The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-StoriesAryasura
Religion
The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-Stories
Aryasura
Gautama Buddha -- Pre-existence
But the Bodhisattva had perceived the approach of that noisy royal army
moving with loud tumult and uproar, like the billows of a sea roused by
the violence of the wind; he had seen the assault made on all sides of
his excellent tree with a shower of arrows, spears, clods, sticks, which
resembled a shower of thunderbolts; and he beheld his monkeys unable to
do anything but utter discordant cries of fear, while they looked up to
him with faces pale with dejection. His mind was affected with the
utmost compassion. Being himself free from affliction, sadness, and
anxiety, he comforted his tribe of monkeys, and having resolved upon
their rescue, climbed to the top of the tree, desirous to jump over to
the mountain-peak near it. And although that place could be reached only
by many successive leaps, the Great Being, by dint of his surpassing
heroism, passed across like a bird and held the spot.
8. Other monkeys would not be able to traverse that space even in two
successive leaps, but he, the courageous one, swiftly crossed it with
one single bound, as if it were a small distance.
9. His compassion had fostered his strong determination, but it was his
heroism which brought it to its perfection. So he made his utmost effort
to carry it out, and by the earnestness of his exertion he found the way
to it in his mind.
Having mounted, then, on some elevated place of the mountain-slope, he
found a cane, tall and strong, deep-rooted and strong-rooted, the size
of which surpassed the distance (between the mountain and the tree).
This he fastened to his feet, after which he jumped back to the tree.
But as the distance was great and he was embarrassed by his feet being
tied, the Great Being hardly succeeded in seizing with his hands the
nearest branch of the tree.
10. Then holding fast that branch and keeping the cane stretched by his
effort, he ordered his tribe, making them the signal proper to his race,
to come quickly off the tree.
And the monkeys, as they were bewildered by fear, having found that way
of retreat, hastened to make use of it, wildly rushing over his body
without regard to him, and safely escaped along that cane.
11. While being incessantly trodden by the feet of those fear-bewildered
monkeys, his body lost the solidity of its flesh, but his mind did not
lose its extraordinary firmness.
On beholding this, the king and his men were overcome with the utmost
astonishment.
12. Such a splendid display of strength and wisdom, combined with such
great self-denial and mercy to others, must rouse wonder in the minds of
those who hear of it; how much more did it affect the bystanders who
witnessed it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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