128. The Story of the Cat10

[BiÀāra-Jātaka]

At one time, Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma in Sāvatthi. While he was there, a certain cunning, deceptive and hypocritical monk was brought to his attention. Buddha, on seeing him, said, “Monks, this man is not only cunning, deceptive and hypocritical today. He also was so in the past.” Then the monks requested the Buddha to disclose this monk’s past. Buddha thus related his past story:

Long ago in ancient times, there was a king called Brahmadatta in Benares. While he was ruling Benares, the Enlightenment Being was born as a rat. He was wise, and his physical appearance was fat like that of a boar. Thousands of rats lived with him in a big anthill in the forest. They respected him as their leader.

Meanwhile, a certain jackal that was searching for prey, wandering here and there, saw this large group of rats. He thought, “By some sort of stratagem, I will be able to eat those rats.” Thinking so, one day he stood on the path the Enlightenment Being was to travel on, with one foot raised, his mouth open, and facing the sun. The Enlightenment Being who was searching for food, on seeing him asked, “Who are you?” Then the jackal said, “I am the righteous one.” Then he asked, “Why are you standing on one leg?” He replied, “If I stand on all four legs, the earth would not bear my weight.” Then he asked, “Why do you keep your mouth open?” He replied, “I am eating the wind.” Then he asked, “Why are you facing east?” He replied, “I am worshipping the rising sun.” Then the Enlightenment Being thought, “This jackal is not a liar. No doubt he is saying the truth. There is a wholesome quality in his heart.” Thinking so, he came two times a day to respect him. He came attended by other rats. When they were returning, the jackal every time caught the last rat and ate it. He wiped away the blood on this mouth, and then stood as he had been doing.

After he had been engaged in this hypocrisy daily, the number of rats in the troop started to decline noticeably. On seeing their numbers decline, the other rats approached the Enlightenment Being and said, “Your lordship, long ago when we were inside the anthill, we were so crowded we kept touching each other. But now, our numbers are sparse. We do not know why this is so. Please be kind enough to explain the situation to us.”

The Enlightenment Being, hearing the news, thought, “There is no doubt, this must be the doing of the jackal.”

And on that day, when he went with the other rats to pay respect to the jackal, he stayed in the rear, sending all the other rats before him. When the jackal saw the Enlightenment Being in the rear, he jumped on him as he had done to the other rats previously. The Enlightenment Being jumped out of the way and was thus saved. He thought, “This jackal’s penance is similar to the penance of a cat.¹¹” Thinking so, he came to the determination that the jackal’s penance was only a deception to get his food. He jumped up onto the neck of the jackal and bit at his windpipe, and killed him.

Those rats that saw this incident came there and ate all the flesh of the jackal. The latecomers among those rats got little flesh. After that, those rats lived happily.

Thus the Buddha ended the story, disclosing that he, the Buddha, had been the king of the rats.

The moral: “It is difficult to deceive others every day.”

¹⁰ Though the story here is about a jackal, the corresponding story in the Mahābhārata is about cat. See Mahābhārata 5.160.15-43 in the Bombay edition, Mahābhārata 5421-49 in the Calcutta edition. The corresponding passage is deleted from Mahābhārata 5.157 in the Critical Edition (Poona edition), but it is referred to in the critical apparatus for Mahābhārata 5.157.5d and 16, and is given in full in Appendix I, no. 9 (vol. 6, pp. 667b-669a). The story is not included in either Pratap Chandra Roy’s translation of the Mahābhārata (1883-96; rpt. 1952- 62), or in J. A. B. van Buitenen’s uncompleted translation of the Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata (Books 1-5, 1973-78). The jackal in the story here acts like a cat.

¹¹ A pretender to virtue is called “one who acts like a cat” according to the ‘Laws of Manu’ (Mānavadharmaśāstra) 4.195. Also, see the Tamil book of proverbs ‘The Hand Which Holds the Spear of Victory’ (Verri Vērkai) 42: “There is not for a cat either penance or compassion.” A cat is a hypocrite.

128. The Story of the Cat

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127. The Story of Kalaϯuka [Kalaϯuka-Jātaka]

At one time Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma and delivered this story of Kalaϯuka on a certain occasion because of a boastful monk. This monk was boastful as was the monk in the story of the present regarding Kaæāhaka [No. 125].

Just as its present story is similar to the story of Kaæāhaka, so here also in the same way our Kalaϯuka studied as a young boy with the son of the millionaire of Benares. The reader will have to understand that Kalaϯuka also acted in the very same capacity in the millionaire’s palace looking after the property of the millionaire of Benares. He as well wrote a bogus letter to the millionaire of a remote village introducing himself as the son of the Benares millionaire, and signed it with the millionaire’s signet ring. All other incidents are also similar to the aforementioned story of Kaæāhaka.

The only difference in this story is that one day after living together with the daughter of the millionaire of the remote village, the boastful boy who married the young woman scorned her on one occasion when they went to take a bath together.

The story is as follows:

At one point the millionaire of Benares did not see Kalaϯuka in the palace for a period of time. As he did not see the young lad, he asked his parrot to find him. The parrot said, “Yes.” And he left the palace to see where Kalaϯuka had gone. Luckily, he came to the place where Kalaϯuka and his wife had come to take a bath in the river. The parrot, on seeing him, hid in the middle of some branches of a rose apple tree so as to observe them. While Kalaϯuka was lying in the water, the millionaire’s daughter, his wife, gave him a decoction of perfumed milk to drink. Kalaϯuka took the cup into his hands, rinsed his mouth with the perfumed milk and spit it out over her head. The parrot saw this. The parrot could not tolerate such an insult to a noble woman by the slave Kalaϯuka. He came out of his hiding place and said, “Hey, Kalaϯuka. Even though I am a forest bird, you and I both lived together in the palace. Do you not understand your position? Is it right to scorn such a noble woman by spitting over her head? The milk that you took into your mouth ought to have been drunk, not spit out.”

Kalaϯuka heard this. [The millionaire’s daughter also heard this.] Kalaϯuka thought, “If this parrot discloses my situation to others, it will not be good.” Addressing the parrot, he said, “O honorable parrot, please come and talk to me. How are you?” Then the parrot, hearing these words, thought, “As I disclosed his position, there is no doubt that if I go to his hand and perch on it, he will kill me, strangling me by the neck.”  Thinking so, he rose up to the sky and went back to Benares. He described what he had seen to the millionaire of Benares.

The millionaire of Benares, on hearing the story, decided to bring back Kalaϯuka to Benares as his slave.

The Buddha finalized the story saying, “Kalaϯuka at that time was the present boastful monk. And I, who have become the Buddha, was the millionaire of Benares.”

The moral: “Do not overstep one’s bounds, and respect the positions of others.”

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126. The Story of the Characteristics of Swords [AsilakkhaÏa-Jātaka]

At one time Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma. At that time the king of Kosala had a Brahmin who could tell whether a sword was lucky by smelling it. When smiths would bring their swords, if they had given bribes, he said, “It is good.” To those who did not give bribes, he said to them, “It is bad.” All in the course of time knew the deceptive nature of this man. Knowing his nature, one smith made a sword and making it very sharp, put it in a sheath filled with hot chili powder. He brought it to the king. The king summoned the Brahmin and requested him to tell them the goodness or badness of the sword.

The Brahmin, in accord with the order of the king, took the sword out from the sheath and placing it near his nose tried to smell it. Immediately, before he could say anything, the chili powder smelled by him caused him to sneeze. He could not remove the sword from his nose quickly enough, so when he sneezed, the sword cut off the tip of his nose. This story spread everywhere and eventually it reached even the monks in the preaching hall.

One day in the preaching hall of Jetavanārāma the assembled monks were speaking about this. When the Buddha visited there, the monks paid respect to the Buddha.

The Buddha asked, “Oh monks, what were you discussing before I came here?” Then the monks related the story of the Brahmin who smelled swords for the king of Kosala. Buddha said, “Not only today this man faced this mishap, but also in the past he faced the same fate.” The monks requested the Buddha to disclose the past story. The Buddha spoke then the past story:

At one time, a king called Brahmadatta ruled in Benares. He had a fortune-telling Brahmin who by smelling swords could tell their goodness or badness. He took bribes from the sword smiths. He condemned the work of those smiths who had not given bribes because they had not given him bribes.

Once a certain trickster smith made a good sword and made it well sharpened. He applied hot chili powder to it and took it to the king. The king summoned the Brahmin to examine the sword. As it was covered with hot chili powder, when he smelled it, he sneezed before he was able to remove the sword from his nose. The tip of his nose was cut off, and he was ashamed because of this. The king became very sad because of this and requested his craftsmen to make a fake tip for the Brahmin’s nose with wax. And the Brahmin again asked to work for the king.

At this time the king had a nephew at his palace, and also his daughter. The two of them since they were very young, had grown up together. When they got older, they fell in love with each other. The king did not know this secret love. The king and his ministers one day discussed the marriage of the princess. The king said, “I will give my daughter to a prince of another kingdom.  If I do so, I will gain two new supporters, the prince and his father, to defend my kingdom.” Since then, the princess was not allowed to see the nephew with whom she had grown up so as to try to prevent them from falling in love. This strengthened their love for one another. And the nephew wanted to marry the princess as they both were now grown up.

The nephew therefore made a stratagem to marry the princess. He met the servant woman of the princess and gave her a bribe of a thousand gold coins. He requested her to keep the princess away for one day from the palace so that he could get to her. The woman said, “Do not worry. I will do it. I will take responsibility for that.”

Thinking of a stratagem, she went to the king and said, “Your lordship, your daughter is under the influence of an evil spirit. She is becoming unlucky and emaciated. Therefore, we will have to remove the evil spirit from her body.” The king asked, “What can we do for that?” The woman said, “In such-and-such a place there is a certain cemetery. There you need to make a stage. Keep a corpse on top of it, and cover it placing a bed over the dead body. We will place the princess on the bed and bathe her. Then the evil spirit will leave her.”

Hearing this, the king ordered her to do all these things and gave her all she had requested. She then undertook the task. She also tied some dried chili powder in a cloth, and she hid it near the bed so the nephew would be able to take it. She requested the nephew to go there and lie under the bed as the dead body. She explained to the nephew how to carry this off. The woman said to the caretakers, “When I come to the cemetery and wash the princess, the dead body will sneeze two or three times, come out from under the bed, and seize and devour the first one whom he sees. Therefore, be warned. Run away.” This was also mentioned to the nephew and princess, and the nephew was told, “When the caretakers run away, take the princess out of the cemetery, and after taking a bath with her, go wherever you like.”

On the day they set to have the service, the nephew went early and lay down under the bed she had prepared. The woman mentioned again to all the caretakers in the cemetery, “When the dead body sneezes, you will have to be ready for the death of the first one he seizes.” When, as she said, the nephew started to sneeze, all the caretakers laying their weapons down beside them, ran away from the cemetery screaming loudly. The retinue and other dignitaries who had come to witness this also all ran away.

When the nephew came out from under the bed, he took the princess, took a good bath, and went to his house with her. Hearing this news, the king became happy and he gave his daughter to the nephew.

Finalizing this story the Buddha said, “At that time the fortune-telling Brahmin who was skilled in sniffing swords was this fortune-telling Brahmin of today. The nephew prince of the king of Benares was I who am the Buddha.”

The moral: “What causes a loss for one person, may cause a gain for someone else.”

126. The Story of the Characteristics of Swords [AsilakkhaÏa-Jātaka]

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125. The Story of Kaæāhaka [One Who is an Empty Cauldron] [Kaæāhaka-Jātaka]

This story was told regarding a monk who was boastful and who had a cunning mind. The story of that monk was given in the Vikantana-Jātaka (?).

At one time when Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares, the Enlightenment Being was born as a millionaire in that city. At that time a son was born to the Enlightenment Being in his house. On the very same day, a certain servant girl also gave birth to a child. The millionaire’s son and the slave girl’s son both grew up together. When the millionaire’s son went to study, the servant girl’s son also went there and learned how to write, how to count, and all the other subjects. He was known as Kaæāhaka. He was very smart in commerce; also he was skilled in talking and debating. Therefore, the millionaire appointed him to look after his treasure.

One day the lad Kaæāhaka thought, “This status will not be permanent to me forever. Whenever my employer sees a fault in me, he will brand my chest and put me back into slavery. Then I will have to suffer a lot.” Therefore he thought, “Let me do a stratagem so I can remain in this status forever. Let me be friendly with the millionaire so as to gain his complete trust. He has another millionaire friend in a remote village. After being friendly with the millionaire, I will go to his millionaire friend and pretend to be the son of the millionaire. Doing so, I will marry his daughter and have her cook me food. If I do this, I will never lose the status I now have.”

Thinking so, he wrote a letter to the millionaire in the remote village as if he were the millionaire himself introducing his son. This stated, “I send to you my son known as Kaæāhaka for the purpose of marrying your daughter as our families are of the same caste and are appropriately matched to each other. Therefore please give your daughter to him, and he will be able to look after your wealth and so forth until I come to celebrate the marriage. I am at the moment unable to come as I have many things to do here. I will come later.” Stating these things, he wrote such a letter. And he affixed to it the seal of the millionaire. As he was able to go anywhere in the millionaire’s house, he stole some sandals, perfumes and comfortable clothes to give to the millionaire and his daughter, and he went to the millionaire’s home in the remote village and paid his respects to him.

Then the millionaire asked, “From where did you come?” And he said, “I came from Benares.” The millionaire asked, “Whose son are you?” And he said, “I am the son of the millionaire of Benares.” Then he asked, “Why did you come here?” And he took out the letter he had brought, and giving it to the millionaire he said, “You can understand why I came here by reading this.”

The millionaire read the letter and became very happy. And he gave him for marriage to his daughter together with great wealth and many luxurious things.

After that, when the millionaire’s daughter was using those luxurious things that were supposedly sent by the millionaire of Benares, Kaæāhaka used to humiliate her saying, “Did you ever have these types of things before— such perfumes, sweets and so forth, as these?” And when he was given rice and such other things to eat, he would say, “I cannot eat this type of rice and food. It is the poor fare of the provinces.” And when he was given perfume and flowers, he would say, “I cannot use these village products.” He always used to belittle her, saying that he was from the city and she was from the country.

When the millionaire of Benares found that his slave was gone, he wanted to get him back. Later, he heard that his slave Kaæāhaka was living in the country millionaire’s village. Hearing this, the millionaire decided to visit the country millionaire and he got permission from the king to go there. This was heard here and there, and in due course Kaæāhaka also heard this news. Kaæāhaka thought, “There is no doubt that he is coming to get me and to hurt me as I have done this deception.” And he thought further, “It would not be good to hide. It would be better to stay here, and when he comes I will work for him as I have done previously. In this way, I will win his mind. Then I can live freely.” Thinking this, he let it be known to everyone, “We city people are not like you provincials. When we see our parents, we live with the fear and shame of doing bad deeds. We do not sit together with them, and do not eat together with them.  We wash our parents’ feet, take them water for bathing, and do all such necessary things as if we were their servants.” Meanwhile, the millionaire came to a nearby village and stayed there.

Hearing this, Kaæāhaka went to his father-in-law and said, “Father-in-law, our father will come to this village soon. It would be good to make arrangements to welcome him and to organize hospitality for when he arrives.” And the country millionaire did so.

When the Benares millionaire came, he was very much welcomed. And after he was well entertained, after their lunch, the Benares millionaire went to take a rest. Then Kaæāhaka took a container of water and placed it near the Benares millionaire’s bed, and kneeling down paid obeisance to the Benares millionaire. He begged him, “Your lordship, whatever you want me to do, I will do for you. But please, do one thing for me. Please do not destroy my present situation here, and do not reveal me.” The millionaire on seeing his humble nature and obedience, and his unconceited air, said, “Do not worry about that. I will not reveal you and put you down from your position.”

When the two millionaires were chatting, the country millionaire said, “Sir, when you sent your son, I did everything for him, and I also gave my daughter to him. I did not omit doing anything for him.” The Benares millionaire said, “That is a very good thing that you have done. Our friendship has developed into a relationship now.” And he stayed there for a few days enjoying his hospitality.

One day, the Benares millionaire’s supposed daughter- in-law was combing his hair, and he asked her, “How is your husband? Are you happy with him or not? Do you get along, or does he put on airs with you?” She said, “Your lordship, he is not bad with others. But he has one weakness. When I do something wrong, he abuses me saying that I am a dirty woman. But there is nothing more.”

Then the millionaire said, “I will teach you a verse to tell him if he says this again.” Teaching her that, after a few days he left for Benares.

Kaæāhaka was with him, and left with him as far as the next village. He did not let anyone else talk with him. He said, “goodbye,” after going a certain distance, and then came back. [He then became even more conceited than before, as nothing bad had happened against him.]

One day, his wife prepared rice for his lunch, and on seeing this rice he said, “This is the rice you give to me? This is village rice. It cannot be eaten by city people.” Then the millionaire’s daughter recited the Pāli verse that was taught by the millionaire of Benares:

“One speaks boastfully when he goes to a remote village.

“Without saying unnecessary things, Kaæāhaka, eat this rice.”

She did not know the meaning of this stanza, since she was not well educated. Kaæāhaka, though, understood it, and he became afraid. From that point on, Kaæāhaka did not complain too much.

The real meaning of this stanza is this:

“Kaæāhaka, just because you come from another part of this country to here,  do not put down everything and everyone. Why do you not mind your former status? Your millionaire lordship this time returned without doing anything. If he comes back, the next time he will put a branding on your chest and take you back.”

Saying so, the Buddha ended the story and further said, “This monk was the boastful Kaæāhaka at that time. The millionaire of Benares was I who am the Buddha.”

The moral: “Being cunning will not gain all things.”

125. The Story of Kaæāhaka [One Who is an Empty Cauldron] [Kaæāhaka-Jātaka]

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124. The Story of Water [Amba-Jātaka]

At one time, Buddha was living in Jetavana monastery. Once there came to that place a young man, and the Buddha ordained him. From the day that he was ordained, he was very strict in performing his duties properly. He did all duties such as sweeping the compound, the preaching hall, and the temple complex, as well as bringing water for washing and drinking, all at their proper times without being lazy. Due to his tireless work, all the lay people were very happy. They gave 500 bowls of water daily, and that water was very useful to many hundreds of monks. This story went mouth to mouth among the monks, and finally it reached the hall of law where Buddha preached in the evening. When this was being discussed there, Buddha went early to the preaching hall and asked them, “Oh monks, what were you talking about before I came?” They said, “Venerable Bhante, because of the newly ordained young monk, we are becoming the beneficiaries of many things. We were talking about that.” The Buddha said, “Oh monks, not only today has this monk been beneficial to us because of his dutifulness and punctuality, but also he was so in the past.” Then the monks requested the Buddha to disclose this monk’s past.

This is how the former story was:

Long ago, a king called Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares. At that time, the Enlightenment Being was born in a well-known Brahmin family. But by seeing the disadvantages of sensual desires, he renounced his lay life and went to the Himalayan forest, joining 500 ascetics. He became their chief.

At that time in the Himalayan forest, there was a severe drought. There was no rain for a long time. As the ponds and lakes dried up and wild animals had no water to drink, they suffered a lot. One out of the 500 ascetics cut down a tree and hollowed out a trough in which to keep water. Daily he put water from a well in this trough, constantly replenishing it. The wild animals became very happy by his efforts. They understood that because of this he had no time to go to fetch fruit for his meal. Therefore they discussed this with each other, and determined that when each came to take water, each would bring some fruit like mangoes, jackfruit, and such other edible fruit. When this happened, there became a large quantity of fruit to be eaten by the 500 ascetics.

The Enlightenment Being understood this situation and said to the ascetics, “We 500 obtained these sweet edible fruit without having to go into the forest because of this one ascetic who made such an effort to give water to animals. Therefore, whether you are clergy or a lay person, everyone must make an effort to do good.”

The ascetic, who fetched water from a well with much effort at that time, is today this dutiful monk. The leader of those ascetics at that time was myself who has become the Buddha.

The moral: “Be generous regardless of position or status.”

124. The Story of Water [Amba-Jātaka]

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