Juṇha-Jātaka

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Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by W.H.D. Rouse
JATAKA No. 456

JUNHA-JATAKA

"O king of men," etc. This story the Master told while living at Jetavana monastery about the boons received by Elder Monk Ananda. During the twenty years of his first Buddhahood the Lord Buddha's attendants were not always the same: sometimes Elder Monk Nagasamala, sometimes Nagita, Upavana, Sunakkhatta, Cunda, Sagala, sometimes Meghiya waited upon the Lord Buddha. One day the Lord Buddha said to the Brethren(Monks): "Now I am old, Brethren(Monks): and when I say, Let us go in this way, some of the Brotherhood(Monks) go by another way, some drop my bowl and robe on the ground. Choose out one Brother to attend always upon me." Then they rose up all, beginning with Elder Monk Sariputra, and laid their joined hands to their heads, crying, "I will serve you, Sir, I will serve you!" But he refused them, saying, "Your prayer is forestalled! enough." Then the Brethren said to the Elder Monk Ananda, "Do you, friend, ask for the post of attendant." The Elder Monk said, "If the Lord Buddha will not give me the robe which he himself has received, if he will not give me his alms of food, if he will not grant me to dwell in the same fragrant cell, if he will not have me with him to go where he is invited: but if the Lord Buddha will go with me where I am invited, if I shall be granted to introduce the company at the moment of coming, which comes from foreign parts and foreign countries to see the Lord Buddha, if I shall be granted to approach the Lord Buddha as soon as doubt shall arise, if whenever the Lord Buddha shall discourse in my absence he will repeat his discourse to me as soon as I shall return: then I will attend upon the Lord Buddha." These eight boons he craved, four negative and four positive. And the Lord Buddha granted them to him.

After that he attended continually upon his Master for five and twenty years. So having obtained the preeminence in the five points, and having gained seven blessings, blessing of teaching, blessing of instruction, blessing of the knowledge of causes, blessing of inquiry as to one's good, blessing of living in a holy place, blessing of enlightened devotion, blessing of potential Buddhahood, in the presence of the Buddha he received the heritage of eight boons, and became famous in the Buddha's dhamma(path of righteousness to salvation), and shone as the moon in the heavens.

One day they began to talk about it in the Hall of Truth: "Friend, the Tathagata(Buddha) has satisfied Elder Monk Ananda by granting his boons." The Master entered, and asked, "What are you speaking of, Brethren, as you sit here?" They told him. Then he said, "It is not now the first time, Brethren, but in former days as now I satisfied Ananda with a boon; in former days, as now, whatsoever he asked, I gave him." And so saying, he told a story of the past.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, a son of his named Prince Junha, or the Moonlight Prince, was studying at Taxila. One night, after he had been listening carefully to his teacher's instruction, he left the house of his teacher in the dark, and set out for home. A certain brahmin had been seeking alms, and was going home, and the prince not perceiving him ran up against the brahmin, and broke his alms bowl with a blow of his arm. The brahmin fell, with a cry. In compassion the prince turned round, and taking hold of the man's hands raised him to his feet. The brahmin said, "Now, my son, you have broken my alms-bowl, so give me the price of a meal." Said the Prince, "I cannot now give you the price of a meal, brahmin; but I am Prince Junha, son of the king of Kasi, and when I come to my kingdom, you may come to me and ask for the money."

When his education was finished, he took leave of his teacher, and returning to Benares, showed his father what he had learnt.

"I have seen my son before my death," said the king, "and I will see him king indeed." Then he crowned him and made him king. Under the name of King Junha the prince ruled in righteousness. When the brahmin heard of it, he thought now he would recover the price of his meal. So to Benares he came, and saw the city all decorated, and the king moving in procession right-wise around it. Taking his stand upon a high place, the brahmin stretched out his hand, and cried, "Victory to the king!" The king passed by without looking at him. When the brahmin found that he was not noticed, he asked an explanation by repeating the first stanza:

"O king of men, hear what I have to say! Not without cause have I come here this day.    It is said, O best of men, one should not pass A wandering brahmin standing in the way."

On hearing these words the king turned back the elephant with his jewelled prod, and repeated the second stanza:

"I heard, I stand: come brahmin, quickly say, What cause it is has brought you here to-day?    What boon is it that you would crave of me That you are come to see me? speak, I ask!"

What further king and brahmin said to each other by way of question and answer, is told in the remaining stanzas:

"Give me five villages, all choice and fine, A hundred slave-girls, seven hundred cows,    More than a thousand ornaments of gold, And two wives give me, of like birth with mine."

"Have you a penance, brahmin, dread to tell, Or have you many a charm and many a spell,    Or goblins, ready your behests to do, Or any claim for having served me well?"

"No penance have I, nor no charm and spell, No demons ready to obey me well,    Nor any wage for service can I claim; But we have met before, the truth to tell."

"I cannot call to mind, in time past over, That I have ever seenyour face before.    Tell me, I beg you, tell this thing to me, When have we met, or where, in days of past?"

"In the fair city of Gandhara's king, Taxila, my lord, was our living.    There in the pitchy darkness of the night Shoulder to shoulder you and I did throw.

"And as we both were standing there, O prince, A friendly talk between us straight begins.    Then we together met, and only then, Nor ever once before, nor ever since."

"Whenever, brahmin, a wise man has met A good man in the world, he should not let    Friendship once made or old acquaintance go For nothing, nor the thing once done forget.

"It is fools deny the thing once done, and let Old friendships fail of those they once have met.    Many a deed of fools to nothing comes, They are ungrateful, and they can forget.

"But trusty men cannot forget the past, Their friendship and acquaintance ever fast.     A low one done by such is not disowned: Thus trusty men are grateful to the last.

"Five villages I give you, choice and fine, A hundred slave-girls, and seven hundred cows,    More than a thousand ornaments of gold, And more, two wives of equal birth with yours."

"O king, thus is it when the good agree: As the full moon among the stars we see,    Even so, O Lord of Kasi, so am I, Now you have kept the bargain made with me."

The Bodhisattva added great honour to him.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, "This is not the first time, Brethren(Monks), that I have satisfied Ananda with boons, but I have done it before." With these words, he identified the Birth: "At that time Ananda was the brahmin, and I was myself the king."