angulimala who was formerly called Ahimsaka, got his name which means garland of fingers due to the fact that he was hunting for a thousand fingers to make a garland for his teacher. Being a bright student, he was initially loved by his teacher. His classmates however were jealous of him and had spread the story that he had an affair with his teacher's wife. It caused a rift between the two and the teacher had thus at the end of Angulimala's study,asked for a garland of a thousand fingers from him as payment . Thus, began Angulimala's career as a murderer. He would killed people he met and after obtaining 999 fingers, was about to kill his own mother when he was intervened by Buddha. Upon conversion, he had become a monk and was on the way to Nibanna.
Years back, some people and perhaps, this writer too often chided that a murderer could just repent his sin and could easily enter to heaven. Angulimala, I heard from our guide, was not so lucky. He had to go through much hardship first and at times, was even stoned by the people who had hated him for his evil deeds.
Perhaps, it goes to show that we have to pay for our actions.
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