‘Sit down, Nigrodha.’ Ashoka entered the hall, alone with the boy. The little boy walked up to the ivory throne and climbed on to it, looked around in amazement, looked up at the tall slender pillars, embellished with gold leaves and silver birds, at the niches and the walls, shining with gold and sparkling with precious stones.
‘Is this the chair of the abbot?’
‘No, of the Maharajah, when the council of ministers have a meeting or when governors from far away countries come to visit. Would you not like to become Maharajah?’
‘No! For he is mighty and rich, is he not?’
‘Are riches and might not what everyone likes?’
‘No, the monks in the Khemavana do not, those of the Veluvana do not, and those of the Jetavana do not6. A sramana, a follower of the Tathagata, wants to be poor, to be a beggar; he owns nothing but his clothes, an alms bowl, and a staff.’
‘Horrible!’
‘Horrible? It is beautiful! The Tathagata left all his riches to become a bhikshu. Then they can take nothing away from him. You need gatekeepers and palace-guards and soldiers with arrows and spears and a hell. Assaji says they have to take care of the security in the palace and the riches of the Maharajah. When hunters or soldiers come at the Khemavana, I quickly take Sika to my home. Hunters and soldiers are sinners because they kill others. They can never be bhikshus.’
‘But the Maharajah needs them, or else bad people, cheats, thieves, murderers and strangers, would be in charge in India. Then no monastery would remain safe, and no deer would be safe in the woods. They would plunder the harvest of the Vaishyas, the earth would dry out in summer time, the pilgrims would be killed, the viharas burned, the temples destroyed. What would happen to the Khemavana, the Veluvana and the Jetavana? Ruins and burial grounds … if the Maharajah did not have the power or the soldiers.’
‘And the riches?’
‘And riches to pay all his servants who carry out his orders.’
Nigrodha placed himself on the ivory throne, crossed his legs, and reflected, to bring together Sagata’s and Ashoka’s different opinions. He did not succeed.
‘But Sagata teaches us not to kill. In the monsoon all people stay inside their huts as much as possible, because then there grow so many young plants and animals. They could be trampled. And one who venerates the Buddha does not wish that. Do you not think it awful to be Maharajah?’
‘No, I believe it is beautiful to be able to take care of all, of you too, and Sagata, and your mother and the great empire, to protect those who are weak.’
‘With arrow and bow, and …’
‘And chakra and sword and soldiers and chariots.’
‘Ah, that is a pity. Then you can never become a bhikshu and reach Nirvana.’
‘Is that such a pity?’
‘In Nirvana you are even much happier than in the Khemavana! Do people in Pataliputra kill people or animals or plants?’
‘Yes, sometimes. In the slaughter-house, one kills many animals to provide meat to all the people of the palace and the Brahmin-court.’
‘Horrible! In the Khemavana, never. Or, it happens only by accident. You know why? Because they have pity on them; Sika, too, my deer. Do people here take away things that do not belong to them?’
‘Yes, sometimes.’
‘In the Khemavana, never. Gautama Buddha left behind all that he possessed and became a beggar who owned nothing and did not want to own anything. And because of that he could bring happiness to the world. Do people marry here?’
‘Yes, nearly all.’
‘In the Khemavana, never, but I do not know why. My mother has married, too. Does one speak untruth here or are people unfriendly?’
‘Too often, badly enough.’
‘Not in the Khemavana. The Tathagata never spoke words that were not friendly or untrue. Does one drink here intoxicating spirits?’
‘Sometimes.’
‘In the Khemavana, never, because they prevent right thinking, says Father Sagata.’
‘But why do they have to refrain from so many things they like?’
‘Father Sagata says: it is for the welfare of all beings and brings us happiness too, because they are the first steps on the holy eightfold path of the Buddha that leads to Nirvana.’
‘Then you are right. It is a pity that I can never become a bhikshu.’
‘But maybe, you can become upasaka.’
‘Is he permitted to live in the Khemavana, too? And be married, or speak falsehood or drink spirits, or steal and kill?’
‘No. But he is allowed to come to pratimoksha7, and the full-moon and the new-moon festival, to listen to Father Sagata’s discourses about the Tathagata.’
‘Do I then reach Nirvana, too?’
‘That I do not know.’
‘May I then remain the army chief, the leader of all the soldiers?’
The little arhat looked timid.
‘I don’t think so. Would you then become upasaka of the Buddha?’
‘If that is possible?’
‘I shall warn Sagata and the bhikshus, shall I? I will ask them to tell you, if an upasaka is allowed to be Maharajah?’
‘Rather, ask if a Maharajah is allowed to become an upasaka.’
‘Yes, let us call for Assaji. I will ask Father Sagata right away.’
‘I will first take you with me to the ladies’ quarters.’
‘Ladies’ quarters?’
‘Yes, there lives my family. The Agramahisi and my other wives, the Princes and the Princesses.’
‘Women?’
‘Yes, you can have some food and drinks there, before you return to the Khemavana. What do you like best: meat, cakes, rice with ghee and sugar, mango juice, fruits?’
‘Meat! No, that I don’t eat! Do you?’ Ashoka nodded. Nigrodha looked so worried that the Maharajah smiled.
Asandhimitra was enchanted by the serious little boy, gave him honey cakes, sugar and delicious mango juice. It comforted Nigrodha that the Maharani never ate meat or used intoxicating spirits, did not hunt and did not lead an army. When Assaji wanted to return him to Aradi, he walked in a wide circle around the armed palace-guards.
‘I think Father Sagata will agree that you become upasaka! And the Maharani upasika!’
‘If you ask him, I think so too, my ‘little arhat’.’
Ashoka watched him go and stood for a while, lost in thought.
‘Piyadasi is touched by so much loveliness.’
‘If the Buddha has such an influence on the attitude of all his followers, then we cannot stay behind, Asandhi. Kullika has not been able to make clear to me that the faith of the Buddha with its many jealous sects, and its doctrine of non-violence towards man and even animals of prey, could bring unity in my world-empire. An empire necessarily requires regulation, for regulation is required power, power requires the means of power, and that, Asandhi, inevitably includes use of those means of power, and in many cases a firm use. That is an iron law, Asandhi. Kullika and I came to the conclusion that the teachings of the Buddha offer most of the elements for a right development towards that, which we have made our highest objective. Looking for the sara of all religions and sects, it is always the teachings of the son of the Shakyas that reveal the path. Can it be possible, one doctrine for all people? I have always rejected Buddha’s teachings as unpractical for me. But if they could turn the attitude of my peoples to that of the Khemavana, like Nigrodha revealed it to me in all its simplicity, then we have to search diligently, Asandhi, and set out clearly what the teachings of the Buddha are, so that no heresy is possible any longer. And the sects decline. Maybe, that then … It would be too beautiful!’
‘For my great Maharajah, nothing is too beautiful.’
‘Will the peoples of India ever be able to devote themselves to the Buddha, who sacrificed his body to save tigers from starvation, who wanted to sacrifice himself as the deer-king for the pregnant deer at the deer park in Kashi? Who, as Vessantara, gave up all that he possessed to bring
welfare to the people instead of directing his meditations on his own well-being, his own salvation!’
‘Do you consider it necessary that Sayana becomes a Buddhist sramana, as well as Brahmagupta and Khallataka and Vimalamitra?’
‘I know now, Asandhi: ‘He, who looks for truth, finds many truths’. Every faith can be valued when it accepts, in all sincerity, the sara of all religions, what can only be the unfolding of the Atman. But our people require of the Buddha his tolerance towards all, and relentlessness against the selfish wishes of others.
‘Who has to judge that?’
‘People who have the attitude of a Sayana, a Kullika, or a Khallataka.’
‘And my Maharajah?’
‘Possibly, if his Agramahisi binds a delicate-blue scarf over his third eye.’
23
THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA
radi could not silence her unrest. Angrily, she blamed herself: How could she have entrusted her greatest treasure to Assaji? It was the first time in seven years that she had handed Nigrodha to the care of someone else. And that, too, to him whom she had cursed the most in her life. The air of kindness in the Khemavana towards all that lived, had softened her feelings towards the Maharajah, but not taken away the fear of his inexorable thirst for power that spared no one, not even his brothers. Why should his fear of Nigrodha, the rightful heir, hold him back? No, Assaji was right: then he would have taken him long ago! Ashoka, the Righteous, Lord of life and death, who cherishes life, who places truth over all other virtues … Devi from Vidisha, Asandhimitra. Was it divine justice that Sumana fell? The world of lies and deceit, greed and assassination. But that hell! If only Assaji would return with her dearest!
O, Sun goddess!
Queen of heaven and earth,
You, who give Light,
You, who give Strength,
Holy thou art! …
Halt on thy path,
Light your rays on him whose road,
Is leading to the Khemavana.
Give me back my son!
Oh, that hell … that hell of Ashoka!
‘Sarita, Sarita, my bathing-clothes!’
Aradi allowed the water of the purple lotus pond to be poured over her hot limbs.
O, Lotus of the Dharma1
Protect my son against his hell!
Water of this holy lotus-pond,
Cleanse my sins,
So, no chastisement will befall him! …
Nigrodha came running through the park, speaking excitedly. ‘Mother, Mother! The Maharajah wants to become a follower of the Buddha! Not a bhikshu but an upasaka. Assaji and I have come here on Jampa. Jampa is the biggest elephant of the Maharajah.’
Aradi hugged her little son.
‘Well, my boy, that is fine.’
‘But Father Sagata has to go to the Maharajah, and the bhikshus.’
‘Then go and warn Father Sagata and the bhikshus.’
Sumana, descending from a fairytale-Prince to a spineless priest-clown, pushed forward by uncontrollable self-indulgence. Ashoka, ascending up from a wild brute that spares no one, to the eminence of holy humaneness. And she, like a silly butterfly, had let herself be seduced by glitter and sheen. The daughter of a forest-hermit from the jungle, on the golden throne? How could she ever keep under restraint her envy, her hate! Nirvana. Letting go of mortal desires, of hate …
When the next day, Sagata, followed by thirty sramanas, all in saffron robes, entered the park by the great gate, the news flowed like a current through the palace. In the anthapura the residents grouped together and in heated whispers, betrayed their excitement. At the Brahmin-court, one kept anxiously silent with every fragment of information that came.
The monks went to the great audience hall. Soon, the Maharajah appeared, together with the Agramahisi and the uparaja Tishia. Sagata and the monks explained to them the doctrine of the Tathagata, the life of the Awakened, Accomplished Buddha.
‘I thank you, venerable Sagata, that you and the venerable sramanas have wanted to present to me such an attractive picture of the life of the Buddha and the Dharma. For me, as Maharajah of a great empire, it is important though to know, what the Tathagata can mean for my peoples. As sramanas you are not allowed to work for money, as a bhikshu2 you have to offer your begging-bowl to others, so that they get the opportunity to perform to you their benevolence. But what if all, even the largest part of humanity, should become bhikshus! And that is what you wish, is it not? In Brahmanism there is a social role for the whole of humanity, in spite of its rigidity. Your doctrine means, in principle, the end of humanity, because a follower of the Buddha refrains from manual labour for livelihood and from marriage. What is a beautiful flower when she bears no fruit, else, but a mere fleeting caress to the eye?’
‘The family is the foundation of the empire and for the bhikshu you wish to remove the family. Like the Buddha he leaves his family and lives without a home,’ Tishia added.
‘It is a part of human nature to found a family, holy Maharajah. Only a few will be able to walk the difficult path of the Buddha. Is not the human being bound through his senses—like the strong vines—to a life that is transient in all its fibres? Only for the bhikshu does it mean a cutting-off of all these bindings, to shut the doorways of the senses. What other people call ‘to be’ is for him ‘becoming’, thus ephemeral. Only by the difficult path of meditation, growing awareness and liberation, is the supreme state of ‘be-ing’ to be reached by him, usually only after many incarnations. The desire for that state is also a desire, a negative one. Only the true bhikshu turns away from all that is not eternal. All that is sought from other human beings is respect for all life, no-thieving, and chastity. But here lies the dividing line for the bhikshu; of him is demanded sexual abstinence and purity of body, speech and thought. This precept—for that is man’s nature—is only followed by the very few, whose wish for Nirvana is stronger than that for life. But life itself is viewed as joyous. From the others, the Buddha asks fidelity amongst spouses and avoidance of indecency, but for them Nirvana cannot be attained in this incarnation. They can become upasakas and live in the ambience from which the young adherent can follow his road to liberation. Whosoever observes the precept of truth and abstains from intoxicating spirits as well, has taken his first step on the holy path of the Buddha. Thus, the Tathagata has wanted to create for all people a road upwards: an ‘ever becoming’ on the distinguished ascending path to Nirvana. Only through being human is there the road to eternal bliss, for men and devas as well as for gods. They, who create the right attitude, observe the five precepts or the sila, are upasakas, for whom the ‘ever changing’ is ‘becoming’, but for whom the awareness of the eternal remains alive: the awareness that there is a way out through meditation, spiritual growth and liberation, to Nirvana, not to be described in earthly words: the way of the Budha. Nothing though, prevents the bhikshu, at any moment of his life, to recognise and accept thus: ‘I feel that the worldly life is of greater importance to me now’. Then, he can share his life again amongst the happy ones who walk the road, in the ambience of the right attitude: the upasakas, they who take seriously Buddha’s sutra: ‘Avoid all evil, set your heart on good, master your senses.’ Self-discipline and a loving heart for all that lives, is what the Buddha asks from man. No varna, no people, no land, no riches, no social position, shuts off the way of the Buddha. For the ones who feign, who pretend, we turn our begging-bowl upside down, noble Maharajah. In Buddhism as much as in Brahmanism, it is about the balance in life, the social fulfilment, but without hate, without animosity. It is so clear, so simple and true, that the man of today, entangled in superficiality, in rites and rituals as animal sacrifice, overlooks the beauty of it, like the snake that is seeking its way in the darkness underneath the fallen-off leaves, in the flowering jungle of Vasanta.’
‘Who cannot be an upasaka?’
‘He, who acts against the sila, the five precepts. A deed has its worth only, insofar as it originates from an inner purity
, reining the senses, passions and desires. The purification of the soul of ill-disposed urges and selfishness, is the most important precept.’
‘And what about he who practises a different religion and yet follows the precepts of the Tathagata as well?’ asked Tishia.
‘No fire greater than lust, no imprisonment stronger than hatred, no web closer-knit than passion, no stream more forceful than craving, high Uparaja. He who extinguishes a spark of lust, who breaks a bar of the prison of hatred, who tears an opening in the net of passion, who turns the tide of a wave of desire, he puts one foot in the direction of the Buddha and is, according to the doctrine, already an upasaka or upasika. Sweeter than the scent of sandal or mogara3, or the lotus or vissaka-flower, is the scent of a good deed. Like the foot-print of every living being fits in the foot-print of the elephant, so the sara of every religion fits within the Dharma of the Buddha, and thus its follower is an upasaka.’
‘What vows do the upasaka and the upasika have to take?’
‘No vows, gracious Maharajah. He who loves the Tathagata and his Dharma, takes, in the presence of a bhikshu, his refuge in the Buddha, in his teachings: the Dharma, in his community: the Sangha. That is all. The most glorious Realised Buddha seeks no obligations to himself, the gods or Nirvana; only deference for his teachings and the obligations towards one’s self as well as for every living being. He, who conquers himself, is the unsurpassed vanquisher. Awareness is the road to immortality, unawareness the path to death.’
‘Of what significance is it for my people, if I become upasaka and my beloved Agramahisi upasika?’
‘Sire! When duty leads the human being through the jumbled, impenetrable jungle, does he then follow the path of the ant under the fallen-off leaves on the forest ground, or the path that the mighty elephant has mastered, straight through the dense woods?’
‘And he, whose duty leads him beside of the path of the Buddha?’
‘He has to find out for himself, by his own effort, how he should return to the right way along the eightfold path of the golden middle, the path that avoids craving, but also unnecessary penance and self-torture.’
Ashoka the Great Page 63