Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 166. Upasāḷha-Jātaka
No. 166.
UPASĀḶHA-JĀTAKA.
"Fourteen thousand Upasāḷhas," etc.--This story the Master told whilst at
Jetavana, about a brahmin named Upasāḷha, who was fastidious in the matter of
cemeteries.
This man, we learn, was rich and wealthy; but, though he lived over against the
monastery, he showed no kindness to the Buddhas, being given to heresy. But he
had a son, wise and intelligent. When he was growing old, the man said to his
son, "Don't let my body be burnt in a cemetery where any outcast can be burnt,
but find some uncontaminated place to burn me in." "Father," said the young
fellow, "I know no cemetery fit to burn your body in. Good my father, take the
lead and yourself point out the place where I shall have you burnt." So the
brahmin consenting led his son out of the city to the top of Vulture Peak, and
then said he, "Here, my son, no outcast is ever burnt; here I would have you
burn me." Then he began to descend the hill in his son's company.
On that day, in the evening, the Master was looking around to see which of his
friends was ripe for Release, and perceived that this father and son were
p. 38
ready to enter upon the First Path. So he took their road, and came to the
hill-foot, like a hunter waiting for his quarry; there he sat till they should
cone down from the top. Down they came, and noticed the Master. He gave them
greeting, and asked, "Where are you bound, brahmins?" The young man told him
their errand. Come along, then," said the Master, "show me the place your father
pointed out." So he and they two together climbed up the mountain. "Which
place'?" he asked. "Sir," said the lad, "the space between these three hills is
the one he showed me." [55] The Master said, "This is not the first time, my
lad, that your father has been nice in the matter of cemeteries; he was the same
before. Nor is it now only that he has pointed you out this place for his
burning; long ago he pointed out the very same place." And at his request the
Master told them a tale of long ago.
_____________________________
Once upon a time, in this very city of Rājagaha, lived this same brahmin
Upasāḷhaka 1, and he had the very same son. At that period the Bodhisatta had
been born in a brahmin family of Magadha land; and when his education was
finished, he embraced a religious life, cultivated the Faculties and the
Attainments, and lived a long time in the region of Himalaya, plunged in mystic
exaltation.
Once he left his hermitage on Vulture Peak to go buy salt and seasoning. While
he was away, this brahmin spoke in just the same way to his son, as now. The lad
begged him to point out a proper place, and he came and pointed out this very
place. As he was descending, with his son, he observed the Bodhisatta, and
approached him, and the Bodhisatta put the same question as I did just now, and
received the son's answer. "Ah," said he, "we'll see whether this place which
your father has shown you is contaminated or not," and made them go with him up
the hill again. "The space between these three hills," said the lad, "is pure."
"My lad," the Bodhisatta replied, "there is no end to the people who have been
burned in this very spot. Your own father, born a brahmin, as now, in Rājagaha,
and bearing the very same name of Upasāḷhaka, has been burnt on this hill in
fourteen thousand births. On the whole earth there's not a spot to be found
where a corpse has not been burnt, which has not been a cemetery, which has not
been covered with skulls."
This he discerned by the faculty of knowing all previous lives: and then he
repeated these two stanzas:--[56]
"Fourteen thousand Upasāḷhas have been burnt upon this spot,
Nor is there the wide world over any place where death is not.
"Where is kindness, truth, and justice, temperance and self-control,
There no death can find an entrance; thither hies each saintly soul."
p. 39
When the Bodhisatta had thus discoursed to father and son, he cultivated the
Four Excellences and went his way to Brahma's heaven.
_____________________________
When this discourse was ended, the Master declared the Truths and identified and
the Birth:--at the conclusion of the Truths father and son were established in
the Fruit of the First Path:--"The father and son were the same then as they are
now, and the ascetic was I myself."
Footnotes
38:1 This added suffix makes no practical difference in the word: it is often
put on to adjectives and substantives without affecting their meaning. But
sometimes it has a diminutive force.
Next: No. 167. Samiddhi-Jātaka
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