Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
At that moment Māra came there with the intention of stopping the
Bodisat; and standing in the air, he exclaimed, “Depart not, O my lord!
in seven days from now the wheel of empire will appear, and will make
you sovereign over the four continents and the two thousand adjacent
isles. Stop, O my lord!”
“Who are you?” said he.
“I am Vasavatti,” was the reply.
“Māra! Well do I know that the wheel of empire would appear to me; but
it is not sovereignty that I desire. I will become a Buddha, and make
the ten thousand world-systems shout for joy.”
Then thought the Tempter to himself: “Now, from this time forth,
whenever a thought of lust or anger or malice shall arise within you,
I will get to know of it.” And he followed him, ever watching for some
slip, as closely as a shadow which never leaves its object.
But the future Buddha, making light of the kingdom of the world, thus
within his reach,--casting it away as one would saliva,--left the city
with great honour on the full-moon day of Āsāḷhi, when the moon was in
the Uttarā-sāḷha lunar mansion (_i.e._ on the 1st July). And when he
had left the city a desire sprang up within him to gaze upon it; and
the instant he did so the broad earth revolved like a potter’s wheel,
and was stayed: saying as it were to him, “O Great Being, there is no
need for you to stop in order to fulfil your wish.” So the Bodisat,
with his face towards the city, gazed at it; and he fixed at that
place a spot for the Kanthaka-Nivattana Cetiya (that is, The Shrine of
Kanthaka’s Staying--a Dāgaba afterwards built where this miracle was
believed to have happened). And keeping Kanthaka in the direction in
which he was going, he went on with great honour and exceeding glory.
For then, they say, angels in front of him carried sixty thousand
torches, and behind him too, and on his right hand, and on his left.
And while some deities, undefined on the edge of the horizon, held
torches aloft; other deities, and the Nāgas, and Winged Creatures, and
other superhuman beings, bore him company--doing homage with heavenly
perfumes, and garlands, and sandal-wood powder, and incense. And the
whole sky was full of Paricchātaka flowers from Indra’s heaven, as
with the pouring rain when thick clouds gather. Heavenly songs floated
around; and on every side thousands of musical instruments sounded,
as when the thunder roars in the midst of the sea, or the great ocean
heaves against the boundaries of the world!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account