Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 56. Kañcanakkhandha-Jātaka
p. 140
No. 56.
KAÑCANAKKHANDHA-JĀTAKA. [276]
"When gladness."--This story was told by the Master while at Sāvatthi, about a
certain Brother. Tradition says that through hearing the Master preach a young
gentleman of Sāvatthi gave his heart to the precious Faith 1 and became a
Brother. His teachers and masters proceeded to instruct him in the whole of the
Ten Precepts of Morality, one after the other, expounded to him the Short, the
Medium, and the Long Moralities 2, set forth the Morality which rests on
self-restraint according to the Pātimokkha 3, the Morality which rests on
self-restraint as to the Senses, the Morality which rests on a blameless walk of
life, the Morality which relates to the way a Brother may use the Requisites.
Thought the young beginner, "There is a tremendous lot of this Morality; and I
shall undoubtedly fail to fulfil all I have vowed. Yet what is the good of being
a brother at all, if one cannot keep the rules of Morality? My best course is to
go back to the world, take a wife and rear children, living a life of almsgiving
and other good works." So he told his superiors what he thought, saying that he
proposed to return to the lower state of a layman, and wished to hand back his
bowl and robes. "Well, if it be so with you," said they, "at least take leave of
the Buddha before you go;" and they brought the young man before the Master in
the Hall of Truth.
"Why, Brethren," said the Master, "are you bringing this Brother to me against
his will?"
"Sir, he said that Morality was more than he could observe, and wanted to give
back his robes and bowl. So we took him and brought him to you."
"But why, Brethren," asked the Master, "did you burthen him with so much? He can
do what he can, but no more. Do not make this mistake again, and leave me to
decide what should be done in the case."
Then, turning to the young Brother, the Master said, "Come, Brother; what
concern have you with Morality in the mass? Do you think you could obey just
three moral rules?"
"Oh, yes, Sir."
"Well now, watch and guard the three avenues of the voice, the mind, and the
body; do no evil whether in word, or thought, or act. Cease not to be a Brother,
but go hence and obey just these three rules."
"Yes, indeed, Sir, I will keep them," here exclaimed the glad young man, and
back he went with his teachers again. And as he was keeping his three rules, he
thought within himself, "I had the whole of Morality told me by my instructors;
but because they were not the Buddha, they could not make me grasp even this
much. Whereas [277] the All-Enlightened One, by reason of his Buddhahood, and of
his being the Lord of Truth, has expressed so much Morality in only three rules
concerning the Avenues, and has made me understand it clearly. Verily, a very
present help has the Master been to me." And
p. 141
he won Insight and in a few days attained Arahatship. When this came to the ears
of the Brethren, they spoke of it when met together in the Hall of Truth,
telling how the Brother, who was going back to the world because he could not ho
to fulfil Morality, had been furnished by the Master with three rules embodying
the whole of Morality, and had been made to grasp those three rules, and so had
been enabled by the Master to win Arahatship. How marvellous, they cried, was
the Buddha.
Entering the Hall at this point, and learning on enquiry the subject of their
talk, the Master said, "Brethren, even a heavy burthen becomes light, if taken
piecemeal; and thus the wise and good of past times, on finding a huge mass of
gold too heavy to lift, first broke it up and then were enabled to bear their
treasure away piece by piece." So saying, he told this story of the past.
_____________________________
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to
life as a farmer in a village, and was ploughing one day in a field where once
stood a village. Now, in bygone days, a wealthy merchant had died leaving buried
in this field a huge bar of gold, as thick round as a man's thigh, and four
whole cubits in length. And full on this bar struck the Bodhisatta's plough, and
there stuck fast. Taking it to be a spreading root of a tree, he dug it, out;
but discovering its real nature, he set to work to clean the dirt off the gold.
The day's work done, at sunset he laid aside his plough and gear, and essayed to
shoulder his treasure-trove and walk off with it. But, as he could not so much
as lift it, he sat down before it and fell a-thinking what uses he would put it
to. "I'll have so much to live on, so much to bury as a treasure, so much to
trade with, and so much for charity and good works," thought he to himself, and
accordingly cut the gold into four. Division made his burthen easy to carry; and
he bore home the lumps of gold. After a life of charity and other good works, he
passed away to fare thereafter according to his deserts.
_____________________________
His lesson ended, the Master, as Buddha, recited this stanza:-- [278]
When gladness fills the heart and fills the mind,
When righteousness is practised Peace to win,
He who so walks shall gain the victory
And all the Fetters utterly destroy.
And when the Master had thus led his teaching up to Arahatship as its crowning
point, he shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "In those
days I myself was the man who got the nugget of gold."
Footnotes
140:1 Or perhaps ratanasāsanaṁ means 'the creed connected with the (Three)
Gems,' viz. the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order.
140:2 These are translated in Rhys Davids' "Buddhist Suttas," pp. 189-200.
140:3 The Pātimokkha is translated and discussed in Pt. I. of the translation of
the Vinaya by Rhys Davids and Oldenberg (S. B. E. Vol. 13).
Next: No. 57. Vānarinda-Jātaka
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