Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Dukanipata - Padanjali Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 247. Pādañjali-Jātaka



No. 247.
PĀDAÑJALI-JĀTAKA.
"Surely this lad," etc.--This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana,
about the Elder Lāḷudāyi.
One day, it is said, the two chief disciples were discussing a question. The
Brethren who heard the discussion praised the Elders. Elder Lāḷudāyi, who sat
amongst the company, curled his lip with the thought--"What is their knowledge
compared with mine?" When the Brethren noticed this, they left him. The company
broke up.
The Brethren were talking about it in the Hall of Truth. "Friend, did you see
how Lāḷudāyi curled his lip in scorn of the two chief disciples?" On hearing
which the Master said, "Brethren, in olden days, as now, Lāḷudāyi had no other
answer but a curl of the lip." Then he told them an old-world tale.
_____________________________
[264] Once upon a time, when king Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the
Bodhisatta was his adviser in things spiritual and temporal. Now the king had a
sun, Pādañjali by name, an idle lazy loafer. By and bye the king died. His
obsequies over, the courtiers talked of consecrating his son Pādañjali to be
king. But the Bodhisatta said,
"’Tis a lazy fellow, an idle loafer,--shall we take and consecrate him king?"
The courtiers held a trial. They sat the youth down before them, and made a
wrong decision. They adjudged something to the wrong owner, and asked him,
"Young sir, do we decide rightly?"
The lad curled his lip.
"He is a wise lad, I think," thought the Bodhisatta; "he must know that we have
decided wrongly:" and he recited the first verse:--
"Surely the lad is wise beyond all men.
He curls his lip--he must see through us, then!"
p. 184
Next day, as before, they arranged a trial, but this time judged it aright.
Again they asked him what he thought of it.
Again he curled his lip. Then the Bodhisatta perceived that he was blind fool,
and repeated the second verse:--
"Not right from wrong, nor bad from good he knows:
He curls his lip--but no more sense he shows."
The courtiers became aware that the young man Pādañjali was a fool, and they
made the Bodhisatta king.
_____________________________
When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth: "Lāḷudāyi was
Pādañjali, and I was the wise courtier."



Next: No. 248. Kiṁsukopama-Jātaka