Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Tika-Nipata - Komaya-Putta Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book III. Tika-Nipāta: No. 299. Komāya-Putta-Jātaka



No. 299.
KOMĀYA-PUTTA-JĀTAKA 1.
[447] "Aforetime you were used," etc.--This story the Master told in Pubbārāma,
about some Brethren who were rude and rough in their manners. These Brethren,
who lived on the floor below that where the Master was, talked of what they had
seen and heard, and were quarrelsome and abusive. The Master called
Mahāmoggallāna to him, and bade him go startle them. The Elder rose in the air,
and just touched the foundation of the house with his great toe. It shook to the
furthest edge of ocean! The Brothers were frightened to death, and came and
stood outside. Their rough behaviour became known among the Brethren. One day
they got to talking about it in the Hall of Truth. "Friend, there are some
Brethren who have retired to this house of salvation, who are rough and rude;
they do not see the impermanence, sorrow and unreality of the world, nor do
their duty." The Master came in, and asked what they were discussing as they sat
there. They told him. "This is not the first time, Brethren," said he, "that
they have been rough and rude. They were the same before." And he told them an
old-world tale.
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Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was
born as a brahmin's son in a village. They named him Komāyaputta. By and bye he
went out and embraced the religious life in the region of Himalaya. There were
some frivolous ascetics who had made a hermitage in that region, and there they
lived. But they did not take the means to induce religious ecstasy. They fetched
the fruits from the woods, to eat; then they spent the time laughing and joking
together. They had a monkey, rude-mannered like themselves, which gave them
endless amusement by his grimaces and antics.
Long they lived in this place, till they had to go amongst men again to get salt
and condiments. After they went away, the Bodhisatta lived in their
dwelling-place. The monkey played his pranks for him as he had done for the
others. The Bodhisatta snapt his fingers at him, and gave him a lecture, saying,
"One who lives with well-trained ascetics [448]
p. 306
ought to behave properly, ought to be well-advised in his actions, and devoted
to meditation." After that, the monkey was always virtuous and well-behaved.
After this, the Bodhisatta moved away. The other ascetics returned with their
salt and condiments. But the monkey no longer played his pranks for them.
"What's this, my friend?" they asked. "Why don't you make sport, as you used to
do?" One of them repeated the first stanza:
"Aforetime you were used to play
Where in this hut we hermits stay.
O monkey! as a monkey do;
When you are good we love not you."
On hearing this, the Monkey repeated the second stanza:
"All perfect wisdom by the word
Of wise Komāya I have heard.
Think me not now as I was late
Now ’tis my love to meditate."
Hereupon the anchorite repeated the third:
"If seed upon the rock you sow,
Though rain should fall, it' will not grow.
You may hear perfect wisdom still;
But meditate you never will."
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[449] When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths, and
identified the Birth: "At that time these Brothers were the frivolous
anchorites, but Komāyaputta was I myself."



Footnotes
305:1 Folk-Lore Journal, 3. 254.



Next: No. 300. Vaka-Jātaka