Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Tika-Nipata - Samudda Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book III. Tika-Nipāta: No. 296. Samudda-Jātaka



No. 296.
SAMUDDA-JĀTAKA 1.
"Over the salt sea wave," etc.--This story the Master told at Jetavana, about
Elder Upananda. This man was a great eater and drinker; there was no satisfying
him even with cartloads of provisions. During the rainy season he would pass his
time at two or three different settlements, leaving his shoes in one, his
walking-stick in another, and his water jar in a third, and one he lived in
himself. When he visited a country monastery, and saw the brothers with their
requisites all ready, he began to talk about the four classes of contented
ascetics 2; laid hold of their garments, and made them pick up rags from the
dust-heap; made them take earthen bowls, and give him any bowls that he fancied
and their metal bowls; then he filled a cart with them, and carried them off to
Jetavana. One day people began to talk in the Hall of Truth. "Friend, Upananda
of the Sakka clan, a great eater, a greedy fellow, has been preaching religion
to other people, and here he comes with a cartful of priests’ property!" The
Master came in, and wanted to know what they were talking of as they sat there.
They told him. "Brethren," said he, "Upananda has gone wrong before by talking
about this contentment. But a man ought first of all to become modest in his
desires, before praising the good behaviour of other people.
"Yourself first stablish in propriety,
Then teach; the wise should not self-seeking be."
p. 302
[paragraph continues] Pointing out this verse from the Dhammapada 1, and blaming
Upananda, he went on, "This is not the first time, Brethren, that Upananda has
been greedy. Long ago, he thought even the water in the ocean ought to be
saved." And he told an old-world tale.
_____________________________
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta became a
Sea-spirit. Now it so happened that a Water-crow was passing over the sea. He
went flying about, and trying to cheek the shoals of fish and flocks of birds,
crying,
"Don't drink too much of the sea-water! be careful of it!" [442] On seeing him,
the Sea-spirit repeated the first stanza:
"Over the salt sea wave who flies?
Who checks the shoals of fish, and tries
The monsters of the deep to stay
Lest all the sea be drunk away?"
The Water-crow heard this, and answered with the second stanza:
"A drinker never satisfied
So people call me the world wide,
To drink the sea I fain would trey,
And drain the lord of rivers dry.'"
On hearing which the Sea-spirit repeated the third:
"The ocean ever ebbs away,
And fills again the selfsame day.
Who ever knew the sea to fail?
To drink it up can none avail!"
With these words the spirit assumed a terrible shape and frightened the
Water-crow away.
_____________________________
When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth: "At that
time, Upananda was the Water-crow, but the Spirit was I myself."



Footnotes
301:1 Folk-Lore Journal, 3. 328.
301:2 See Childers, p. 56 b. The recluse who is contented with the robes
presented to him, with the food, with the bedding, and he who delights in
meditation.
302:1 Verse 158.



Next: No. 297. Kāma-Vilāpa-Jātaka