Mittavinda-Jātaka3

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Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil
JATAKA No. 369

MITTAVINDA-JATAKA(*1)

"What was the evil," etc.--This story the Master while living at Jetavana monastery told concerning an unruly Brother(Monk). The incident that led to the story will be found in the Mahamittavinda Birth.

Now this Mittavindaka, when thrown into the sea, showed himself very greedy, and going on to still greater excess came to the place of torment inhabited by beings doomed to hell. And he made his way into the Ussada hell, taking it to be a city, and there he got a wheel as sharp as a razor fixed upon his head. Then the Bodhisattva in the shape of a god(angel) went on a mission to Ussada. On seeing him, Mittavindaka repeated the first stanza in the form of a question:-

What was the evil brought by me, Thus to provoke the curse of heaven, That my poor head should ever be    With circling wheel of torture split?

The Bodhisattva, on hearing this, uttered the second stanza:

Forsaking homes of joy and bliss, That decorated with pearls, with crystal this, And halls of gold and silver sheen, What brought you to this gloomy scene?

Then Mittavindaka replied in a third stanza:

"Far fuller joys I there shall gain    Than any these poor worlds can show." This was the thought that proved my weakness And brought me to this scene of suffering.

The Bodhisattva then repeated the remaining stanzas:

From four to eight, to sixteen from there, and so To thirty-two insatiate greed did grow. Thus on and on you, greedy soul, were led Till doomed to wear this wheel uponyour head. So all, pursuing greedy desire, Insatiate still, yet more and more require: The broadening path of appetite they walk, And, like you, bear this wheel upon their head.

But while Mittavindaka was still speaking, the wheel fell upon him and crushed him, so that he could say no more. But the divine being returned straight to his celestial dwelling.

The Master, his lesson ended, identified the Birth: "At that time the unruly Brother(Monk) was Mittavindaka, and I myself was the divine being."

Footnotes:

(1)See Nos. 41, 82 and 104