Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
When the Master had finished this discourse in illustration of what he
had said (“Not now only O mendicants! has this monk, caught by the lust
of taste, fallen into her power; formerly also he did the same”), he
made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka as follows: “He who was
then Sanjaya was this slave-girl, the antelope was the monk, but the
king of Benares was I myself.”
END OF THE STORY OF THE SWIFT ANTELOPE.
No. 15.
KHARĀDIYĀ JĀTAKA.
The Deer who would not learn.
“_Though a deer be most swift, O Kharādiyā._”--This the Master told
when at Jetavana, concerning a certain foul-mouthed monk. For that
monk, we are told, was abusive, and would take no admonition.
Now the Master asked him, “Is it true what they say, O mendicant! that
you are abusive, and will take no admonition?”
“It is true, O Blessed One!” said he.
The Master said, “Formerly also, by your surliness and your refusing to
accept the admonition of the wise, you were caught in a snare and came
to destruction.” And he told a story.
* * * * *
Once upon a time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the
Bodisat became a stag, and lived in the forest, with a herd for his
retinue.
Now his sister-roe (Kharādiyā) pointed out to him her son, and gave him
in charge to him, saying, “Brother! this is your nephew. Teach him the
devices of the deer.”
And he said to his nephew, “Come at such and such a time to learn.”
At the appointed time he did not go. And one day as he was wandering
about, disregarding seven admonitions given on as many days, and not
learning the devices of the deer, he was caught in a snare.
Then his mother went to her brother, and asked, “How now, brother! was
your nephew instructed in the devices of the deer?”
“Think no more of that incorrigible fellow!” said the Bodisat. “Your
son did not learn the devices of the deer.”
And then, to explain his own unwillingness to have anything further to
do with him, he uttered this stanza:
“Though a deer be most swift,[291] O Kharādiyā!
And have antlers rising point o’er point,
If he transgress the seventh time,
I would not try to teach him more!”
But the hunter killed that wilful deer caught in the snare, and, taking
his flesh, departed.
* * * * *
The Master having finished this discourse, in illustration of what
he had said (“Formerly also, by your surliness and your refusing to
accept the admonition of the wise, you were caught in a snare, and
came to destruction”), made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka:
“The nephew deer of that time was the abusive monk, the sister was
Uppala-vaṇṇā, but the admonishing deer was I myself.”
END OF THE STORY OF THE DEER WHO WOULD NOT LEARN.
No. 16.
TIPALLATTHA-MIGA JĀTAKA.
The Cunning Deer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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