Jataka 302 Sayha

Sayha Jataka

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was conceived in the womb of the brahmin wife of the king’s chaplain, and was born on the same day as the king’s son. And when the king asked his ministers if any child had been born on the same day as his son, they said, “Yes, Sire, a son of your family priest.” So the king had him brought and given into the charge of nurses to be carefully tended together with the young prince, and they both had the same ornaments to wear and had exactly the same things to eat and drink. And when they were grown up, they went together to Takkasila and as soon as they had attained proficiency in all the sciences they returned home.

The king made his son viceroy and bestowed great honour upon him. From that time the Bodhisatta ate, drank, and lived with the prince, and there was a firm friendship between them. By and bye at the death of his father, young prince ascended the throne and enjoyed great prosperity. Thought the Bothisatta: “My friend now rules the kingdom; when he sees a fitting opportunity, he will certainly give me the office of his family priest. What have I to do with a householder’s life?

So he saluted his parents and having asked their permission to take orders, he gave up his worldly fortune and setting forth quite alone he entered the Himalaya country. There on a charming spot he built himself a hermitage, and adopting the religious life of an anchorite he developed all the Faculties and Attainments, and lived in the enjoyment of the pleasure of the mystic life.

At this time the king remembered him and said, “What has become of my friend? He is nowhere to be seen.” His ministers told him he had taken orders, and was living, they heard, in some delightful grove. The king asked the place of his abode, and said to a councillor named Sayha, “Go and bring my friend back with you. I will make hem my chaplain.” Sayha readily assented, and going forth from Benares in course of time reached a frontier village and taking up his abode there, he went with some foresters to the place where the Bodhisatta dwelt and found him sitting like a golden statue at the door of his hut. After saluting him with the usual complements he sat at a respectful distance and thus addressed him: “Reverend Sir, the king desires your return, being anxious to raise you to the dignity of his family priest.” The Bodhisatta replied, “If I were to receive not merely the post of chaplain but all Kasi and Kosala, and the realm of India and the glory of a Universal Empire, I would refuse to go. The wise do not again take up the sins they have once abandoned any more than they would swallow the phlegm they have once raised.” So saying he repeated these stanzas:

No throne on earth should tempt me to my shame,

No sea-girt realm, safe-guarded in the deep;

Accursed be the lust of wealth and fame

That dooms poor man in “Suffering Worlds” to weep.

Better through earth a homeless waif to stray,

And bowl in hand to beg from door to door,

Than as a king, to sinful lusts a prey,

To bear a tyrant rule and vex the poor.

Thus did the Bodhisatta though again and again importuned by him reject his offer. And Sayha, being unable to prevail on him, saluted him, and returned and told the king of his refusal to come.

When the Master had brought his lesson to an end, he revealed the Truths and identified the Birth: At the conclusion of the Truths the back-sliding Brother attained to fruition of the First Path. Many others too experienced like fruits of Conversion: "At that time Ananda was theking Sariputta was Sayha, and I myself was the family priest."