Jataka 303 Pucimanda Jataka
Pucimanda Jataka
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to the life as a Nimb-tree spirit in a cemetery grove of that city. Now one day a robber having been guilty of an act of theft is an outlying hamlet of the city entered the cemetery grove. And at this time two old trees stood there, a Nimb tree and a Bo-tree the robber placed his stolen goods at the foot of this Nimb tree and lay down there. Now in these days robbers that were caught were put to torture by being impaled on a stake of the Nimb tree. So the spirit of the Nimb tree thought: “If people should come and capture this robber, they will cut off a branch and make a stake from this Nimb tree and impale him on it. And in that case the tree will be destroyed. So I will drive the fellow away.” Then addressing him, he repeated the first stanza:
Robber, arise! Why sleepest thou? For slumber ‘tis no time,
The king’s men are. Upon thee, the avengers of thy erime.
Moreover he added these words, “Get you gone, before the king’s men take you.” Thus did he frighten the robber away? And no sooner had he fled than the deity of the Bo-tree repeated the second stanza:
And even if this robber bold red-handed they should take,
To thee, O Nimb tree, woodland sprite, what difference would it make?
The deity of the Nimb tree on hearing this uttered the third stanza:–
O Bo-tree, sure thou knowest not the secret of my fear;
I would not have the king’s men find that wicked robber here.
They from my sacred tree, I know, straightway a branch would take,
And to requite the guilty wretch, impale him on a stake.
And while the two sylvan deities were thus conversing together, the owners of the property, following on the trail of the robber, with torches in their hand, when they saw the place where he had been lying down said, “Lo! The robber has just risen up and fled from this place. We have not got him yet, but if we do, we will come back and either impale him at the foot of this Nimb-tree, or hang him from one of its branches.”
And with these words rushing about hither and thither, and not finding the robber, they made off. And on hearing what they said the spirit of the Bo-tree uttered the fourth stanza:–
Beware a danger yet unseen: suspect before too late,
The wise e’en in this present world look to a future state.
The Master, when he had brought this lesson to an end, identified the Birth: “At that time Sariputta was the Spirit of the Bo-tree. I myself was the Nimb tree Spirit.”