Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 10. Sukhavihāri-Jātaka
No. 10.
SUKHAVIHĀRI-JĀTAKA.
[140] "The man who guards not."--This story was told by the Master while in the
Anūpiya Mango-grove near the town of Anūpiya, about the Elder Bhaddiya (the
Happy), who joined the Brotherhood in the company of the six young nobles with
whom was Upāli 1. Of these the Elders Bhaddiya, Kimbila, Bhagu, and Upāli
attained to Arahatship; the Elder Ānanda entered the First Path; the Elder
Anuruddha gained all-seeing vision; and Devadatta obtained the power of ecstatic
self-abstraction. The story of the six young nobles, up to the events at
Anūpiya, will be related in the Khaṇḍahāla-jātaka 2.
The venerable Bhaddiya, who used in the days of his royalty to guard himself as
though he were appointed his own tutelary deity, bethought him of the state of
fear in which he then lived when he was being guarded by numerous guards and
when he used to toss about even on his royal couch in his private apartments
high up in the palace; and with this he compared the absence of fear in which,
now that he was an Arahat, he roamed hither and thither in forests and desert
places. And at the thought he burst into this heartfelt utterance--"Oh,
happiness! Oh, happiness!"
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This the Brethren reported to the Blessed One, saying, "The venerable Bhaddiya
is declaring the bliss he has won."
"Brethren," said the Blessed One, "this is not the first time that Bhaddiya's
life has been happy; his life was no less happy in bygone days."
The Brethren asked the Blessed One to explain this. The Blessed One made clear
what had been concealed from them by re-birth.
_____________________________
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born
a wealthy northern brahmin. Realising the evil of lusts and the blessings that
flow from renouncing the world, he abjured lusts, and retiring to the Himalayas
there became a hermit and won the eight Endowments. His following waxed great,
amounting to five hundred ascetics. Once when the rains set in, he quitted the
Himalayas and travelling along on an alms-pilgrimage with his attendant ascetics
through village and town came at last to Benares, where he took up his abode in
the royal pleasaunce as the pensioner of the king's bounty. After dwelling here
for the four rainy months, he came to the king to take his leave. But the king
said to him, "You are old, reverend sir. Wherefore should you go back to the
Himalayas'? Send your pupils back thither [141] and stop here yourself."
The Bodhisatta entrusted his five hundred ascetics to the care of his oldest
disciple, saying, "Go you with these to the Himalayas; I will stop on here."
Now that oldest disciple had once been a king, but had given up a mighty kingdom
to become a Brother; by the due performance of the rites appertaining to
concentrated thought he had mastered the eight Endowments. As he dwelt with the
ascetics in the Himalayas, one day a longing came upon him to see the master,
and he said to his fellows, "Live on contentedly here; I will come back as soon
as I have paid my respects to the master." So away he went to the master, paid
his respects to him, and greeted him lovingly. Then he lay down by the side of
his master on a mat which he spread there.
At this point appeared the king, who had come to the pleasaunce to see the
ascetic; and with a salutation he took his seat on one side. But though he was
aware of the king's presence, that oldest disciple forbore to rise, but still
lay there, crying with passionate earnestness, "Oh, happiness! Oh, happiness!"
Displeased that the ascetic, though he had seen him, had not risen, the king
said to the Bodhisatta, "Reverend sir, this ascetic must have had his fill to
eat, seeing that he continues to lie there so happily, exclaiming with such
earnestness."
"Sire," said the Bodhisatta, "of old this ascetic was a king as you are. He is
thinking how in the old days when he was a layman and
p. 34
lived in regal pomp with many a man-at-arms to guard him, he never knew such
happiness as now is his. It is the happiness of the Brother's life, and the
happiness that Insight brings, which move him to this heartfelt utterance." And
the Bodhisatta further repeated this stanza to teach the king the Truth:--
The man who guards not, nor is guarded, sire,
Lives happy, freed from slavery to lusts.
[paragraph continues] [142] Appeased by the lesson thus taught him, the king
made his salutation and returned to his palace. The disciple also took his leave
of his master and returned to the Himalayas. But the Bodhisatta continued to
dwell on there, and, dying with Insight full and unbroken, was re-born in the
Realm of Brahma.
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His lesson ended, and the two stories told, the Master shewed the connexion
linking them both together, and identified the Birth by saying,--"The Elder
Bhaddiya was the disciple of those days, and I myself the master of the company
of ascetics."
[Note. For the Introductory Story compare Cullavagga, VII. l. 5--.]
Footnotes
32:1 Cf. Oldenberg's Vinaya, Vol. in pp. 180-4 (translated at p. 232 of Vol. XX.
of the Sacred Books of the East), for an account of the conversion of the six
Sākyan princes and the barber Upāli.
32:2 No. 534 in Westergaard's list; not yet edited by Fausböll.
Next: No. 11. Lakkhaṇa-Jātaka
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