Jataka 306 Lohakumbhi

Lohakumbhi Jataka

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in a brahmin family, in a certain village of Kasi. And when he was of mature years, renouncing the pleasures of sense and embracing the ascetic life he developed the supernatural powers of mystic meditation, and enjoying the delights of Contemplation took up his abode in a pleasant grove in the Himalaya country.

The king of Benares at this time was fearfully alarmed by hearing those four sounds uttered by four beings who dwelt in Hell. And when told by brahmins in exactly the same way that one of three dangers must befall him, he agreed to their proposal to put a stop to it by the fourfold sacrifice. The family priest with the help of the Brahmins provided a sacrificial pit, and a great crowd of victims was brought up and fastened to the stakes. Then the Bodhisatta, guided by a feeling of charity, regarding the world with his divine eye, when he saw what was going on, said, “I must go at once and see to the well-being of all these creatures.” And then by his magic power flying up into the airhe alighted in the garden of the king of Benares, and sat down on the royal slab of stone, looking like an image of gold. The chief disciple of the family priest approached his teacher and asked , “Is it not written, Master, in our Vedas that there is no happiness for those who take the life of any creature ?” The priest replied, “You are to bring here the king’s property, and we shall have abundant dainties to eat. Only hold your peace.” And with these words he drove his pupil away. But the thought, “I will have no part in this matter,” and went and found the Bodhisatta in the king’s garden. After saluting him in a friendly manner he took a seat at a respectful distance. The Bodhisatta asked him saying, “Young man, does the king rule his kingdom righteously?” “Yes, Reverend Sir, he does,” answered the youth, “but he has heard four cries in the night, and on inquiring of the brahmins, he has been assured by them that they would restore his peace of mind, by offering up the fourfold sacrifice. So the king, being anxious to recover his happiness, is preparing a sacrifice of animals, and a vast number of victims has been brought up and fastened to the sacrificial stakes. Now is it not right for holy men like yourself to explain the cause of death?” “Young man ,” he replied, “the king does not know us, nor do we know the king, but we do know the origin of these cries, and if the king were to come and ask us the cause, we would resolve his doubts for him.” “Then,” said the youth, “just stay here a moment, Reverend Sir, and I will conduct the king to you.”

The Bodhisatta agreed, and the youth went and told the king all about it, and brought him back with him. The king saluted the Bodhisatta and sitting on one side asked him if it were true that he knew the origin of these noises. “Yes, You Majesty,” he said. “Then tell me, Reverend Sir.” “Sire,” he answered, “these men in a former existence were guilty of gross misconduct with the carefully guarded wives of their neigh bours near Benares, and therefore were re-born in Four Iron Cauldrons. Where after being tortured for thirty thousand years in a thick corrosive liquid heated to boiling point, they would at one time sink till they struck the bottom of the cauldron , and at another time rise to the top like a foam bubble, but after those years they found the mouth of the cauldron, and looking over the edge they all four desired to give utterance to four complete stanzas, but failed to do so. And after getting out just one syllabie each, they sank again in the iron cauldrons. Now the one of them that sank after uttering the syllable ‘du’ was anxious to speak as Follows:

Due share of wealth we gave not; an evil life we led :

We found no sure salvation in joys that now are fled.

And when he failed to utter it, the Bodhisatta of his own knowledge repeated the complete stanza. And similarly with the rest. The one that uttered merely the syllable ‘sa’ wanted to repeat the following stanza:

Sad fate of those that suffer / ah / when shall come release?

Still after countless sons, Hell’s tortures never cease.

And again in the case of the one that uttered the syllable ‘na’, this was the stanza he wished to repeat:-

Nay endless are the sufferings to which we’re doomed by fate;

The ills we wrought upon the earth ‘tis ours to expiate.

And the one that uttered the syllable ‘so’ was anxious to repeat the following:-

Soon shall I passing forth from hence, attain to human birth?

And richly dowered with virtue rise to many a deed of worth.

The Bodhisatta, after reciting these verse one by one, said, “The dweller in Hell, Sire, when he wanted to utter a complete stanza, through the greatness of his sin, was unable to do it. And when he thus experienced the result of his wrong- doing he cried aloud. But fear not; nodanger shall come nigh you, in consequence of hearing this cry.” Thus did he reassure the king? And the king proclaimed by beat of his golden drum that the vast host of victims was to be released, and the sacrificial pit destroyed. And the Bodhisatta, after thus providing fpr the safety of the numerous victims, stayed there a few days, and then returning to the same place, without any break in his ecstasy, was born in the world of Brahma.

The Master, having ended his lesson, identified the Birth : “Sariputta at that time was the young priest, I myself was the ascetic.”