| J.390 |
Mayhaka Jaataka | Mayhakasaku.na Jaataka |
The bodhisatva was once born in a very wealthy family, and he built an alms hall
and gave away generously. He married, and, on the birth of a son, he entrusted wife
and child to his younger brother and became an ascetic. When the boy began to grow
up, the brother drowned him in the river lest he should claim half the estate. The
bodhisatva saw this with his divine eye and called on his brother to whom he pointed
out the folly of covetousness. ëYou are like a mayhaka-bird who sits on a pipal tree
and keeps on crying mine! mine!, while the other birds eat the fruit.í The story
was told in reference to a wealthy man of Savatthi, a stranger who settled there.
He neither enjoyed his wealth nor gave it to others, living in poverty, eating rice-dust
and sour gruel, and travelling in a broken-down chariot with a parasol of leaves.
He died without issue and his money passed to the king. When the king told the Buddha
of this, the Buddha explained that the miser had, in a previous birth, met the paccekabuddha
Tagarasikhi begging for alms and had sent word to his wife to give the food prepared
for himself. This the wife gladly did -- but when the man saw Tagarasikhi with his
bowl full of sweet foods, he regretted his generosity. Therefore, in this birth,
though possessing much wealth, he never enjoyed it. He was childless because he was
the very man who had drowned the Bodhisatvaís son. |
59/161 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.iii.299ff. |
stinginess |