Sukhavihāri-Jātaka

JATAKA No. 10

SUKHAVIHARI-JATAKA

"The man who guards not."--This story was told by the Master while in the Anupiya Mango-grove near the town of Anupiya, about the Elder Monk Bhaddiya (the Happy), who joined the Brotherhood(Monk's Order) in the company of the six young nobles with whom was Upali (*1). Of these the Elder Monks Bhaddiya, Kimbila, Bhagu, and Upali attained to Arhatship(Enlightenment equal to Buddha); the Elder Monk Ananda entered the First Path(Trance); the Elder Monk Anuruddha gained all-seeing vision; and Devadatta obtained the power of ecstatic self-abstraction (trance). The story of the six young nobles, up to the events at Anupiya, will be told in the Khandahala-jataka (*2).

The venerable Bhaddiya, who used in the days of his royalty to guard himself as though he were appointed his own guardian deity, came to think him of the state of fear in which he then lived when he was being guarded by numerous guards and when he used to toss about even on his royal couch in his private apartments high up in the palace; and with this he compared the absence of fear in which, now that he was an Arhat(Enlightened equal to Buddha), he roamed here and there in forests and desert places. And at the thought he burst into this heartfelt utterance--"Oh, happiness! Oh, happiness!"

This the Brethren(Monks) reported to the Lord Buddha, saying, "The venerable Bhaddiya is telling about the bliss he has won."

"Brethren," said the Lord Buddha, "this is not the first time that Bhaddiya's life has been happy; his life was no less happy in past days."

The Brethren asked the Lord Buddha to explain this. The Lord Buddha made clear what had been concealed from them by re-birth.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisattva was born a wealthy northern brahmin. Realising the evil of lusts and the blessings that flow from renouncing the world, he renounced lusts, and retiring to the Himalayas there became a hermit and won the eight gifts of understanding. His following increased great, amounting to five hundred ascetics. Once when the rains set in, he left the Himalayas and travelling along on an alms-pilgrimage with his attendant ascetics through village and town came at last to Benares, where he took up his dwelling in the royal garden as the beneficiary of the king's generosity. After living here for the four rainy months, he came to the king to take his leave. But the king said to him, "You are old, reverend sir. For which reason should you go back to the Himalayas'? Send your pupils back there and stop here yourself."

The Bodhisattva entrusted his five hundred ascetics to the care of his oldest disciple, saying, "Go you with these to the Himalayas; I will stop on here."

Now that oldest disciple had once been a king, but had given up a mighty kingdom to become an Ascetic; by the due performance of the rites concerning to concentrated thought he had mastered the eight gifts of understanding. As he lived with the ascetics in the Himalayas, one day a longing came upon him to see the master, and he said to his fellows, "Live on contentedly here; I will come back as soon as I have paid my respects to the master." So away he went to the master, paid his respects to him, and greeted him lovingly. Then he lay down by the side of his master on a mat which he spread there.

At this point appeared the king, who had come to the garden to see the ascetic; and with a salutation he took his seat on one side. But though he was aware of the king's presence, that oldest disciple avoided to rise, but still lay there, crying with passionate earnestness, "Oh, happiness! Oh, happiness!"

Displeased that the ascetic, though he had seen him, had not risen, the king said to the Bodhisattva, "Reverend sir, this ascetic must have had his fill to eat, seeing that he continues to lie there so happily, exclaiming with such earnestness."

"Sire," said the Bodhisattva, "of old this ascetic was a king as you are. He is thinking how in the old days when he was a layman and lived in regal pomp with many a man-at-arms to guard him, he never knew such happiness as now is his. It is the happiness of the Ascetic's life, and the happiness that Insight brings, which move him to this heartfelt utterance." And the Bodhisattva further repeated this stanza to teach the king the Truth:-

The man who guards not, nor is guarded, sire, Lives happy, freed from slavery to lusts.

Appeased by the lesson thus taught him, the king made his salutation and returned to his palace. The disciple also took his leave of his master and returned to the Himalayas. But the Bodhisattva continued to dwell on there, and, dying with Insight full and unbroken, was re-born in the Realm of Brahma(upper heaven).

His lesson ended, and the two stories told, the Master explained the relation linking them both together, and identified the Birth by saying, "The Elder Monk Bhaddiya was the disciple of those days, and I myself the master of the company of ascetics."

Footnotes:

(1)Upali was a low caste (outcast) & barber by caste.

(2)no. 534