Lābha-Garaha-Jātaka

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Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by W.H.D. Rouse
JATAKA No. 287

LABHA-GARAHA-JATAKA

"He that has madness," etc.--This story the Master told at Jetavana monastery, about a fellow-Elder of the Elder Monk Sariputra. This brother(Monk) came and greeted the Elder Monk, and sitting on one side, he asked him to tell the way in which one could get gain, and how he could get dress and the like. The Elder Monk replied, "Friend, there are four qualities which make a man successful in getting gain. He must get rid of modesty from his heart, must leave his holy order of disciples, must seem to be mad even if he is not; he must speak slander; he must behave like a dancer; he must use unkind words everywhere." Thus he explained how a man gets a great deal. The brother objected to this method, and went away. The Elder Monk went to his Master, and told him about it. The Master said, "This is not the first time that this brother spoke in criticism of gain; he did the same before;" and then, at the request of the Elder Monk, he told an old-world tale.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisattva was born in a Brahmin family. When he grew up to the age of sixteen years, he had already mastered the three Vedas and the eighteen accomplishments; and he became a far-famed teacher, who educated a body of five hundred young men. One young man, a youth of virtuous life, approached his teacher one day with the question, "How is it these people get gain?

The teacher answered, "My son, there four qualities which procure gain for those people;" and he repeated the first stanza:-

"He that has madness, he that slanders well, That has an actor's tricks, ill tales did tell, Such is the man that wins prosperity Where all are fools: let this your maxim be."

The pupil, on hearing his master's words, expressed his disapproval of gain-getting in the two following stanzas:-

"Shame upon him that gain or glory wins By serious destruction and by wicked sins.

"With bowl in hand a homeless life I'll lead Rather than live in wickedness and greed."

Thus did the youth praise the quality of the ascetic life; and straight became a hermit, and craved alms with righteousness, cultivating the Attainments, until he became destined to Brahma's world.

When the Master had ended this discourse he thus identified the Birth:-"At that time the brother(Monk) who disapproved of gain was the young man, but his teacher was I myself."