Maudgalyāyana: 'I Have Superpowers, But I Couldn't Save My Mother'

If you had superpowers, what would you most want to do?

Some might want to fly; others might want to become invisible. But for many, the first thought is protect the people they love.

This is probably humanity's most primal wish. If only I were strong enough, my family wouldn't suffer. With enough power, I could rescue them from any difficulty.

Maudgalyāyana, one of the Buddha's Ten Great Disciples, was exactly such a person who "had superpowers." His supernatural abilities were first among the Buddha's disciples. He could travel between heaven and earth, transcend the six realms of rebirth, like an ancient Indian version of Superman.

But his story delivers the cruelest lesson:

Two Boys' Promise: Finding the Way Out Together

Maudgalyāyana's original name was Kolita. He was born into a wealthy Brahmin family. From childhood, he became inseparable best friends with a brilliant boy from the neighboring village, Upatissa.

Upatissa would later become Śāriputra.

These two young men who thought on the same wavelength once watched a grand festival dance. On stage, people sang and danced; in the audience, crowds cheered. But both fell into contemplation at the same time.

Kolita said: "Have you ever thought about this? All these laughing people will be dead in a hundred years. The performers on stage, the audience below, not one will escape."

Upatissa replied: "I was just thinking the same thing. So many people are having such a good time, yet they seem completely unaware that they'll die someday."

In that moment, the two boys made a promise: Let's find life's exit together. Whoever finds it first tells the other.

They first studied under the most famous skeptic philosopher of the time, learning some theories but never resolving their inner questions. Only when Upatissa met the Buddha's disciple Assaji on the street and heard that "All phenomena arise from causes, all phenomena cease from causes" did he finally find direction.

He kept his promise and immediately told Kolita.

Together with their own disciples, 250 people in all, they went to see the Buddha. Kolita was thereafter called Maudgalyāyana.

This boyhood friendship lasted their entire lives. One became Foremost in Wisdom, the other Foremost in Supernatural Powers, serving as the Buddha's left and right arms.

The Awakening of Powers: Not for Display, But as Tools

After ordination, Maudgalyāyana practiced diligently and quickly developed powerful supernatural abilities.

These included: the ability to fly and disappear (divine foot), seeing what ordinary eyes cannot (divine eye), hearing distant sounds (divine ear), reading others' minds (knowledge of others' minds), seeing past lives (knowledge of past lives), and having destroyed all afflictions (knowledge of exhaustion of defilements).

In modern terms, he was basically cheating.

But Maudgalyāyana never used these abilities for showing off or personal gain. He used his powers as tools to guide sentient beings. He subdued evil forces that troubled the Sangha, used divine eye to observe beings' suffering, and used divine foot to travel to distant lands to spread the Dharma.

Once, a group of heretics plotted against the Buddha. Maudgalyāyana detected it with his powers in advance and averted the crisis. Another time, when the Sangha encountered a dangerous poisonous dragon, Maudgalyāyana subdued it with his supernatural abilities.

He was putting them to practical use, not performing.

This is perhaps the best understanding of "ability": Ability itself is neutral. What matters is how you use it.

The Heartbreaking Failure: The Mother He Couldn't Save

But the most famous story from Maudgalyāyana's life isn't about saving someone with supernatural powers. It's about his failure.

After his divine eye opened, what he most urgently wanted to find was his deceased mother. He wanted to see how she was doing now.

What he saw shattered his heart:

His mother had been reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts, nothing but skin and bones, her throat as thin as a needle's eye, unable to swallow food. Every day she suffered from hunger and thirst, in tremendous agony.

Maudgalyāyana felt like a knife was cutting through his heart. He immediately used his divine foot to fly to the hungry ghost realm, bringing food to his mother.

But something inexplicable happened.

The moment the food reached his mother's lips, it transformed into raging flames. Not only couldn't she eat it, but she was burned by the fire.

Maudgalyāyana was stunned. With the strongest supernatural powers among the Buddha's disciples, he couldn't even give his mother a single bite of food. In that moment, all his abilities became meaningless.

He returned to the Buddha and asked in anguish: "Why? Why can't my supernatural powers save her?"

The Buddha explained that his mother had been stingy and greedy during her life, and had even deceived practitioners. These actions formed heavy karma that external force could not interfere with. Karma is created by each person and must be borne by each person.

No matter how powerful Maudgalyāyana's supernatural abilities were, he couldn't "clear karma" on his mother's behalf. Just as you cannot eat or breathe for someone else.

The Origin of Ullambana: Love Needs the Right Method

So, was his mother doomed with no hope of salvation?

The Buddha showed him a way: borrow the power of the Sangha.

Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the Sangha's summer retreat ends, many monks who have practiced purely for three months gather together. The merit of their three months of meditation condenses into enormous positive karmic force. If on this day you offer food and drink to these monks and dedicate the merit to the deceased, it can potentially lighten their karmic obstacles.

Maudgalyāyana did exactly that.

After that day, his mother finally escaped the hungry ghost realm.

This story became the origin of the Buddhist "Ullambana Festival", the Chinese "Ghost Festival." This practice teaches us: the best way to repay deceased relatives isn't burning incense and paper money, but through practice, offerings to the Sangha, and merit dedication to truly help them toward liberation.

Maudgalyāyana's story teaches us a harsh but necessary truth: Love isn't enough with just passion. You also need the right method. Some problems cannot be solved by "trying harder." They need a different approach.

The Final Acceptance: Supernatural Powers Cannot Overcome Karma

Maudgalyāyana's story has one more heartbreaking ending.

In his later years, he was stoned to death by a group of naked ascetics.

This sounds unbelievable. How could the person with the greatest supernatural powers be killed by ordinary people's stones? Couldn't he fly away?

The scriptures explain: This was his karma from past lives. In a previous existence, he had harmed life, and that karma ripened at this time, needing to reach its conclusion. Even though he had the ability to escape, he chose to accept it.

This wasn't weakness. It was complete submission to the law of cause and effect.

Through his death, he demonstrated to future generations the deepest truth: Supernatural powers, in the end, cannot overcome karma.

No one is exempt from cause and effect; no one can use "ability" to escape the causes they've planted. Evasion is not an option; only by facing things calmly can karma reach its end.

Maudgalyāyana's final peace was greater than all his supernatural powers.

Our Homework: The Limits of Ability

Maudgalyāyana's story gives those of us who want to "protect everyone" a necessary wake-up call:

Parents cannot walk through adolescent confusion for their children; children cannot face the fear of aging for their parents; partners cannot make life choices for each other. Each person's path must ultimately be walked alone.

This isn't coldness. It's respect.

If Maudgalyāyana's story teaches us anything, it's this:

Love isn't about becoming omnipotent; it's about learning to accept your own limits.