Jataka 105 Dubbalakattha

Dubbalakattha Jataka

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a Tree Sprite near the Himalayas. And in those days the king put his state elephant in the elephant trainers hands to be broken in to stand firm. And they tied the elephant up fast to a post, and with goads in their hands set about training the animal. Unable to bear the pain whilst he was being made to do their bidding, the elephant broke the post down, put the trainers to flight, and made off to the Himalayas. And the men, being unable to catch it, had to come back empty handed. The elephant lived in the Himalayas in constant fear of death. A breath of wind sufficed to fill him with fear and to start him off at full speed, shaking his trunk to and fro. And it was with him as thought he was still tied to the post to be trained. All happiness of mind and body gone, he wandered up and down in constant dread. Seeing this the Tree Sprite stood in the fork of his tree and uttered this stanza:

Fear'st thou the wind that ceaselessly

The rotten boughs doth rend always?

Such fear will waste quite away!

Such were the Tree Sprite's cheering words. And the elephant thenceforth feared no more.