Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Ekanipata - Ghatasana Jataka

Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 133. Ghatāsana-Jātaka



p. 290
No. 133.
GHATĀSANA-JĀTAKA.
"Lo! in your stronghold."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana,
about a certain Brother who was given by the Master a subject for meditation,
and, going to the borders, took up his abode in the forest near a hamlet. Here
he hoped to pass the rainy season, but during the very first month his hut was
burnt down whilst he was in the village seeking alms. Feeling the loss of its
sheltering roof, he told his lay friends of his misfortune, and they readily
undertook to build him another hut. But, in spite of their protestations, three
months slipped away without its being rebuilt. Having no roof to shelter him,
the Brother had no success in his meditation. Not even the dawn of the Light had
been vouchsafed to him when at the close of the rainy season he went back to
Jetavana and stood respectfully before the Master. In the course of talk the
Master asked whether the Brother's meditation had been successful. Then that
Brother related from the beginning the good and ill that had befallen him. Said
the Master, "In days gone by, even brute beasts could discern between what was
good and what bad for them and so quitted betimes, ere they proved dangerous,
the habitations that had sheltered them in happier days. And if beasts were so
discerning, how could you fall so far short of them in wisdom?" So saying, at
that Brother's request, the Master told this story of the past.
_____________________________
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born
a bird. When he came to years of discretion, good fortune attended him and he
became king of the birds, taking up his abode with his subjects in a giant tree
which stretched its leafy branches over the waters of a lake. And all these
birds, [472] roosting in the boughs, dropped their dung into the waters below.
Now that lake was the abode of Caṇḍa, the Naga King, who was enraged by this
fouling of his water and resolved to take vengeance on the birds and burn them
out. So one night when they were all roosting along the branches, he set to
work, and first he made the waters of the lake to boil, then he caused smoke to
arise, and thirdly he made flames dart up as high as a palm-tree.
Seeing the flames shooting up from the water, the Bodhisatta cried to the birds,
"Water is used to quench fire; but here is the water itself on fire. This is no
place for us; let us seek a home elsewhere." So saying, he uttered this
stanza:--
Lo! in your stronghold stands the foe,
And fire doth water burn;
So from your tree make haste to go,
Let trust to trembling turn.
p. 291
And hereupon the Bodhisatta flew off with such of the birds as followed his
advice; but the disobedient birds, who stopped behind, all perished.
_____________________________
His lesson ended, the Master preached the Four Truths (at the close whereof that
Brother won Arahatship) and identified the Birth by saying, "The loyal and
obedient birds of those days are now become my disciples, and I myself was then
the king of the birds."



Next: No. 134. Jhānasodhana-Jātaka.