Matthakundali Vatthu: On that morning, the Buddha arising early from his deep meditation of compassion saw, in his Net of Knowledge, Matthakundali lying on the verandah. So when entering Savatthi for alms-food with his disciples, the Buddha stood near the door of the brahmin Adinnapubbaka. The Buddha sent forth a ray of light to attract the attention of the youth, who was facing the interior of the house. The youth saw the Buddha ,and as he was very weak he could only profess his faith mentally. But that was enough. When he passed away with his heart in devotion to the Buddha he was reborn in the Tavatimsa celestial world.From his celestial abode the young Matthakundali, seeing his father mourning over him at the cemetery, appeared to the old man in the likeness of his old self. He told his father about his rebirth in the Tavatimsa world and also urged him to approach and invite the Buddha to a meal. At the house of Adinnapubbaka the question of whether one could or could not be reborn in a celestial world simply by mentally professing profound faith in the Buddha, without giving in charity or observing the moral precepts, was brought up. So the Buddha willed that Matthakundali should appear in person; Matthakundali soon appeared fully decked with celestial ornaments and told them about his rebirth in the Tavatimsa world.Then only, the audience became convinced that the son of the brahmin Adinnapubbaka by simply devoting his mind to the Buddha had attained much glory.Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Manopubbangama dhamma
manosettha manomaya
manasa ce pasannena
bhasati va karoti va
tato nam sukha manveti
chayava anapayini.
Verse 2: All mental phenomena have the mind as their forerunner; they have the mind as their chief; they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness (sukha) follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.
At the end of the discourse, Matthakundali and his father, Adinnapubbaka, attained Sotapatti Magga and Sotapatti Phala.
As I was reading this story, I wondered whether Matthakundali still had kammic energy to continue with human bhava, considering he was young at the time of his death. However, the story goes on to say that when he paid homage to Lord Buddha at the time of his death, he grasped another bhava at the cuti-patisandhi and became a deva. I’m not sure if this is considered a good anantariya kamma in this particular case, as he didn’t perform many positive actions during his lifetime. He was not a Sotāpanna, before his life as a deva.