Gāmani-Jātaka

JATAKA No. 8    

GAMANI-JATAKA    Converted from Archaic translation by Robert Chalmers

"Their heart's desire."

--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana monastery about a Brother(Monk) who gave up persisting in path. In this Jataka both the Introductory Story and the Story of the Past will be given in the Eleventh Book in relation with the Samvara-jataka (*1);--the incidents are the same both for that Jataka and for this, but the stanzas are different. 

Abiding firm in the advices of the Bodhisattva, Prince Gamani, finding himself--though the youngest of a hundred brothers--surrounded by those hundred brothers as a group of attendants and seated beneath the white canopy of kingship, looked at his glory and thought--"All this glory I owe to my teacher." And, in his joy, he burst into this heartfelt utterance:- 

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Their heart's desire they reap, who hurry not;

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Know, Gamani, ripe excellence is yours. <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Seven or eight days after he had become king, all his brothers departed to their own homes. King Gamani, after ruling his kingdom in righteousness, passed away to fare according to his deeds. The Bodhisattva also passed away to fare according to his deeds. <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close of which the faint-hearted Brother(Monk) won Arhatship(Enlightenment equal to Buddha). Having told the two stories, the Master explained the relation linking them both together and identified the Birth. <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Footnotes: <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">

<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:0pt;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">(1)no. 462.