Vakula means “kind countenance.” Vakula had a kind appearance and people felt joy when looking at him. He was “foremost in longevity.”
The Buddha taught that all worldly pursuits can be categorized into three groups: wealth, wisdom, and health and longevity. Think about this. Is there anyone who does not want these? These are karmic results. We must plant the causes before we can have the karmic results. It is said: “In Buddhism, every sincere request will receive a response.” Why? Because the Buddha knew the law of cause and effect and thus knew which cause would bring about which effect.
The underlying cause of having wealth, wisdom, and health and longevity is giving. The Buddha taught us to cultivate both good fortune and wisdom. In this phrase, good fortune goes before wisdom. There is a Buddhist saying: “Cultivating wisdom without cultivating good fortune will result in an arhat not receiving any offering; cultivating good fortune without cultivating wisdom will result in a royal elephant wearing precious jewelry.”
The first statement is about a person who cultivated wisdom and attained arhatship. But as he did not cultivate good fortune, no one made offerings to him when he went out on alms rounds. The second statement is about a person who cultivated great good fortune but not wisdom. He fell into the path of animals and was reborn as an elephant. As the elephant had good fortune, it was kept by a king. Whenever the king went out, he rode on this elephant, and so this elephant was resplendently bedecked with fine jewelry.
Therefore, the Buddha taught us to cultivate both good fortune and wisdom. If one does not cultivate either one, one will be poor for all future lifetimes. It is most important that we believe the Buddha’s teaching.
Many universities and graduate schools today teach various methods to attain wealth. When we look at the courses they offer, we see that they teach students how to make use of catalytic conditions, not how to plant causes. Take business administration, for example. They do case studies. How did rich people get started? How did they run their businesses? How did they make so much money?
The experts and professors explain clearly and logically, but they themselves do not make much money. They spend their lives teaching in the universities, and if they are good at teaching, they may acquire a good reputation. When they retire, companies may hire them as consultants. They still do not attain great wealth. Since they know so many ways to make money, why can’t they attain great wealth for themselves? It is because what they learn and teach concerns “conditions,” not “causes.”
This is like planting a crop. These experts have the technical knowledge and can analyze the soil, water, climate, air, and fertilizer. The problem is that they do not have seeds. Not even an expert can harvest a crop without planting seeds. If one does not have wealth in one’s destiny, one cannot attain wealth regardless of what good methods or ideas of money making one has. If one has wealth in one’s destiny, one does not need to know any of these methods, for whatever one does, one will attain wealth.
Only the Buddha could explain this fact clearly. Where does wealth come from? From one’s practice of giving of wealth in previous lifetimes. The more one gave in past lifetimes, the more money one will have in this lifetime. If one was unwilling to practice the giving of wealth in past lifetimes, one will not attain great wealth now, no matter what skills one learns. After completing some courses, one will, at most, make money for a company. One will be an employee of that company and will not become its owner.
The giving of teachings will bring the karmic result of wisdom, and the giving of fearlessness will bring the karmic result of health and longevity. When we see that Vakula was foremost in longevity, we know that he had practiced the giving of fearlessness over many lifetimes. This was a good person, greatly compassionate and willing to help all those who encountered difficulties. His karmic result was longevity.
~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra