SACCAMKIRA JĀTAKA (NO.73)
MERITS CAN MAKE, YET BREAK A MAN
The Buddha told this story while residing in Bamboo Grove.
Once upon a time, King Brahmadatta of Benares had a son who grew up to be a very cruel and wicked man. He was always quick tempered and people inside and outside the palace avoided him like the plague. One day, the prince decided to go swimming in the river with his servants and attendants. Suddenly, the sky turned dark and gloomy and a great storm broke. Eager to show that he was a courageous person, he yelled at his servants to take him into the river and bathe him before bringing him back to the shore again. Following his orders, the servants took the prince out to midstream. “This is our chance! Let’s kill the evil prince. Whatever we do here, the king will never find out,” they whispered to one another. “Into the flood waters you go, you good-for-nothing!” With that, they threw the prince into the stormy river and he was swept along by the raging waters. Fortunately, he was able to grab hold of a floating dead log which he clung onto for his dear life.
Now, a very rich man had just died in Benares. He had buried his treasure trove of forty million gold coins in the riverbank along the same stretch of river. Due to his miserly ways and attachment to wealth, he was reborn as a snake at the same spot where he had buried his treasure to guard it. Similarly, at a nearby spot on the same riverbank, another rich miser had also stashed away a treasure of thirty million gold coins. Likewise, due to his stinginess and craving for money, he had been reborn as a water rat at that exact same place to watch over the gold. When the river water rose, both the snake and the water rat were flooded out of their holes and swept into the raging river. Like the prince, they both happened to grasp on to the same dead log that was carrying the frightened, wailing prince. The snake climbed up on one end and the water rat on the other.
At that moment, a young parrot was washed up onto the same dead log. This parrot had been roosting in a tall cotton tree that grew nearby the river. However, when the rainstorm came, the cotton tree was uprooted and the little parrot fell into the water. The heavy rain and the strong winds hampered the parrot when it tried to fly.
So these four floated downstream together upon the log, towards a bend in the river. A holy man happened to be living humbly in a little hut nearby. This holy man was the future Buddha. When the log floated pass the holy man’s hut at midnight, he heard the panicked shrieks of the evil prince. “I will not let this poor frightened human being perish before my eyes. I must rescue him from the water and save his life. Don’t be afraid! I will save you!” he shouted as he ran down the river and jumped into the rushing torrent. With great strength and effort, he grabbed the log and pulled it safely to shore.
When the holy man noticed the poor wet animals, he brought all three animals and the prince into his cosy little hut. He started a small fire and thinking that the animals being weaker were in greater need, warmed them first before allowing the prince to warm himself. Next, the holy man gave out some fruits and nuts. Again, he fed the more helpless animals before attending to the waiting prince. Not surprisingly, this made the evil prince furious. “How dare this holy man value these dumb animals more highly than me, a great royal prince!” he thought angrily. As a result of this thinking, he nursed a bitter grudge against his saviour.
A few days later, all four had recovered their strength and the waters had subsided. It was time for them to leave. The snake approached the gentle future Buddha to say goodbye first. It bowed its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I am grateful to you for saving my life. I have buried a treasure of forty million gold coins in a certain place. To repay your kindness to me, I will gladly give it to you for all lives are priceless! Whenever you are in need of money, just come down to the riverbank and look for me by calling out, ‘Snake! Snake!’” The water rat was next to bade the holy man farewell. It bowed its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I cannot thank you enough for saving my life. I, too, have buried a treasure of thirty million gold coins in a certain place. To repay your kindness, I will also gladly give it to you for all lives are priceless! Whenever you are in need of money, just look for me at the riverbank by calling out, ‘Rat! Rat!’” The depth of gratitude and generosity shown by the snake and the water rat was a far cry from their previous stingy human lives! Then, came the parrot’s turn to say goodbye to the holy man. It bowed its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I am grateful to you for saving my life, but I do not possess any silver or gold. However, if you are ever in need of the finest rice, just look for me at the riverbank by calling out, ‘Parrot! Parrot!’ With the help of my relatives from all the forests of Himalayas, we will bring you cart-loads of the most precious fragrant rice, for all lives are priceless!”
The evil prince was the last to take his leave. As his mind was bent on avenging the insults he thought he received from the holy man, he was far from feeling grateful to him for saving his life. In fact, he thought only about killing the holy man. But he masked his true intent and said, “Venerable one, please come to me when I’m the king and I will provide you with the four necessities – food, clothing, shelter and medicine.” With that, he returned to Benares and was soon crowned as the new king.
Later, the holy man decided to check if the gratitude of these four was real. So, he went down to the riverbank and called out “Snake! Snake!” At the sound of the first word, the snake slithered out of its home under the ground. It bowed respectfully and said, “Holy one, under this very spot lay forty million gold coins. Dig them up and take them with you!” “Very well,” replied the holy man, “When I am in need, I will come again.” Saying goodbye to the snake, he walked along the riverbank to where the rat lived, and called out “Rat! Rat!” The water rat appeared and just like the snake, it too showed the spot where his treasure lay and offered his hoard to the holy man. Next, he called out “Parrot! Parrot!” The parrot flew down from its home at the top of the tree, bowed respectfully and said, “Holy one, do you need fine fragrant rice? I will summon my relatives and we will bring you the best rice in all of Himalayas.” The holy man replied, “Very well, when I am in need, I will come again.”
Finally, he set out to see the king. In a very humble and dignified manner, he went to collect alms in the city of Benares. On that same morning, the ungrateful king, happened to be leading a vast procession around the city, seated on a magnificently adorned royal elephant. When he saw the future Buddha coming towards him from a distance, he thought, “Aha! This lazy homeless bum is coming to sponge off me. Before he can brag to everyone how much he did for me, I must have him beheaded!”
So the king ordered, “This worthless beggar must be coming to ask for something. Don’t let the lazy good for nothing get near me. Arrest him immediately, tie his hands behind his back and whip him at every street corner. Take him out of the city and have him executed.” The king’s men followed his cruel orders. They tied up the innocent holy man and whipped him mercilessly at every street corner on the way to the execution place. But no matter how hard the whip cut into his flesh, the future Buddha remained dignified. After each slash of the whip, he simply exclaimed, for all to hear, “This proves that the old saying is still true ‘A log pays better salvage than some men’.”
Some of the onlookers began to wonder why he said that at each street corner. “This poor man’s pain must have been caused by an ungrateful man,” they said to one other. “Oh holy man, how have you helped an ungrateful man?” they asked. Then he told them the whole story and in conclusion, he said, “I rescued this king from a terrible flood and in doing so, I brought this pain upon myself for I did not follow the saying of the wise and the old. That’s why I repeatedly say ‘It pays to pull logs from a river than to help an ungrateful man’.”
After hearing this story, the people of Benares became enraged. “This good man saved the king’s life, but instead of repaying his kindness, he has treated him so cruelly. How can such an ingrate possibly be a good king? He can only be dangerous to us. Let’s overthrow him!” Rage turned the citizens of Benares into a mob. They pelted the king as he rode on his royal elephant with arrows, knives, clubs and stones, thus, killing him. Then, they made the holy man their new king and he ruled Benares in righteousness.
In that life, Devadatta was the wicked king, Sāriputta was the snake, Moggallāna was the rat, Ānanda was the parrot and the Buddha was the righteous holy man who won a kingdom.
The future Buddha with an uncompromising stance, had indirectly led a rebellion against a deviated governance, conquering a sovereignty that self-corrupts. The rebellion was dependently a condition to win a true kingdom. Eventually, he became a great king who not only ruled the country but was sovereign over self and all.
Every person possesses the powerful force that can create his own karmic destiny even as great as a king. As in this tale, the very force that had empowered Brahmadatta to be king had also driven him to be impervious to the attempted assassination by his people at the river. Later, this very same force further blinded him to even lay the most cruel hand towards his own saviour and consequently, caused his death for being a wicked king.
The very quality of Necessity of Dependent Origination warns us to navigate skilfully, abiding to the conditionality of consequential consequences which is the very quintessence of the law of kamma. The merits of every person should be safeguarded by the crown knowledge of Dependent Origination so that enthronement does not lead to dethronement.
In the midst of the force of good which co-arises with evil,
the future Buddha remained in great equanimity
of all conditionality.
While he was able to save the snake, the rat, the parrot
and the prince from the great flood,
they had to individually save themselves.
The prince’s (the past Devadatta) merits was far greater than the snake (the past Sāriputta),
the rat (the past Moggallāna)
and the parrot (the past Ānanda).
However, each of them had to be tested individually
by the future Buddha.
The miserly snake, the stingy water rat and the thrifty parrot
all passed their test.
Surprisingly, the prince,
who had the most merits to be born as a prince,
treated the benefactor most ungratefully.
He even went to the extent of ordering the sage
to be whipped to death.
He was consumed by his own past merits
due to his pride of his royal birth.
Departing from the common Buddhist emphasis
on the importance of merits,
without the knowledge of Dependent Origination
merits which crown you as a king,
will also cause your downfall.
From being a practising ascetic, the future Buddha
conveniently assumed the role of a king
to fulfil the will of the people.
This enthroned him not only as a new king
but also portrayed the victory of conditionality over merits.