About Nanda
Nanda Sutta (SN 21:8)
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍaka’s monastery.
Then Ven. Nanda, the Blessed One’s maternal cousin, wearing robes pressed inside & out, having put mascara on his eyes and carrying a glazed bowl, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side.
As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, “It’s not proper, Nanda, that—as the son of a good family gone forth through conviction from the home life into homelessness—you wear robes pressed inside & out, that you put mascara on your eyes, and that you carry a glazed bowl.
“This would be proper for you as the son of a good family gone forth through conviction from the home life into homelessness: that you become a wilderness dweller, one who goes for alms, who wears cast-off cloth, and that you dwell indifferent to sensuality.”
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-gone, the Teacher, said further:
“When will I see Nanda a wilderness dweller, wearing cast-off cloth, getting by on the alms of strangers, indifferent to sensuality?”
