Bherivāda-Jātaka

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Source: Converted from Archaic translation by Robert Chalmers
JATAKA No. 59

BHERIVADA-JATAKA

"Go not too far."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana monastery, about a certain self-willed Brother(Monk). Asked by the Master whether the report was true that he was self-willed, the Brother said it was true. "This is net the first time, Brother," said the Master, "that you have shown yourself self-willed; you were just the same in past times as well." And so saying, he told this story of the past.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisattva came to life as a drummer, and lived in a village. Hearing that there was to be a festival at Benares, and hoping to make money by playing his drum to the crowds of holiday-makers, he made his way to the city, with his son. And there he played, and made a great deal of money. On his way home with his earnings he had to pass through a forest which was infested by robbers; and as the boy kept beating away at the drum without ever stopping, the Bodhisattva tried to stop him by saying, "Don't behave like that, beat only now and again, as if some great lord were passing by."

But in defiance of his father's asking, the boy thought the best way to frighten the robbers away was to keep steadily on beating away at the drum.

&t the first notes of the drum, away ran the robbers, thinking some great lord was passing by. But hearing the noise keep on, they saw their mistake and came back to find out who it really was. Finding only two persons, they beat and robbed them. "Alas!" cried the Bodhisattva, "by your ceaseless drumming you have lost all our hard-earned takings!" And, so saying, he repeated this stanza:

Go not too far, but learn excess to shun; For over-drumming lost what drumming won.

His lesson ended, the Master explained the relation and identified the Birth by saying, "This self-willed Brother(Monk) was the son of those days, and I myself the father."