{"collection":"Khuddaka Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_cp16/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_cp16","id":"suttacentral_cp16","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/cp16/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Khuddaka Nikaya"],"text":"\u201cThen again when I was the king of deer named Ruru, in appearance I was like burnished gold, focused on the highest ethics. There was a pleasant, delightful region, free of humans, so I went there and stayed on a lovely bank of the Ganges. Then a man upstream, harassed by creditors, fell into the Ganges, thinking, \u2018I live or I die!\u2019 Day and night in the Ganges he was swept along the stream, crying out pitifully, along the middle of the Ganges. When I heard the sound of his pitiful crying, I stood on the Ganges bank and asked, \u2018What man are you?\u2019 When asked he explained to me his own deed: \u2018I was so scared of my creditors, I jumped in the great river!\u2019 Taking pity on him, surrendering my own life, I entered and dragged him out in the darkness of the night. When I knew he had recovered, I said to him, \u2018I ask of you one favor: tell no one about me.\u2019 But once he had returned to the city, for the sake of money he told when asked. Taking the king, he drew close to me. All that I had done was related to the king. When the king heard this, he fitted his arrow, thinking, \u2018Right here I shall kill this ignoble betrayer of a friend.\u2019 I protected him, substituting myself: \u2018Let him be, Great King. I shall carry out your pleasure.\u2019 I guarded my ethics, not my life. For then I was ethical, because it was solely for awakening.\u201d","title":"Ruru the Deer King\u2019s Conduct","tradition":"Khuddaka Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":257}