Anantarika-karma

File:Devadatta drawn into hell.jpg

The earth opens to swallow Devadatta into the hell of Avici

Anantarika-karma or ànantarika-kamma in Buddhism is a heinous crime, which through karma brings immediate disaster. Traditionally there are five such crimes:

• patricide
• matricide
• killing an arahat
• wounding a buddha
• creating a schism in the sangha

Devadatta

Devadatta is noted for attempting to kill the Sakyamuni Buddha on several occasions including:

• Throwing a large rock at him. Devadatta missed, but a splinter from the rock drew blood from the Buddha's foot.
• Inciting an elephant to charge at the Buddha. The Buddha was able to pacify the elephant by directing metta to it.

According to Suttapitaka, after trying to kill Sakyamuni a number of times, Devadatta set up his own Buddhist monastic order by splitting the (sangha). During his efforts to become the leader of his own Sangha, he proposed five extra-strict rules for monks, which he knew Buddha would not allow. Devadatta's reasoning was that after he had proposed those rules and Buddha had not allowed them, Devadatta could claim that he did follow and practice these five rules, making him a better and more pure monk. One of these five extra rules required monks to be vegetarian. In the Contemplation Sutra, Devadatta is said to have convinced Prince Ajatasattu to murder his father King Bimbisara and ascend the throne. Ajatasattu follows the advice, and this action prevents him from attaining enlightenment at a later time, when listening to some teaching of Buddha. Devadatta is the only individual from the early Buddhist tradition to have committed three anantarika-karmas.

See also

• Devadatta
• Karma in Buddhism
• Merit (Buddhism)
• Samsara (Buddhism)
• Twelve Nidanas
• Pratitya-samutpada