Khadiraṅgāra-Jātaka

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Source: Converted from Archaic translation by Robert Chalmers
JATAKA No. 40

KHADIRANGARA-JATAKA

"Far rather will I headlong plunge."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana monastery, about Anatha-pindika.

For Anatha-pindika, who had lavished fifty-four crores(x10 million) on the Faith of the Buddha over the Monastery alone, and who valued nothing else except only the Triratna (Trinity) Three Gems(1.Buddha, 2.Dhamma the nirvanic path and 3.Sangha the holy order ), used to go every day while the Master was at Jetavana monastery to attend the Great Services, once at daybreak, once after breakfast, and once in the evening. There were intermediate services too; but he never went empty-handed, for fear the Novices and lads should look to see what he had brought with him. When he went in the early morning, he used to have rice-porridge taken up; after breakfast, ghee (clarified butter), butter, honey, molasses, and the like; and in the evening, he brought perfumes, garlands and cloths. So much did he expend day after day, that his expense knew no bounds. Moreover, many traders borrowed money from him on their bonds, to the amount of eighteen crores(x10 million); and the great merchant never called the money in. Furthermore, another eighteen crores(x10 million) of the family property, which were buried in the river-bank, were washed out to sea, when the bank was swept away by a storm; and down rolled the brazen pots, with fastenings and seals unbroken, to the bottom of the ocean. In his house, too, there was always rice standing ready for 500 Brethren(Monks), so that the merchant's house was to the Brotherhood(Monks Order) like a pool dug where four roads meet, yes, like mother and father was he to them. Therefore, even the All-Enlightened Buddha used to go to his house, and the Eighty Chief Elder Monks too; and the number of other Brethren passing in and out was beyond measure.

Now his house was seven stories high and had seven portals; and over the fourth gateway lived a fairy who was a wrong believer. When the All-Enlightened Buddha came into the house, she could not stay in her dwelling on high, but came down with her children to the ground-floor; and she had to do the like whenever the Eighty Chief Elder Monks or the other Elder Monks came in and out. Thought she, "So long as the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) and his disciples keep coming into this house I can have no peace here; I can't be eternally coming downstairs to the ground floor. I must plan to stop them from coming any more to this house." So one day, when the business manager had retired to rest, she appeared before him in visible shape.

"Who is that?" said he.

"It is I," was the reply; "the fairy who lives over the fourth gateway." "What brings you here?" "You don't see what the merchant is doing. Mindless of his own future, he is withdrawing his resources, only to enrich the ascetic Gautam(Buddha). He engages in no traffic; he undertakes no business. Advise the merchant to attend to his business, and arrange that the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) with his disciples shall come no more into the house."

Then said he, "Foolish Fairy, if the merchant does spend his money, he spends it on the Faith of the Buddha, which leads to salvation (nirvana). Even it he were to seize me by the hair and sell me for a slave, I will say nothing. Go away!"

Another day, she went to the merchant's eldest son and gave him the same advice. And he flouted her in just the same manner. But to the merchant himself she did not so much as dare to speak on the matter.

Now by force of unending charity and of doing no business, the merchant's incomings diminished and his estate grew less and less; so that he sank by degrees into poverty, and his table, his dress, and his bed and food were no longer what they had office been. Yet, in spite of his altered circumstances, be continued to entertain the Brotherhood(Monks Order), though he was no longer able to feast them. So one day when he had made his bow and taken his seat, the Master said to him, "Householder, are gifts being given at your house?" "Yes, sir," said he; "but there's only a little sour husk-porridge, left over from yesterday." "Be not distressed, householder, at the thought that you can only offer what is unpalatable. If the heart be good, the food given to Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas (*1), and their disciples, cannot but be good too. And why?--Because of the greatness of the fruit of that. For he who can make his heart acceptable cannot give an unacceptable gift, as is to be testified by the following passage:-

For, if the heart have faith, no gift is small To Buddhas or to their disciples true. It is said no service can be thought small That's paid to Buddhas, lords of great renown. Notice well what fruit rewarded that poor gift Of soup, dried-up, sour, and lacking salt (*2)."

Also, he said this further thing, "Householder, in giving this unpalatable gift, you are giving it to those who have entered on the Noble Eightfold Path(the path of Buddha based on meditation/Zen and leading to Nirvana/Salvation). Whereas I, when in Velama's time I stirred up all India by giving the seven things of price, and in my largesse poured then on as though I had made into one mighty stream the five great rivers, I yet found none who had reached the Three Refuges or kept the Five Commandments; for rare are those who are worthy of offerings. Therefore, let not your heart be troubled by the thought that your gift is unpalatable." And so saying, he repeated the Velamaka Sutta.

Now that fairy who had not dared to speak to the merchant in the days of his magnificence, thought that now he was poor he would listen to her, and so, entering his chamber at dead of night she appeared before him in visible shape, standing in mid-air. "Who's that?" said the merchant, when he became aware of her presence. "I am the fairy, great merchant, who dwells over the fourth gateway." "What brings you here?" "To give you advice." "Proceed, then." "Great merchant, you take no thought for your own future or for your own children. You have expended vast sums on the Faith of the ascetic Gautam(Buddha); in fact, by long-continued expenditure and by not undertaking new business you have been brought by the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) to poverty. But even in your poverty you do not shake off the ascetic Gautam(Buddha)! The ascetics are in and out of your house this very day just the same! What they have had of you cannot be recovered. That may be taken for certain. But from now on don't you go yourself to the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) and don't let his disciples set foot inside your house. Do not even turn to look at the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) but attend to your trade and traffic in order to restore the family estate."

Then he said to her, "Was this the advice you wanted to give me?"

"Yes, it was."

Said the merchant, "The mighty Lord of Wisdom has made me proof against a hundred, a thousand, yes against a hundred thousand fairies such as you are! My faith is strong and devoted as Mount Sineru! My substance has been expended on the Faith that leads to salvation (nirvana). Wicked are your words; it is a blow aimed at the Faith of the Buddhas by you, you wicked and impudent witch. I cannot live under the same roof with you; be off at once from my house and seek shelter elsewhere!" Hearing these words of that converted man and elect disciple, she could not stay, but went to her living, took her children by the hand and went on. But though she went, she was minded, if she could not find herself a lodging elsewhere, to appease the merchant and return to dwell in his house; and in this mind she went to the guardian deity of the city and with due salutation stood before him. Being asked what had brought her there, she said, "My lord, I have been speaking unwisely to Anatha-pindika, and he in his anger has turned me out of my home. Take me to him and make it up between us, so that he may let me live there again." "But what was it you said to the merchant?" "I told him for the future not to support the Buddha and the Order, and not to let the ascetic Gautam(Buddha) set foot again in his house. This is what I said, my lord." "Wicked were your words; it was a blow aimed at the Faith. I cannot take you with me to the merchant." Meeting with no support from him, she went to the Four Great Regents of the world. And being repulsed by them in the same manner, she went on to Sakka(Indra), king of Devas(Angels), and told him her story, beseeching him still more earnestly, as follows, "Deva(Angel), finding no shelter, I wander about homeless, leading my children by the hand. Grant me of your majesty some place in which to dwell."

And he too said to her, "You have done wickedly; it was a blow aimed at the Conqueror's Faith. I cannot speak to the merchant on your behalf. But I can tell you one way by which the merchant may be led to pardon you." "I request, tell me, deva." "Men have had eighteen crores(x10 million) of the merchant on bonds. Take the resemblance of his agent, and without telling anybody go to their houses with the bonds, in the company of some young goblins. Stand in the middle of their houses with the bond in one hand and a receipt in the other, and terrify them with your goblin power, saying, 'Here's your acknowledgment of the debt. Our merchant did not move in the matter while he was affluent; but now he is poor, and you must pay up the money you owe.' By your goblin power obtain all those eighteen crores(x10 million) of gold and fill the merchant's empty treasuries. He had another treasure buried in the banks of the river Aciravati, but when the bank was washed away, the treasure was swept into the sea. Get that back also by your supernatural power and store it in his treasuries. Further, there is another sum of eighteen crores(x10 million) lying unowned in such and such a place. Bring that too and pour the money into his empty treasuries. When you have atoned by the recovery of these fifty-four crores(x10 million), ask the merchant to forgive you." "Very good, deva," said she. And she set to work obediently, and did just as she had been asked. When she had recovered all the money, she went into the merchant's chamber at dead of night and appeared before him in visible shape standing in the air.

The merchant asking who was there, she replied, "It is I, great merchant, the blind and foolish fairy who lived over your fourth gateway. In the greatness of my infatuate wrongdoing I knew not the virtues of a Buddha, and so came to say what I said to you some days ago. Pardon me my fault! At the instance of Sakka(Indra), king of Devas(Angels), I have made atonement by recovering the eighteen crores(x10 million) owing to you, the eighteen crores(x10 million) which had been washed down into the sea, and another eighteen crores(x10 million) which were lying unowned in such and such a place, making fifty-four crores(x10 million) in all, which I have poured into your empty treasure-chambers. The sum you expended on the Monastery at Jetavana is now made up again. while I have nowhere to dwell, I am in misery. Bear not in mind what I did in my ignorant wrongdoing, great merchant, but pardon me."

Anatha-pindika, hearing what she said, thought to himself, "She is a fairy, and she says she has atoned, and confesses her fault. The Master shall consider this and make his virtues. known to her. I will take her before the All-Enlightened Buddha." So he said, "My good fairy, if you want me to pardon you, ask me in the presence of the master." "Very good," said she, "I will. Take me along with you to the Master." "Certainly," said he. And early in the morning, when night was just passing away, he took her with him to the Master, and told the Lord Buddha all that she had done.

Hearing this, the Master said, "You see, householder, how the sinful man regards sin as excellent before it ripens to its fruit. But when it has ripened, then he sees sin to be sin. also the good man looks on his goodness as sin before it ripens to its fruit; but when it ripens, he sees it to be goodness." And so saying, he repeated these two stanzas from the Dhammapada:-

The sinner thinks his sinful deed is good, So long as sin has ripened not to fruit. But when his sin at last to ripeness grows, The sinner surely sees "it was sin I brought."


 * _______________

The good man thinks his goodness is but sin, So long as it has ripened not to fruit. But when his goodness unto ripeness grows, The good man surely sees "it was good I brought (*3)."

At the close of these stanzas that fairy was established in the Fruit of the First Path(Trance). She fell at the Wheel-marked feet of the Master, crying, "Stained as I was with passion, depraved by sin, misled by delusion, and blinded by ignorance, I spoke wickedly because I knew not your virtues. Pardon me!" Then she received pardon from the Master and from the great merchant.

At this time Anatha-pindika sang his own praises in the Master's presence, saying, "Sir, though this fairy did her best to stop me from giving support to the Buddha and his following, she could not succeed; and though she tried to stop me from giving gifts, yet I gave them still! Was not this goodness on my part?"

Said the Master, "You, householder, are a converted man and an elect disciple; your faith is firm and your vision is purified. No marvel then that you were not stopped by this impotent fairy. The marvel was that the wise and good of a past day, when a Buddha had not appeared, and when knowledge had not ripened to its full fruit, should from the heart of a lotus-flower have given gifts, although Mara, lord of the Realm of Lusts, appeared in mid-heaven, shouting, 'If you give gifts, you shall be roasted in this hell,'--and showing them with that a pit eighty arm lengths deep, filled with red-hot embers." And so saying, at the request of Anatha-pindika, he told this story of the past.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisattva came to life in the family of the Lord High Treasurer of Benares, and was brought up in the. lap of all luxury like a royal prince. By the time he was come to years of discretion, being barely sixteen years old, he had made himself perfect in all accomplishments. At his father's death he took over the office of Lord High Treasurer, and built six alms giving places, one at each of the four gates of the city, one in the centre of the city, and one at the gate of his own mansion. Very generous was he, and he kept the commandments, and observed the fast-day duties.

Now one day at breakfast-time when elegant treats of exquisite taste and variety was being brought in for the Bodhisattva, a Pacceka Buddha rising from a seven days' trance of mystic ecstacy (trance), and noticing that it was time to go his rounds, came to think that it would he well to visit the Treasurer of Benares that morning. So he cleaned his teeth with a tooth-stick made from the betel-vine, washed his mouth with water from Lake Anotatta, put on his under-cloth as he stood on the tableland of Manosila, fastened on his waist belt, wore his outer-cloth; and, equipped with a bowl which he called into being for the purpose, he passed through the air and arrived at the gate of the mansion just as the Bodhisattva's breakfast was taken in.

As soon as the Bodhisattva became aware of his presence there, he rose at once from his seat and looked at the attendant, indicating that a service was required. "What am I to do, my lord?" "Bring his reverence's bowl," said the Bodhisattva.

At that very instant Mara the Wicked rose up in a state of great excitement, saying, "It is seven days since the Pacceka Buddha had food given him; if he gets none to-day, he will perish. I will destroy him and stop the Treasurer too from giving." And that very instant he went and called into being within the mansion a pit of red-hot embers, eighty arm lengths deep, filled with acacia (Babool)-charcoal, all on fire and in flames like the great hell of Avici. When he had created this pit, Mara himself took his stand in mid-air.

When the man who was on his way to fetch the bowl became aware of this, he was terrified and started back. "What makes you start back, my man?" asked the Bodhisattva. "My lord," was the answer, "there's a great pit of red-hot embers blazing and flaming in the middle of the house." And as man after man got to the spot, they all were panic-stricken, and ran away as fast as their legs would carry them.

Thought the Bodhisattva to himself, "Mara, the captivator, must have been exerting himself to-day to stop me from alms-giving. I have yet to learn, however, that I am to be shaken by a hundred, or by a thousand, Maras. We will see this day whose strength is the stronger, whose might is the mightier, mine or Mara's." So taking in his own hand the bowl which stood ready, he passed out from the house, and, standing on the brink of the fiery pit, looked up to the heavens. Seeing Mara, he said, "Who are you?" "I am Mara," was the answer.

"Did you call into being this pit of red-hot embers?" "Yes, I did." "Why?" "To stop you from alms-giving and to destroy the life of that Pacceka Buddha." "I will not permit you either to stop me from my alms-giving or to destroy the life of the Pacceka Buddha. I am going to see to-day whether your strength or mine is the greater." And still standing on the brink of that fiery pit, he cried, "Reverend Pacceka Buddha, even though I be in act to fall headlong into this pit of red-hot embers, I will not turn back. Only grant to take the food I bring." And so saying he repeated this stanza:-

Far rather will I headlong plunge hastily Full in this gulf of hell, than stoop to shame! grant, sir, at my hands to take this alms!

With these words the Bodhisattva, grasping the bowl of food, strode on with undaunted resolution right on to the surface of the pit of fire. But even as he did so, there rose up to the surface through all the eighty arm lengths of the pit's depth a large and exceptional lotus-flower, which received the feet of the Bodhisattva! And from it there came a measure of pollen which fell on the head of the Great Being, so that his whole body was as it were sprinkled from head to foot with dust of gold! Standing right in the heart of the lotus, he poured the elegant food into the bowl of the Pacceka Buddha.

And when the latter had taken the food and returned thanks, he throw his bowl high up into the heavens, and right in the sight of all the people he himself rose bodily into the air also, and passed away to the Himalayas again, seeming to walk a track formed of clouds fantastically shaped.

And Mara, too, defeated and dejected, passed away back to his own dwelling.

But the Bodhisattva, still standing in the lotus, preached the Truth to the people, praising alms-giving and the commandments; after which, encircled round by the escorting people, he passed into his own mansion once more. And all his life long he explained charity and did other good works, till in the end he passed away to fare according to his deeds.

Said the Master, "It was no marvel, layman, that you, with your discernment of the truth, were not overcome now by the fairy; the real marvel was what the wise and good did in past days." His lesson ended, the Master explained the relation, and identified the Birth by saying, "The Pacceka Buddha of those days passed away, never to be born again. I was myself the Treasurer of Benares who, defeating Mara, and standing in the heart of the lotus, placed alms in the bowl of the Pacceka Buddha."

Footnotes:

(1)All Buddhas have attained to complete illumination; but a Pacceka Buddha keeps his knowledge to himself and, unlike a 'Perfect Buddha,' does not preach the exceptional truth to his fellowmen.

(2)The first two lines are from the Vimana-vatthu of Tipitaka.

(3)The verses are Nos. 119 and 120 in the Dhammapada.