Maccha-Jātaka3

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Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by W.H.D. Rouse
JATAKA No. 216

MACCHA-JATAKA

"It is not the fire," etc.--This story the Master told during a stay in Jetavana monastery, about one who yearned after a former wife. The Master asked this Brother(Monk), "Is it true, Brother, what I hear, that you are lovesick?" "Yes, Sir." "For whom?" "For my late wife." Then the Master said to him: "This wife, Brother, has been the mischief to you. Long ago by her means you came near being spitted and roasted for food, but wise men saved your life." Then he told a tale of the past.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisattva was his priest. Some fishermen brought out a Fish which had got caught in their net, and throw it upon hot sand, saying, "We will cook it in the embers, and eat." So they sharpened a skewer. And the Fish fell in weeping over his mate, and said these two verses:

"It is not the fire that burns me, nor the skewer that hurts me to pain; But the thought my mate may call me a faithless paramour.

"It is the flame of love that burns me, and fills my heart with pain; Not death is the due of loving; O fishers, free me again!"

At that moment the Bodhisattva approached the river bank; and hearing the Fish's cry, he went up to the fishermen and made them set the Fish at liberty.

This discourse ended, the Master explained the truths and identified the Birth:-at the conclusion of the Truths the lovesick Brother(Monk) reached the Fruit of the First Path(Trance):-"The wife was in those days the fish's mate, the lovesick Brother was the fish, and I myself was the priest."