I am the Resurrection and the Life!

So great was the sorrow of Kisa Gautami, called the Frail One, at the death of her young son that she would not accept the boy’s death. She took to the streets, carrying her dead son on her hips, knocking at each door, and demanding: “Give me medicine for my son.” Knowing that it was her sorrow for her dead son that had driven her out of her mind, a man advised her to go to the monastery where the Buddha lived.

The Buddha smiled serenely at Kisa Gautami’s request of medicine for her son. The Buddha told her to first ask for a mustard seed from each house in which no one has ever died. She went from house to house, but could not find any home which death had not touched. Finally she understood that she was sent on a hopeless mission. She left the city, carried her son to the burning ground, and finally gave him up.