Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 155. Gagga-Jātaka
No. 155.
GAGGA-JĀTAKA 1.
[15] "Gagga, live an hundred years," etc.--This story the Master told when he
was staying in the monastery made by King Pasenadi in front of Jetavana; it was
about a sneeze which he gave.
One day, we are told, as the Master sat discoursing with four persons round him,
he sneezed. "Long life to the Blessed One, long life t' the Buddha!" the
Brothers all cried aloud, and made a great to-do.
The noise interrupted the discourse. Then the Master said to the Brethren: "Why,
Brothers, if one cry 'Long life!' on hearing a sneeze, does a man live or die
any the more for that?" They answered, "No, no, Sir." He went on, "You should
not cry 'Long life' for a sneeze, Brethren. Whosoever does so is guilty of sin."
It is said that at that time, when the Brethren sneezed, people used to call
out, "Long life to you, Sir!" But the Brethren had their scruples, and made no
answer. Everybody was annoyed, and asked, "Pray, why is it that the priests
about Buddha the Sakya prince make no answer, when they sneeze, and somebody or
other wishes them long life?"
All this was told to the Blessed One. He said: "Brethren, common folk are
superstitious. When you sneeze, and they say, 'Long life to you, Sir!' I permit
you to answer, 'The same to you'." Then the Brethren asked him--"Sir, when did
people begin to answer 'Long life' by 'The same to you'?" Said the Master, "That
was long, long ago;" and he told them a tale of the olden time.
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Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta came into
the world as a brahmin's son of the kingdom of Kāsi; and his father was a lawyer
by calling. When the lad was sixteen years old or so, his father gave a fine
jewel into his charge, and they both
p. 12
travelled through town after town, village after village, until they came to
Benares. There the man had a meal cooked in the gatekeeper's house; and as he
could find nowhere to put up, he asked where there was lodging to be had for
wayfarers who came too late? The people told him that there was a building
outside the city, but that it was haunted; but however he might lodge there if
he liked. Says the lad to his father, "Have no fear of any goblin, father! I
will subdue him, and bring him to your feet." [16] So he persuaded his father,
and they went to the place together,
The father lay down upon a bench, and his son sat beside him, chafing his feet.
Now the Goblin that haunted the place had received it for twelve years' service
of Vessavaṇa 1, on these terms: that if any man who entered it should sneeze,
and when long life was wished him, should answer, "Long life to you!" or "The
same to you!"--all except these the Goblin had a right to eat. The Goblin lived
upon the central rafter of the hut 2.
He determined to make the father of the Bodhisatta sneeze. Accordingly, by his
magic power he raised a cloud of fine dust, which entered the man's nostrils;
and as he lay on the bench, he sneezed. The son did not cry "Long life!" and
down came the Goblin from his perch, ready to devour his victim. But the
Bodhisatta saw him descend, and then these thoughts passed through his mind.
"Doubtless it is he who made my father sneeze. This must be a Goblin that eats
all who do not say 'Long life to you'." And addressing his father, he repeated
the first verse as follows:--
"Gagga, live an hundred years,--aye, and twenty more, I pray!
May no goblin eat you up; live an hundred years, I say!"
The Goblin thought, "This one I cannot eat, because he said 'Long life to you.'
But I shall eat his father;" and he came close to the father. But the man
divined the truth of the matter--"This must be a Goblin," thought he, "who eats
all who do not reply, 'Long life to you, too!'" and so addressing his son, he
repeated the second verse:--
"You too live an hundred years,--aye, and twenty more, I pray;
Poison be the goblins' food; live an hundred years, I say!"
[17] The Goblin hearing these words, turned away, thinking "Neither of these is
for me to eat." But the Bodhisatta put a question to him: "Come, Goblin, how is
.it you eat the people who enter this building?"
"I earned the right for twelve years' service of Vessavaṇa."
"What, are you allowed to eat everybody?"
p. 13
"All except those who say 'The same to you' when another wishes them long life."
"Goblin," said the lad, "you have done some wickedness in former lives, which
has caused you to be born now fierce, and cruel, and a bane to others. If you do
the same kind of thing now, you will pass from darkness to darkness. Therefore
from this time forth abstain from such things as taking life." With these words
he humbled the Goblin, scared him with fear of hell, established him in the Five
Precepts, and made him as obedient as an errand-boy.
Next day, when the people came and saw the Goblin, and learnt how that the
Bodhisatta had subdued him, they went and told the king: "My lord, some man has
subdued the Goblin, and made him as obedient as an errand-boy!" So the king sent
for him, and raised him to be Commander-in-Chief; while he heaped honours upon
the father. Having made the Goblin a tax-gatherer, and established him in the
Bodhisatta's precepts, after giving alms and doing good he departed to swell the
hosts of heaven.
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When the Master had ended this story, which he told to explain when the custom
first arose of answering 'Long life' by 'The same to you,' he identified the
Birth: "In those days, Ānanda was the king, Kassapa the father, and I myself was
the lad his son."
Footnotes
11:1 The introductory story is repeated in the Cullavagga, v. 33 (iii. 153 of
Rhys Davids' translation of Vinaya Texts in the S. B. E.).
12:1 A monster with white skin, three legs, and eight teeth, guardian of jewels
and the precious metals, and a kind of Indian Pluto.
12:2 See Eggeling, Çatap.-Brāhm. vol. 2, p. 3, S. B. E., for the construction of
the hut.
Next: No. 156. Alīnacitta-Jātaka
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