by Sarah Shaw
The story seems to have been popular historically. It is mentioned in the introduction to the Jatakas as exemplary of the fourth perfection, of wisdom, which the Bodhisatta is told to cultivate, ‘Just as a monk, begging for alms, avoids neither low, middling nor high families, and takes his sustenance in this way, so you too, at all times ask questions of wakeful people’. 7It is depicted on an outer wall in the eighteenth-century Kandyan style at Degaldoruva, Sri Lanka, though the surface of the mural is damaged.
Story from the present
‘You are confused in mind’
The Teacher told this story while living in the Jetavana Grove about the perfection of wisdom. Later on the Ummagga Jataka (546) makes it clear. 8
Story from the past
Once upon a time a king called Janaka ruled the kingdom of Varanasi. At that time the Bodhisatta had taken rebirth in a brahmin family, and they gave him the name young Senaka. When he became old enough he learned all kinds of skills at Taxila and went back to Varanasi and saw the king. The king established him in the post of minister and accorded great honour to him. [342] He governed practical affairs and spiritual matters for the king. He had sweet speech and spoke justly. He established the king in the five precepts and set him upon the beautiful path of generosity, the keeping of the uposatha and the ten skilful courses of action. It was as if the time of the Buddha had arisen throughout the kingdom. And on full-moon and new-moon days the king and his viceroys all met together in the dhamma assembly hall and decorated it. The Great Being delivered the teaching in the manner of a Buddha from the middle of an antelope-hide couch to the decorated dhamma hall: his speech was equal to the speech used for teaching by Buddhas. Then a certain old brahmin went for alms, collected a thousand punched coins, 9 deposited it with a brahmin family and then left saying that he would go for more alms. But before his return the brahmin family had used it up. When he returned he asked for the coins to be brought to him. The brahmin could not give him the coins and gave him his own daughter as a wife. The old brahmin took her to a brahmin village near Varanasi and set up house.
But his young wife, in her youth, was dissatisfied sexually and misbehaved with a young brahmin. For there are sixteen things that just cannot be satisfied. And what are the sixteen? The ocean is never satisfied by all the rivers. Fire is never satisfied with fuel nor a king with his kingdom, nor a fool with stupid things. A woman is never satisfied in matters to do with sex, with ornamentation and with childbirth. With these three things she cannot be satisfied. A brahmin is never satisfied with mantras, nor a meditator with the attainments, nor one who is training with the decrease of the possibility of rebirth. 10 The one with few wants is never satisfied with the virtue of ascetic practices, the one who loves effort with delight in effort, the one who expounds with conversation, the self-possessed person with people, the one with faith with attendance upon the order of monks, the generous man with his giving, the wise man with hearing the dhamma, and the four assemblies of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen with the sight of the Thus-gone. 11
Now the brahmin lady was dissatisfied with regard to sexual matters. [343] She wanted to get the brahmin out of the way in her desire to practise her base activities. One day, with mischief on her mind, she lay down. He said, ‘What is it?’ And she replied, ‘Brahmin, I cannot do the work in your house. Fetch me a maid.’ ‘But my wife, we have no money. How shall I look for one and bring her back?’ ‘You’ll have to go seeking for alms and search for money and bring her back.’ ‘Then wife, prepare some provisions for the journey for me.’ She filled a skin bag with baked and unbaked meal and gave it to him. The brahmin travelled through villages, towns and cities and collected seven hundred coins, and then thought that he had enough money to get male and female slaves. So, turning back, he went towards his own town. At a certain place where water was easy to find he opened the bag and ate some barley. Without tying the opening to the bag he went down to drink some water. Now a black snake in a certain hollow tree smelled the odour of the meal and entered the bag. Twisting himself into a coil he lay down and ate the barley. The brahmin returned and, without checking inside, fastened the bag, put it over his shoulder and went on his way. And while he was on the road there was a spirit who lived in the cleft of a certain hollow tree who said, ‘Brahmin, if you stay on the road you will die yourself. If you go home today your wife will die.’ When he had said this he disappeared. The brahmin looked but could not see the spirit and was frightened, terrified with the fear of death. Crying and grieving he reached the gate of the city of Var an asi. Now that day was a fortnight uposatha day, and the Bodhisatta had sat down on a specially arranged teaching seat for the day’s dhamma talk. A large number of people had come in crowds, with perfumes and flowers and suchlike in their hands, to hear the dhamma talk. When he saw them the brahmin asked where they were going. ‘Brahmin, today the wise man Senaka will deliver the teaching in the manner of a Buddha and with a sweet voice. Do you not know?’ At these words he thought, ‘They say that a wise man is going to teach. I am terrified with the fear of death. But it is certainly the case [344] that a wise man can take away great grief. It is right for me to go there and hear his teaching.’ The man, terrified with the fear of death, went there with them and, when the assembly and the king had sat down in a circle in the Great Being’s retinue, he stood with the sack of barley on his shoulder, not far from the teaching seat. The Great Being taught as if bringing down the Ganga from the sky 12or raining down the rain of the deathless. The people in the crowd were delighted and gave him a great ovation when he had spoken. Now wise men can see very far. At that moment, the Great Being, whose eyes had been purified by the five kinds of grace, 13opened his eyes and, looking all around the assembly, saw the brahmin and thought, ‘This assembly is delighted and offers applause when they hear the dhamma. This particular brahmin is crying, in a state of anguish. There must be some private grief inside him that is giving rise to tears. I’ll teach him, as if attacking a rusty stain with acid, or as if making a drop of water roll from a lotus leaf, so that his mind is pleased and free from grief.’ So he addressed him: ‘Brahmin, I am Senaka, the wise man. Now I will make you free from unhappiness. Speak openly.’ And so, talking with him, he spoke the first verse:
1. ‘You are confused in mind and shaken in faculties; Pools of water flow into your eyes; Come on and tell me. What has not come to any good? What did you wish for, that you have come here?’
[345] Then the brahmin told him the reason for his grief and uttered the second verse:
2.‘If I go home today my wife will die;
But if I do not, the yakkha says it will be I!
So I am trembling with this sorrow;
Please explain the reason for this to me, Senaka.’
Then the Great Being, on hearing the brahmin’s words, spread the net of knowledge as if throwing a net into the sea. ‘There are many causes of death for beings: they die sunk into the sea; they are taken by predator fish; they fall into the Ganga or are taken by crocodiles; they fall from a tree or are pierced by a thorn, they are struck by various kinds of weapons, they eat poison or are hung or fall from a cliff, or die from extreme cold, or are overcome by various kinds of disease. So they die: and amongst these many causes of death from which one will this brahmin die if he lives on the road and which will his wife come upon and die from today?’ So he pondered, and as he considered he saw the bag of meal on the brahmin’s shoulder. ‘There must be some snake that has entered into that bag. And he will have entered at breakfast time when the brahmin was eating his meal and left the opening of the bag unfastened and went to drink water. It will have gone in at the smell of the barley. And when the brahmin returned from drinking water he will not have realized that the snake had got in, tied the bag up and taken it [346] and gone on his way. Now, if he stays on the road he will, at a resting place, think of eating some meal, open the bag and put his hand in. The snake will bite his hands and he will die: this will be the cause of his death if h
e stays on the road. If he goes home, the bag will get into the hands of his wife. She will think, “I’ll have a look at what goods are inside.” She’ll open the bag and put her hand in and then the snake will bite her and she will die: this will be the cause of his wife’s death if he goes home today.’ This he discerned with his resourceful knowledge. And then he thought, ‘This snake must be a brave black snake. When the bag beats against the great ribs of the brahmin he does not show any movement or wriggling; he does not betray his presence even in the middle of such an assembly. This must be a brave black snake, a snake without fear.’ He knew this with the knowledge of skill in means, as if he had seen with the divine eye. Thus in the middle of the royal assembly he determined accurately, with the knowledge of skill in means, just as if he had been a man standing there, that a snake had entered the bag. Then he uttered the third verse to the brahmin:
3.‘After considering over many possibilities
I speak the one that is true to the situation:
Brahmin, I think that, without you knowing,
A black snake has entered your bag of meal.’
[347] When he had said this he asked, ‘Brahmin, is there any meal in that bag of yours?’ ‘There is, wise man.’ ‘And did you eat some meal today at breakfast time?’ ‘I did, wise man.’ ‘Where were you sitting?’ ‘In a wood, at the roots of a tree.’ ‘When you had eaten the meal and went to drink water, did you leave the bag fastened or unfastened?’ ‘Not fastened, wise man.’ ‘And when you had drunk the water did you check the bag?’ ‘I did not check it, wise man.’ ‘Brahmin, I think that when you went to drink water, without your realizing, the snake entered the bag because of the smell of the meal. This was the position. Go down and place your bag in the middle of the assembly, undo the opening, step back and, standing there, take a stick and hit the bag. Then, when a black snake with its hood fanned out emerges, hissing, there will be no doubt.’ And he spoke the fourth verse:
4.‘Take a stick and hit the sack;
See the snake, deaf and dumb and two-tongued.
Cut today the doubt and worries.
Open the bag and see the crooked one.’
The brahmin heard what the Great Being said and, with a sense of agitation and terror, did so. The snake, with his coil beaten by the stick, crept out from the opening of the bag and lay looking at all the people.
[348] Then, making the matter clear, the Teacher uttered the fifth verse:
5. ‘Trembling with agitation in the middle of the assembly,
The Brahmin has opened the meal bag.
Then a creeping one, of terrible fiery power, emerged:
The poisonous snake, fanning out his hood.’
When the questions had been asked by the Great Being, a certain snake charmer made a mouth band for the snake, seized it and set it free in the forest. The brahmin approached the king, wished him victory, made a gesture of anjali and spoke half a verse in praise of him:
6. ‘It is a great gain, a great gain, for King Janaka,
Who sees Senaka, the good, the wise.’
[349] Praising the king he took seven hundred coins from the bag and, praising the Great Being, he spoke a verse and a half, wishing to give a present in delight:
‘You are the one who draws away the veil; yours, holy man, is a knowledge
that takes a terrifying form; the one with all-seeing eyes.
7. These seven hundred are mine; take them, I give them all to you.
Today, because of you, my life was won for me.
And more, for you have given my wife her safety.’
When he heard this the Bodhisatta spoke the eighth verse: 8. ‘Wise men do not accept payment 14 for variegated verses, spoken with beauty.
Instead let them give wealth to you, Brahmin, 15
And taking it with you, you can go back to your own abode.’
When he had said this the Great Being gave orders that the brahmin’s bag be filled with a thousand pieces and asked him, ‘Brahmin, who sent you on your alms round for money?’ ‘My wife, sir.’ [350] ‘Is your wife old or young?’ ‘Young, wise man.’ ‘Then she is being immoral with another and sent you away thinking that she would be safe. If you take these coins home she will give to her lover this money won by your hard work. Therefore, you should not go straight home but place the coins at the roots of a tree on the outskirts of the town or some such place, and only then return.’ Saying this he sent him on his way. When the brahmin came near the town he left the coins at the root of a tree and went to his own house. At that moment his wife was sitting with her lover. The brahmin stood at the door and said ‘Lady!’ She recognized his voice and, putting out the light, opened the door. When the brahmin had entered she got the other to wait at the doorstep. She then went back into the house and did not see anything in the bag. ‘Brahmin, what did you win after your alms round?’ she asked. ‘I got a thousand,’ he said. ‘Where is it?’ she asked. ‘I left it at such and such a place. We’ll get it tomorrow—don’t worry!’ She went and told her lover who went and seized it as if he had deposited it for himself.
The next day the brahmin went and, not seeing the coins, went up to the Bodhisatta. ‘What is it, Brahmin?’ he said. ‘I can’t see my coins,’ he replied. ‘Did you tell your wife?’ ‘Yes I did, wise man.’ Knowing that she would have told her lover he asked him, ‘Brahmin, does your wife have a friend who is a brahmin?’ He replied that she did. ‘And is he a friend of yours?’ The brahmin said that he was. And then the Great Being ordered him to be given seven days’ expenses and said, ‘Go, and on the first day invite and entertain fourteen brahmins, seven chosen by yourself and seven by your wife. And on the next day leave out one from each group, and so on, so that on the seventh day you invite one and your wife invites one. Then if you see that the arrival of one brahmin is a regular event, tell me.’ The brahmin did this and informed the Great Being, ‘Sir, I have observed there is a brahmin who is a regular guest.’ The Bodhisatta sent men with him to bring that brahmin and asked him, ‘Did you take a thousand coins that belonged to the brahmin from the root of such and such a tree?’ ‘I did not,’ replied the brahmin. ‘You do not realize that I am Senaka, the wise man. I will make you bring me the coins.’ He was terrified and confessed, ‘I took them!’ ‘And then what did you do?’ ‘I stored them at such and such a place.’ The Bodhisatta asked the brahmin, ‘Brahmin, will your wife remain so or are you going to take another?’ ‘Let her stay mine, wise man,’ replied the brahmin. The Bodhisatta told the men to fetch the coins and the wife, and had the thieving brahmin give him the coins from his own hand. He punished him by having him expelled from the city and punished the wife too. Then he gave great honour to the brahmin and had him live close by to him.
The Teacher gave a dhamma talk that revealed the noble truths, and made the connections for the birth. At the end of the truths, many attained the fruits of the first path, stream-entry. ‘At that time Ananda was the brahmin, Sariputta was the spirit, the followers of the Buddha the men, and I was the teacher Senaka.’
Notes
1 The Ummagga Jataka (546), one of the last ten, also describes its subject matter as the perfection of wisdom and involves the Bodhisatta, as Osadha, answering a number of riddles. A minister called Senaka also features in that tale, though not as the Bodhisatta.
2 The suttas of the Dighanikaya give perhaps the best examples of this approach. See Joy Manne, ‘Case histories from the Pali Canon: the Samannaphala Sutta, hypothetical case history, or how to be sure to win a debate’, Journal of the Pali Text Society, XXI, 1995, pp. 1–34.
3 See Udana 4.1, for instance, for the allocation of meditation subjects to a particular person to suit temperamental needs. The ceaseless questioning of the Buddha’s son, Rahula, at the right moment, by his father, culminates in the boy attaining enlightenment in S IV 105.
4 This is too large a subject to be dealt with here, but for someone new to the Buddhist suttas some good examples of the Buddha’s teaching methods are:
‘The Simile of the Cloth’ (Vatthupama Sutta, no. 7, M I 37–40), where one simile is explored to explain a particular meditation teaching; Mahasihanada Sutta, no. 12, M I 73–7, where a number of images are used to describe different future rebirths, and the exhortation given to Tissa, a struggling meditator (S III 106–9), who is cured of listlessness by a barrage of possibilities, posited by the Buddha, that are eliminated one by one.
5 The Story of Gotama Buddha, pp. 15–16 (J I 12).
6 A IV 84–8.
7 ‘The Far Past’ (J I 21) and, for mention of story, The Story of Gotama Buddha, p. 60 (J I 46).
8 See note 1 above. Jataka 546 (J VI 329–478), by far the longest Jataka in the whole collection, provides a much more comprehensive account of the range of the Bodhisatta’s wisdom, as he solves numerous puzzles and problems for the benefit of others. Despite being set apparently impossible questions to unravel by ministers envious of his success, he overcomes all intrigues and remains pre-eminent.