The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-StoriesAryasura
Religion
The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-Stories
Aryasura
Gautama Buddha -- Pre-existence
34. 'His tongue does not at all agree with his actions, still less with
his ill-intentioned heart. What has this man with unrestrained senses to
do in the penance-forest, that he should simulate religious vows and
dress and sit down in the hypocritical posture of a saint?'
Now, the king in his fit of wrath having thus rebuked his queens and
shown his hard-heartedness, they were affected with sorrow and sadness,
for they knew his ferocious nature and his contumacy which made him
inaccessible to persuasion. The eunuchs, who were likewise alarmed,
affected with anxiety, and afflicted, made signs to them with their
hands that they should withdraw. So they went away, lowering their faces
with shame and lamenting over that best of _Ri_shis.
35. 'We are the cause of the king's wrath against that sinless and
self-subdued holy ascetic, wide-famed for his virtues. Who knows what
will be the end of it? In one way or other will the king perform some
unbecoming deed, when he will make his wrath fall down on him, however
virtuous.
36. Yea, this king would be able to destroy his own royal behaviour and
his glory obtained by it, hurting the body of that Muni, as well as the
body of his penance, and grieving our guiltless minds at the same time!'
After the queens thus lamenting and sighing on his account--for what
could they else do for him?--were gone, the king in wrath came up to
the holy _Ri_shi, threatening him with drawn sword, in order to strike
him himself. On seeing that the Great Being, though thus assailed, kept
his calmness unchanged with imperturbable constancy, he became the more
excited, and said to him:
37. 'How skilled he is in playing the holy one, that he looks even at me
as if he were a Muni, persisting in his guileful arrogance!'
The Bodhisattva, however, owing to his constant practice of forbearance,
was not at all disturbed, and as he at once understood from that hostile
proceeding, though not without astonishment, that it was the eagerness
of wrath which caused the king to act in such an unbecoming way that he
had thrown off all restraint of politeness and good manners and lost the
faculty of distinguishing between his good and evil, he pitied that
monarch and, with the object of appeasing him, said, in truth, something
like this:
38. 'Meeting with disrespect is nothing strange in this world; for this
reason, since it may also happen to be the effect of destiny and guilt,
I do not mind it. But this grieves me that I cannot perform towards you,
not even with my voice, the usual kind reception, due to those who come
to me.
'Moreover hear this, O sovereign.
39. 'To such as you, who are bound to put evildoers on the right way and
to act for the interest of the creatures, it never behoves to do any
rash action. You should rather follow, therefore, the way of reflection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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