{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j5/j5011.htm","path":"bud/j5/j5011.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j5/j5011.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. V, tr. by H.T. Francis, [1905]\n\"No man that lets,\" etc.\u2014This was a story told by the Master, whilst sojourning at Jetavana, as to how Devadatta told a lie, and how the earth opened and swallowed him up. At that time, when Devadatta was being blamed by the Brethren, the Master said, \"Not now only, Brethren, but of old too Devadatta told a lie and was swallowed up by the earth,\" and so saying he told a story of the past.\nOnce upon a time when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, five hundred trading folk took ship and set sail, and on the seventh day when they were out of sight of land, they were wrecked in mid ocean and all save one man became food for fishes. This one by favour of the wind reached the port of Karambiya, and landing naked and destitute he went about the place, begging alms. The people thought, \"Here is an ascetic, happy and contented with little,\" and they showed him every hospitality. But he said, \"I have enough to live upon,\" and when they offered him under and upper garments, he would have none of them. They said, \"No ascetic can go beyond this in the way of contentment,\" and being the more exceedingly pleased with him, they built him a hermitage for a dwelling-place, and he went by the name of the Karambiya ascetic. While he was living here, he met with great honour and gain, and both a snake-king and a garu\u1e0da-king came to pay their respects to him, and the name of the former was Pa\u1e47\u1e0dara. Now one day the garu\u1e0da-king came to the ascetic and after saluting him took his seat on one side and said, \"Sir, our people,\nwhen they attack snakes, many of them perish. We do not know the right way to seize snakes. There is said to be some mystery in the matter. You could, perhaps, wheedle them [76] out of the secret.\" \"All right,\" said the ascetic, and when the garu\u1e0da-king had taken his leave and departed, as soon as ever the snake-king arrived and with a respectful salutation had taken his seat, he asked him, saying, \"King-snake, the garu\u1e0das say that in seizing you, many of them are killed. In attacking you, how can they seize you securely?\" \"Sir,\" he replied, \"this is our secret; if I were to tell it, I should bring about the destruction of all my kinsfolk.\" \"What do you really suspect me of telling some one else? I'll tell no one. I only ask to satisfy my own curiosity. You may trust and tell me without the slightest fear.\" The snake-king promised to tell him and took his leave. The next day the ascetic again asked him, and then too he did not tell him. But on the third day when the snake-king had come and taken his seat, the ascetic said, \"To-day is the third day since I asked you. Why do you not tell me?\" \"I am afraid, Sir, you might tell some one else.\" \"I'll not say a word to a creature: tell me without any fear.\" Then the snake made him promise to tell no one, and said, \"Sir, we make ourselves heavy by swallowing very big stones and lie down, and when the garu\u1e0das come, we open our mouths wide, and show our teeth and fall upon them. They come on and seize us by the head, and while they strive to lift us up, heavy as we are, from the ground, the water streams from them, and they drop down dead in the midst of it. In this way a number of garu\u1e0das perish. When they attack us, why in the world do they seize us by the head? If the foolish creatures should seize us by the tail and hold us head downwards, they could force us to disgorge the stones we have swallowed, and so, making us a light weight, they could carry us off with them.\" Thus did the snake reveal his secret to this wicked fellow. Then, when the snake had gone away, up came the garu\u1e0da-king, and saluting the Karambiya ascetic he asked, \"Well! Sir, have you learned his secret from the snake-king?\" [77] \"Yes, Sir,\" he said, and told him everything just as it was told him. On hearing it, the garu\u1e0da said, \"The snake-king has made a great mistake. He ought not to have told another how to destroy his kinsfolk. Well, to-day I must first of all raise a garu\u1e0da 1 wind and seize him.\" So, raising a wind, he seized Pa\u1e47\u1e0dara the snake-king by the tail and held him head downmost; and having thus made him disgorge the stones he had swallowed, he flew up into the air with him. Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka, as he was suspended head downwards in the air, sorely lamenting cried, \"I have brought sorrow upon me,\" and he repeated these stanzas:\nThe man who in his folly could betray No comrade ought thy inmost thoughts to share, I trusted him alas! for was not he Into my confidence the wretch did creep, [78] Judging his friend as faithful to the core Whoso proclaims in evil company Fair women, silken robes and sandal wood,\n Random of speech, to indiscretion prone,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Poor fool, at once is overcome by fear,\n As I king-snake am by a bird o\u2019erthrown. \n \n The thought that he should hide from light of day,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By his rash speech is overcome by fear,\n As I king-snake fall to this bird a prey.\n The best of friends ofttimes most foolish are,\n And if too wise, of treachery beware.\n A holy man, of strict austerity?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My secret I revealed; the deed is done\n And now I weep for very misery.\n Nor could I any secret from him keep:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From him the danger that I dread has come,\n And now for very misery I weep.\n And moved by fear, or the strong love he bore,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To some vile wretch his secret one betrays\n And is o\u2019erthrown, poor fool, to rise no more.\n The secret thought that still should hidden lie,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2019Mongst men is counted as a poison-snake:\n \"From such an one, pray, keep aloof,\" they cry.\n Garlands and perfumes, even drink and food,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yea all desires\u2014if only thou, O bird,\n Come to our aid\u2014shall be by us eschewed.\n[79] Thus did Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka, suspended in the air head downwards, utter his lament in eight stanzas. The garu\u1e0da, hearing the sound of his lamentation, reproved him and said, \"King-snake, after divulging your secret to the ascetic, wherefore do you now lament?\" And he uttered this stanza:\n The one that rightly should incur the blame.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor priest nor bird, but foolish deed of thine,\n O snake, hath brought thee to this depth of shame.\nOn hearing this Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka repeated another stanza:\n A holy man, of strict austerity:\n [80] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My secret I betrayed: the deed is done,\n And now I weep for very misery.\nThen the garu\u1e0da repeated four stanzas:\n Yet Wisdom's ways her children justify:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By knowledge, justice, self-restraint and truth\n A man at length achieves his purpose high.\nParents and kin of every degree, A wife may youthful be and good and fair,\n No third there is to show us equal love,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not e\u2019en to them betray thy secret thought,\n Lest peradventure they should traitors prove. \n \n Allies and comrades all may friendly be:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To none of them entrust thy hidden thought,\n Or thou wilt later rue their treachery.\n Own troops of friends, and children's love may share:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not e\u2019en to her entrust thy hidden thought,\n Or of her treachery thou must beware.\n[81] Then follow these stanzas:\nWise men to woman or a foe their secrets ne\u2019er betray; Whoso reveals his secret thought to one not overwise, All such as know the secret thing that thou shouldst rather hide, By day to thine own self alone the secret dare to name, For close at hand, be sure, there stand men ready to betray\n Disclosure of a secret thing no wise man would approve. \n \n Trust not the slaves of appetite; creatures of impulse they.\n Fears the betrayal of his trust and at his mercy lies.\n Threaten thy peace of mind; to none that secret thing confide.\n But venture not at dead of night that secret to proclaim;\n The slightest word they may have heard: so trust them not, I pray.\nThese five stanzas will appear in the Problem of the Five Sages in the Ummagga Birth.\nThen follow these stanzas:\nWho by rash speech to secrets give no clue,\n With moat, of iron wrought, has long defied\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[82] All entrance of a foe to Fairy Land,\n So e\u2019en are they that do their counsels hide. \n \n But ever steadfast to themselves are true,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From them all enemies do keep aloof,\n As men flee far when deadly snakes pursue.\nWhen the Truth had been thus proclaimed by the garu\u1e0da, Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka said:\nWhat line of conduct should a priest pursue,\n And seeking alms did through the country roam:\n To him my secret I alas! did tell,\n And straight from happiness and virtue fell. \n \n What vows take on him, and what faults eschew?\n How free himself from his besetting sin,\n And at the last a heavenly mansion win?\n[83] The garu\u1e0da said:\n By calumny and ire abandoning,\n Thus may a priest get rid of every sin,\n And at the last a heavenly mansion win.\nPa\u1e47\u1e0daraka, on hearing the garu\u1e0da-king thus declare the Truth, begged for his life and repeated this stanza:\n Is thrilled in every limb with holy joy,\n So upon me, O king of birds, bestow\n That pity mothers to their children show.\nThen the garu\u1e0da in granting him his life repeated another stanza:\n Of kinds of children there are only three,\n [84] Pupil, adopted child and true-born son:\n Of these rejoice that thou art surely one.\nSo saying, he alighted from the air and placed the snake upon the ground.\nThe Master, to make the matter clear, repeated two stanzas:\nAs a skilled leech to men with sickness curst,\n And gently bore him to the earth below;\n \"Set free to-day, go, safe from danger dwell\n In water or on land. I'll guard thee well. \n \n Or a cool tank to those that are athirst,\n As house that shelters from a chilling frost,\n So I a refuge prove to thee, when lost.\"\nAnd saying, \"Be off,\" he let him go. And the snake disappeared in the abode of the n\u0101gas. But the bird, returning to the dwelling-place of the garu\u1e0das, said, \"The snake Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka has won my confidence under oath and has been let loose by me. I will now put him to the test, to see what his feelings are towards me,\" and repairing to the abode of the n\u0101gas, he raised a garu\u1e0da wind. On seeing him the snake-king thought the garu\u1e0da-king must have come to seize him, so he assumed a form that stretched to a thousand fathoms and making himself heavy by swallowing stones and sand [85] he lay down, keeping his tail beneath him and raising the hood upon his head, as if minded to bite the garu\u1e0da-king. On seeing this the garu\u1e0da repeated another stanza:\n But now thou showst thy fangs. Whence comes this fear to thee?\nOn hearing this the snake-king repeated three stanzas:\nWhat! trust the man with whom one quarrelled long ago! Inspire a trust in all, but put thy trust in none,\n Security breeds fear, to kill thee root and branch. \n \n Nay, stand upon thy guard. No one can love his foe.\n Thyself suspected not, be to suspicion prone.\n He that is truly wise ought every nerve to strain\n That his true nature ne\u2019er may be to others plain.\nThus did they talk one with another, and becoming reconciled and friendly they repaired together to the hermitage of the ascetic.\nThe Master, to make the matter clear, said,\n Breathing an air of holy purity;\n [86] Like steeds well matched neath equal yoke they ran,\n To seek the dwelling of that saintly man.\nWith regard to this the Master uttered another stanza:\n And thus Pa\u1e47\u1e0daraka addressed his foe,\n \"Know that to-day, all danger past, I'm free,\n But \u2019tis not due to love of thine for me.\"\nThen the ascetic repeated another stanza:\n I greater love than e\u2019er to thee did bear,\n Moved by affection for that royal bird,\n I of set purpose, not through folly, erred.\nOn hearing this, the snake-king repeated two stanzas:\n[87] Thou, seeming noble, art with meanness stained,\n Ne\u2019er finds himself with love or hatred vext,\n \u2019Neath garb of self-restraint thou fain wouldst hide\n But lawless acts that holy garb belied. \n \n And, as ascetic clad, art unrestrained;\n By nature with ignoble thoughts accurst,\n Thou in all kinds of sinful act art versed.\nSo to reprove him, he uttered this stanza, reviling him:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A guileless friend, be thy head riven\n By this my Act of Truth, I pray,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Piecemeal, all into fragments seven.\nSo before the very eyes of the snake-king, the head of the ascetic was split into seven pieces, and at the very spot where he was sitting the ground was cleft asunder. And, disappearing into the Earth, he was re-born in the Av\u012bci hell, and the snake-king and the garu\u1e0da-king returned each to his own abode.\nThe Master, to make clear the fact that he had been swallowed up by the earth, repeated the last stanza:\n Than a false friend worse man is none to see.\n Buried in earth the venomous creature lies,\n And at the snake-king's word the ascetic dies.\n[88] The Master here ended his discourse and said, \"Not now only, Brethren, but of old too, Devadatta told a lie and was swallowed up by the earth,\" and he identified the Birth: \"At that time the ascetic was Devadatta, the snake-king S\u0101riputta, and the garu\u1e0da-king was myself.\"\n42:1 Vol. vi. p. 329, J\u0101taka, No. 546.\n43:1 The wind agitated by the wings of Garu\u1e0da. Cf. N\u0101g\u0101nanda, Boyd's English version, p. 59: \"Garu\u1e0da was in the habit of devouring one snake daily, catching it up from hell, whilst the ocean was cleft asunder from top to bottom by the wind of his wings.\"","title":"The Jataka, Vol. V: No. 518.: Pa\u1e47\u1e0dara-J\u0101...","type":"page"}