Once, the Buddha accompanied by some monks entered the town of Sàketa for alms-food. The old bràhmin, seeing the Buddha, went to him and said, “O son, why have you not allowed us to see you all this long time?
Come with me and let your mother also see you.” So saying, he invited the Buddha to his house. On reaching the house, the wife of the bràhmin said the same things to the Buddha and introduced the Buddha as “Your big brother” to her children, and made them pay obeisance to him. From that day, the couple offered alms-food to the Buddha every day, and having heard the religious discourses, both the bràhmin and his wife attained anàgàmi fruition in due course.
The monks were puzzled as to why the bràhmin couple had said the Buddha was their son; so they asked the Buddha. The Buddha then replied, “Monks, they called me son because I was a son or a nephew to each of them for one thousand five hundred existences in the past.” The Buddha continued to stay there, near the bràhmin couple, for three more months and during that time, both the bràhmin and his wife attained arahatship, and then realized parinibbàna. The monks, now knowing that the bràhmin couple had already become arahats, asked the Buddha where they were reborn. To them the Buddha answered: “Those who have become arahats are not reborn anywhere; they have realized Nibbàna.”
Source: Dhammapada (Verse 225)
