Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Ekanipata - Anabhirati Jataka

Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 65. Anabhirati-Jātaka



No. 65.
ANABHIRATI-JĀTAKA.
"Like highways."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about
just such another lay-brother as the last. This man, when on enquiry he assured
himself of his wife's misconduct, came to words with her, with the result that
he was so upset that for seven or eight days he failed in his attendance. One
day he came to the monastery, made his bow to the Blessed One and took his seat.
Being asked why he had been absent for seven or eight days, he replied, "Sir, my
wife has misconducted herself, and I have been so upset about her that I did not
come."
"Lay-brother," said the Master, "long ago the wise and good told you not to be
angered at the naughtiness found in women, but to preserve your equanimity this,
however, you have forgotten, because re-birth has hidden it from you." And so
saying, he told--at that lay-brother's request--this story of the past.
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Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a
teacher of world-wide reputation, as in the foregoing story. And a pupil of his,
finding his wife unfaithful, was so affected by the discovery that he stayed
away for some days, but being asked one day by his teacher what was the reason
of his absence, he made a clean breast of it, Then said his teacher, "My son,
there is no private property in women: they are common to all. [302] And
therefore wise men knowing
p. 161
their frailty, are nod excited to anger against them." And so saying, he
repeated this stanza for his pupil's edification:--
Like highways, rivers, courtyards, hostelries,
Or taverns, which to all alike extend
One universal hospitality,
Is womankind; and wise men never stoop
To wrath at frailty in a sex so frail.
Such was the instruction which the Bodhisatta imparted to his pupil, who
thenceforward grew indifferent to what women did. And as for his wife, she was
so changed by hearing that the teacher knew what she was, that she gave up her
naughtiness thenceforth.
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So too that lay-brother's wife, when she heard that the Master knew what she
was, gave up her naughtiness thenceforth.
His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof the
lay-brother won the Fruit of the First Path. Also the Master shewed the
connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "This husband and wife were also
the husband and wife of those days, and I myself the brahmin teacher."



Next: No. 66. Mudulakkhaṇa-Jātaka