Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Ekanipata - Gamani Jataka

Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 8. Gāmani-Jātaka



No. 8.
GĀMANI-JĀTAKA.
"Their heart's desire."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana
about a Brother who gave up persevering. In this Jātaka both the Introductory
Story and the Story of the Past will be given in the Eleventh Book in connexion
with the Saṃvara-jātaka 1;--the incidents are the same both for that Jātaka and
for this, but the stanzas are different.
Abiding stedfast in the counsels of the Bodhisatta, Prince Gāmani, finding
himself--though the youngest of a hundred brothers--surrounded by those hundred
brothers as a retinue and seated beneath the white canopy of kingship,
p. 30
contemplated his glory and thought--"All this glory I owe to my teacher." And,
in his joy, he burst into this heartfelt utterance:--
Their heart's desire 1 they reap, who hurry not;
Know, Gāmani, ripe excellence is thine.
[137] Seven or eight days after he had become king, all his brothers departed to
their own homes. King Gāmani, after ruling his kingdom in righteousness, passed
away to fare according to his deserts. The Bodhisatta also passed away to fare
according to his deserts.
_____________________________
His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof the
faint-hearted Brother won Arahatship. Having told the two stories, the Master
shewed the connexion linking them both together and identified the Birth.



Footnotes
29:1 No. 462.
30:1 As to the alternative of the gloss ("phalāsā ti āsāphalam," i.e. "'the
desire of the fruit' means 'the fruit of the desire'") Professor Künte (Ceylon
R. A. S. J. 1884) says--"the inversion requires a knowledge of metaphysical
grammar such as was not cultivated in India before the 6th century AḌ. ..Ṭhe
gloss was written about the Brahminical and Jain revival."



Next: No. 9. Makhādeva-Jātaka