Vannupatha Jataka (Jataka 2)
The Story of the One Who Shows the Way
Based on the translation by Robert Chalmers from the original Pali into English
This discourse was delivered by the Buddha whilst he was dwelling at Savatthi, about an ascetic who gave up persevering.
Tradition says that, whilst the Buddha was dwelling at Savatthi, a nobleman belonging to an eminent family of Savatthi came to the Jetavana monastery. There, he heard a discourse by the Buddha, and realising that lust led to suffering, he gave up the worldly life of a nobleman and became a monk. Five years passed in preparation for becoming a fully-ordained monk. During this time he learnt the Buddha’s teachings and the techniques of meditation. Then, wishing to meditate alone, he received from the Buddha a theme for meditation and retired to a forest, where he passed the rainy season. Now, for all his striving during the three months, he could not develop even a glimmer of Insight. So he thought to himself, “The Master said there were four types of men, and I must belong to the lowest of all. I do not think that in this birth, I can attain neither the Path to nirvana nor the Fruits associated with each of the four stages along that path. So what good shall I do by living in the forest ? Back to the Master I will go, and live my life beholding the glories of the Buddha’s presence and listening to his sweet teachings.” So back again to Jetavana he came.
Now the other monks, his friends and associates, said to him, ” You had obtained from the Master a theme for meditation and departed to live the solitary life of a sage. Yet here you are back again, going about enjoying fellowship. Can it be that you have fulfilled your goals as a monk and now will never know rebirth?”
“Friends, I won neither the Path nor the Fruits of the Path, and felt myself doomed to futility, and so gave up persevering and came back.”
“Friend, you have done wrong in showing a faint heart when you had devoted yourself to the doctrine of the
dauntless Master. Come, let us bring you to the Buddha’s notice.” And they took him with them to the Master.
When the Master became aware of their coming, he said, “Monks, you bring with you this monk against his will. What has he done ?”
“Lord, after devoting himself to meditation, this monk has given up persevering in the solitary life of a sage, and has come back.”
Then said the Buddha to him, “Is this true, as they say, that you have given up persevering?”
“It is true. Blessed One.”
“How is it that, after devoting yourself to such a doctrine, monk, you should be the one to show yourself not a man desiring little, contented, solitary, and determined, but a man lacking perseverance? Was it not you, by whose perseverance, that the men and the oxen belonging to a caravan of five hundred carts got water in a sandy desert and were cheered? So why is it that, now, you are giving in? “
These words encouraged the monk. But the other monks said to the Buddha, “Sire, the present faintheartedness of this monk is clear to us ; but hidden from us is the knowledge of how, by the perseverance of this single man, the men and oxen got water in a sandy desert and were cheered. This is known only to you who are omniscient ; pray tell us about it.”
“Listen, then, monks,” said the Blessed One; and, having excited their attention, he made clear what rebirth had concealed from them.
*
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta ruled in Banaras in Kashi, the Bodhisatta was born into a trader’s family. When he grew up, he would travel about trading with a carava of five hundred carts.
On one occasion he came to a sandy wilderness sixty leagues across, the sand of which was so fine that, when grasped, it slipped through the fingers of the closed fist. As soon as the sun rose, the sand would grow as hot as a bed of charcoal-embers and nobody could walk upon it. So those traversing the sandy desert used to take with them fire-wood, water, oil, rice and so forth on their carts, and only travelled by night. At dawn they used to range their carts in a circle, with an awning spread overhead, and after an early meal used to sit in the shade all the day long. When the sun went down, they had their evening meal, and, as soon as the ground became cool, they used to yoke their carts and move forward. Travelling on this desert was like voyaging over the sea, and the’desert-pilot, as the leader of the caravan was called, had to guide them across by his knowledge of the stars. This was the way in which our merchant was now travelling that wilderness.
When he had only some seven more miles before him, he thought to himself, “To-night will see us out of this sandy wilderness.” So, after they had had their supper, he ordered the wood and water to be thrown away, and yoking his carts, set out on the road. In the front cart sat the pilot upon a couch looking up to the stars in the heavens and directing the course thereby. But he had been so long without sleep that he was tired out and dozed off, with the result that he did not notice that the oxen had turned round and were retracing their steps!
All night the oxen kept on their way, till at dawn the pilot woke up, and, observing the position of the stars overhead, realized what had happened. “Turn the carts round ! Turn the carts round !” he shouted.
And as they turned the carts round and were forming them into line, the day broke. “Why this is where we camped yesterday,” cried the people of the caravan. ” All our wood and water is gone, and we are lost.” So saying, they unyoked their carts and formed them into a circle, and spread the awning overhead ; then each man flung himself down in despair beneath his own cart.
Thought the Bodhisatta to himself, “If I give in, every single one will perish.” So he walked to and fro while it was still early and cool, until he came on a clump of kusa-grass. “This grass,” thought he, “could only have grown here because of water underneath.” So he ordered a spade to be brought and a hole to be dug at that spot. Sixty cubits down they dug, till at that depth the spade struck on a rock, and everybody lost heart.
But the Bodhisatta, feeling sure there must be water under that rock, descended into the hole and took his stand upon the rock. Stooping down, he applied his ear to it, and listened. Catching the sound of water flowing beneath, he came out and said to a serving lad, “My boy, if you give in, we shall all perish. So take heart and courage. Go down into the hole with this iron sledge-hammer, and strike the rock.”
Obedient to his master’s bidding, the lad, resolute where all others had lost heart, went down and struck the rock. The rock which had dammed the stream, split asunder and fell in. Up rose the water in the hole till it was as high as a palm-tree ; and everybody drank and bathed. Then they chopped up their spare axles and yokes and other surplus gear, cooked their rice and ate it, and fed their oxen. And as soon as the sun set, they hoisted a flag by the side of the well and travelled on to their destination. There they bartered away their goods for twice and four times their value. With the proceeds they returned to their own home, where they lived out their term of life and in the end passed away to fare thereafter according to their deserts. The Bodhisatta too after a life spent in charity and other good works, passed away likewise to fare according to his deserts.
***
When the Supreme Buddha had delivered this discourse, he, the All-Knowing One himself, uttered this stanza —
Untiring, deep they dug that sandy track
Till, in the trodden way, they water found.
So let the sage, in perseverance strong,
Flag not nor tire, until his heart find Peace.
This discourse ended, he preached the Four Truths, at the close of which the fainthearted monk was established in the highest Fruit of all, which is Arahatship. At the end, the Buddha established the connection between the past and the present and ended the Vannupatha Jataka thus —
“This fainthearted monk of today was in those days the serving-lad who, persevering, broke the rock and gave water to all the people ; the Buddha’s followers were the rest of the people of the caravan; and I myself was their leader.”
Source:
The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births (Translated from the Pali by Various Hands), six volumes, E.B. Cowell ed. (Cambridge:University Press, 1895). [Vol. I translated by Robert Chalmers, 1895]. This is in the public domain.
