Maṁgala-Jātaka

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Source: Converted from Archaic translation by Robert Chalmers
JATAKA No. 87

MAMGALA-JATAKA

"Whosoever renounces."--This story was told by the Master while at the Bamboo-grove about a brahmin who was skilled in the art of predictions which can be drawn from pieces of cloth. Tradition says that at Rajgraha city lived a brahmin who was superstitious and held false views, not believing in the Triratna (Trinity) Three Gems(1.Buddha, 2.Dhamma the nirvanic path and 3.Sangha the holy order ). This brahmin was very rich and wealthy, exceeding in substance; and a female mouse gnawed a suit of clothes of his, which was lying by in a chest. One day after bathing himself all over, he called for this suit, and then was told of the mischief which the mouse had done. "If these clothes stop in the house," thought he to himself, "they'll bring ill-luck; such an ill-omened thing is sure to bring a curse. It is out of the question to give them to any of my children or servants; for whosoever has them will bring misfortune on all around him. I must have them thrown away in a burial-ground (*1); but how? I cannot hand them to servants; for they might yearn to possess and keep them, to the ruin of my house. My son must take them." So he called his son, and telling him the whole matter asked him to take his charge on a stick, without touching the clothes with his hand, and throw them away in a burial-ground. Then the son was to bathe himself all over and return. Now that morning at dawn of day the Master looking round to see what persons could be led to the truth, became aware that the father and son were predestined to attain salvation (nirvana). So he took himself in the guise of a hunter on his way to hunt, to the burial-ground, and sat down at the entrance, emitting the six-coloured rays that is the sign of a Buddha. Soon there came to the spot the young brahmin, carefully carrying the clothes as his father had asked him, on the end of his stick, just as though he had a house-snake to carry.

"What are you doing, young brahmin?" asked the Master.

"My good Gautam(Buddha) (*2)," was the reply, "this suit of clothes, having been gnawed by mice, is like ill-luck personified, and as deadly as though steeped in venom; For which reason my father, fearing that a servant might yearn to possess and retain the clothes, has sent me with them. I promised that I would throw them away and bathe afterwards; and that's the job that has brought me here." "Throw the suit away, then," said the Master; and the young brahmin did so. "They will just suit me," said the Master, as he picked up the fate-fraught clothes before the young man's very eyes, regardless of the latter's earnest warnings and repeated requests to him not to take them; and he departed in the direction of the Bamboo-grove.

Home in all haste ran the young brahmin, to tell his father how the Sage Gautam(Buddha) had said that the clothes would just suit him, and had persisted, in spite of all warnings to the contrary, in taking the suit away with him to the Bamboo-grove. "Those clothes," thought the brahmin to himself, "are bewitched and cursed. Even the sage Gautam(Buddha) cannot wear them without destruction falling on him; and that would bring me into disrepute. I will give the Sage abundance of other garments and get him to throw that suit away." So with a large number of robes he started in company of his son for the Bamboo-grove. When he came upon the Master he stood respectfully on one side and spoke thus, "Is it indeed true, as I hear, that you, my good Gautam(Buddha), picked up a suit of clothes in the burial-ground?" "Quite true, brahmin." "My good Gautam(Buddha), that suit is cursed; if you make use of them, they will destroy you. If you stand in need of clothes, take these and throw away that suit." "Brahmin," replied the Master, "Openly I have renounced the world, and am content with the rags that lie by the roadside or bathing-places, or are thrown away on dustheaps or in burial-grounds. Whereas you have held your superstitions in past days, as well as at the present time." So saying, at the brahmin's request, he told this story of the past.

Once upon a time there reigned in the city of Rajgraha city, in the kingdom of Magadha, a righteous King of Magadha. In those days the Bodhisattva came to life again as a brahmin of the North-west. Growing up, he renounced the world for the hermit's life, won the Knowledges and the Attainments, and went to dwell in the Himalayas. On one occasion, returning from the Himalayas, and taking up his dwelling in the King's garden, he went on the second day into the city to collect alms. Seeing him, the King had him summoned into the palace and there provided with a seat and with food, taking a promise from him that he would take up his dwelling in the garden. So the Bodhisattva used to receive his food at the palace and dwell in the grounds.

Now in those days there lived in that city a brahmin known as Cloth-omens. And he had in a chest a suit of clothes which were gnawed by mice, and everything came to pass just as in the previously mentioned story. But when the son was on his way to the burial-ground the Bodhisattva got there first and took his seat at the gate; and, picking up the suit which the young brahmin throw away, he returned to the garden. When the son told this to the old brahmin, the latter exclaimed, "It will be the death of the King's ascetic"; and pleaded the Bodhisattva to throw that suit away, else he should perish. But the ascetic replied, "Good enough for us are the rags that are throw away in burial-grounds. We have no belief in superstitions about luck, which are not approved by Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas; and therefore no wise man should be a believer in luck." Hearing the truth thus explained, the brahmin gave up his errors and took refuge in the Bodhisattva. And the Bodhisattva, preserving his Insight unbroken, earned re-birth thereafter in the Brahma Realm(Upper Heaven).

Having told this story, the Master, as Buddha, taught the Truth to the brahmin in this stanza:-

Whose renounces omens, dreams and signs, That man, from superstition's errors freed, Shall triumph over the paired Depravities And over Attachments to the end of time.

When the Master had thus preached his teaching to the brahmin in the form of this stanza, he proceeded further to preach the Four Truths, at the close of which that brahmin, with his son, attained to the First Path(Trance). The Master identified the Birth by saying, "The father and son of to-day were also the father and son of those days, and I myself the ascetic."

Footnotes:

(1)An open space or grove in which corpses were exposed for wild-beasts to eat, in order that the earth might not be defiled.

(2)In Pali bho Gautam(Buddha), a form of familiar address. Brahmins are always represented as presuming to say bho to the Buddha.