132. The Story of Five Sensual Delights [Pañcagaru-Jātaka]

When the Buddha was living in Jetavana monastery he delivered the discourse of Ajapālanigrodha [The Goatherd’s Banyan Tree]. The monks one day got together in the preaching hall and said, “Brothers, the three daughters of Māra¹² were not able to tempt the Buddha when he was under the Bodhi tree.¹³ They came to tempt the Buddha assuming beautiful bodies, and the Buddha did not even open his eyes to see them. He exercised great self-control.” They lauded this behavior variously. While they were talking, Buddha came there and asked, “Monks, what were you talking about before I came?” The monks mentioned their discussion to the Buddha, and the Buddha said, “Monks, not only today, but even in the past I controlled my cravings for women. Therefore, there is no need to say that this is due to my enlightenment. When I, the Buddha, was not enlightened, even at such a time as the Enlightenment Being I was capable of self-control.” Then the monks requested him to disclose the story of the past. The Buddha preached to them, disclosing the past story:

At one time when King Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares, he had 500 princes. The Enlightenment Being was born the last of them. He asked a solitary Buddha [pacceka- buddha] when he might become king of the country. The Pacceka-Buddha answered, “If you can go to the city of Takkasilā, you can be the king within seven days.¹⁴” On hearing this prediction of the Pacceka-Buddha, he took five ministers to help him and set forth to go there. On his way, all five ministers were tempted by a certain demoness and eaten by her. The demoness then chased after the Enlightenment Being, who came to the city of Gandhāra. While he was spending the night in a certain inn, the king of that city passed by riding on an elephant and saw the demoness. Seeing her beauty tempted the king. The Enlightenment Being, seeing the king with her, said, “Do not take her to your palace. She is a demoness.” She said to the king, “No, no. I am his lordship’s wife. He got angry with me, and that is why he is saying this.” Believing her words, the king took her to his palace even after the Enlightenment Being had asked him not to do so. That same night, the demoness went back to her own home while the king was sleeping and came back to the palace with her attendants. They killed and ate everyone in the palace, including the king and queen, leaving behind only the bones.  [This story was told previously in the Gandhāra-Jātaka (=Telapatta-Jātaka, Jātaka No. 96).]

When the demoness left, the next morning the officers who were living in the villages came back to the palace and as the doors were not opened for them, they broke down the doors and saw the bones of the king, the queen, and their retinue. They cleaned the whole palace, and decorated it as a palace in the divine world as it had been decorated before. It looked like the Sudhamma Hall of Sakka, the king of the gods. The officers summoned the ministers and discussed how to select a king. They finally came to the decision that they should invite the man who was in the inn and who warned the king not to take home the demoness. They went to him, and told him their decision. Then the Enlightenment Being said, “Does not the king have a son?” And the officers and ministers said, “No.” Then he accepted the invitation, was anointed as the king, and he came to the palace in a grand procession. After that, while he was sitting on the throne, he enjoyed the magnificence around him—his ministers, the officers, Brahmins, the commanders of the army, 16,000 dancing women, and others who were prominent in the kingdom, all dancing, playing music, beating drums, and singing. Because of these things, it was noisy like the roaring of a thunderstorm. They were playing the five-fold musical instruments, making the environment noisy.

While this was taking place, the Enlightenment Being thought, “As the Pacceka-Buddha said I should, just as he had encouraged me to do, I made an effort to come to this place.  Therefore, it is my duty to do meritorious deeds.”

Thinking so, from that point on he started to do good deeds by giving alms to the needy, and thereby acquired merit from being a righteous king. Finally, he passed on as the king of Gandhāra.

He was I, who am the Buddha today.

The moral: “Yielding to temptations brings harm. Self- control brings rewards.”

¹² The three daughters of Māra are TaÏhā, Arati, and Ragā.

¹³ See Palobhana Sutta, probably the Dhītaro Sutta of the MārasamÅyutta, SamÅyuttanikāya (C. A. F. Rhys Davids and Sūriyago¯a SumanÄgala Thera, The Book of Kindred Sayings [Saŋyutta-Nikāya] or GroupedSuttas, Part I, Kindred Sayings with Verses [Sagāthā-Vagga], [1917]: 156-59 [IV, 3, §5]). See regarding this G. P. Malalasekhara, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, 1937-38: 2, 166 and 1, 1160-61.

¹⁴ Takkasilā was the capital of the kingdom of Gandhāra. In the Buddha’s time, like Benares it was a center of learning.

Link: https://hhdorjechangbuddhaiiiinfo.com/2025/09/23/132-the-story-of-five-sensual-delights-pancagaru-jataka/

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