Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 202. Keḷi-Sīla-Jātaka
No. 202.
KEḶI-SĪLA-JĀTAKA.
[142] "Geese, herons, elephants," etc.--This story the Master told while
dwelling at Jetavana, about Lakuṇṭaka the venerable and good.
Now this venerable Lakuṇṭaka, we learn, was well known in the faith of the
Buddha, a famous man, speaking sweet words, a honeyed preacher, of keen
discernment, with his passions perfectly subdued, but in stature the smallest of
all the eighty Elders, no bigger than a novice, like a dwarf kept for amusement.
One day, he had been to the gate of Jetavana to salute the Buddha, when thirty
brothers from the country arrived at the gate on their way to salute him too.
When they saw the Elder, they imagined him to be some novice; they pulled the
corner of his robe, they caught his hands, held his head, tweaked his nose, got
him by the ears and shook him, and handled him very rudely; then
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after putting aside their bowl and robe, they visited the Master and saluted
him. Next they asked him, "Sir, we understand that you have an Elder who goes by
the name of Lakuṇṭaka the Good, a honeyed preacher. Where is he?" "Do you want
to see him?" the Master asked. "Yes, Sir." "He is the man you saw by the gate,
and twitched his robe and pulled him about with great rudeness before you came
here." "Why, Sir," asked they, "how is it that a man devoted to prayer, full of
high aspirations, a true disciple--how is it he is so insignificant?" "Because
of his own sins," answered the Master; and at their request he told them an
old-world tale.
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Once upon a time, when king Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta
became Sakka, king of the gods. Brahmadatta could not endure to look upon
anything old or decrepit, whether elephant, horse, ox, or what not. He was full
of pranks, and whenever he saw any such, he would chase them away; old carts he
had broken up; any old women that he saw he sent for, and beat upon the belly,
then stood them up again and gave them a scare; he made old men roll about and
play on the ground like tumblers. If he saw none, but only heard that there was
a greybeard in such and such a town, [143] he sent for him thence and took his
sport with him.
At this the people for very shame sent their parents outside the boundaries of
the kingdom. No more did men tend or care for their mother and father. The
king's friends were as wanton as he. As men died, they filled up the four 1
worlds of unhappiness; the company of the gods grew less and less.
Sakka saw that there were no newcomers among the gods; and he cast about him
what was to be done. At last he hit upon a plan. "I will humble him!" thought
Sakka; and he took upon him the form of an old man, and placing two jars of
buttermilk in a crazy old waggon, he yoked to it a pair of old oxen, and set out
upon a feast day. Brahmadatta, mounted upon a richly caparisoned elephant, was
making a solemn procession about the city, which was all decorated; and Sakka,
clad in rags, and driving this cart, came to meet the king. When the king saw
the old cart, he shouted, "Away with that cart, you!" But his people answered,
"Where is it, my lord? we cannot see any cart!" (for Sakka by his power let it
be seen by no one but the king). And, coming up to the king repeatedly, at last
Sakka, still driving his cart, smashed one of the jars upon the king's head, and
made him turn round; then he smashed the other in like manner. And the
buttermilk trickled down on either side of his head. Thus was the king plagued
and tormented, and made miserable by Sakka's doings.
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When Sakka saw his distress, he made the cart disappear, and took his proper
shape again. Poised in mid-air, thunderbolt in hand, he upbraided him--"O wicked
and unrighteous king! Will you never become old yourself? will not age assail
you? Yet you sport and mock, and do despite to those who are old! It is through
you alone, and these doings of yours, that men die on every hand, and fill up
the four worlds of unhappiness, and that men cannot care for their parents'
welfare! If you do not cease from this, I will cleave your head with my
thunderbolt. Go, and do so no more."
With this rebuke, he declared the worth of parents, and made known the advantage
of reverencing old age; after which discourse he departed to his own place. From
that time forward the king never so much as thought of doing anything like what
he had done before.
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[144] This story ended, the Master, becoming perfectly enlightened, recited
these two couplets:--
"Geese, herons, elephants, and spotted deer
Though all unlike, alike the lion fear.
"Even so, a child is great if he be clever;
Fools may be big, but great they can be never 1."
When this discourse was ended, the Master declared the Truths and identified the
Birth:--at the conclusion of the Truths some of those Brethren entered on the
First Path, some on the Second, and some upon the Fourth:--"The excellent
Lakuṇṭaka was the king in the story, who made people the butt for his jests and
then became a butt himself, whilst I myself was Sakka."
Footnotes
99:1 The four apāye = Hell, birth as an animal, birth as a peta (ghost), birth
among the asuras (Titans or fallen spirits).
100:1 These lines occur in Samyutta-Nikāya, pt. II. xxi. 6 (ii. p. 279, ed. P.
T. S.).
Next: No. 203. Khandha-Vatta-Jātaka
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