Jataka 121
Kusunāḷi Jātaka
The Grass Fairy
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by Robert Chalmers, B.A., of Oriel College, Oxford University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
I especially love these stories about the superficiality of status. I had a job once where I was promoted to run the department. I was astonished at how suddenly I was treated with so much deference and respect. I was exactly the same person that I was before the promotion. Then later I decide to give up that position and go back to my old one, I was once again treated differently.
In the Buddha’s teaching, the only “status” that matters is your capacity to cultivate wholesome qualities and abandon unwholesome qualities. Everything else is just details.
It is a touching note that in the story, the Bodhisatta is a lowly “kusa sprite” while Ānanda is the “superior” tree sprite. Also note that both Ānanda and the Bodhisatta are both female. Finally note that the final summary teaching is given by Ānanda and not the Bodhisatta.
“Let great and small.” This story was told by the Master while he was at Jetavana. It is about Anāthapiṇḍika’s true friend. Anāthapiṇḍika’s friends, acquaintances, and family tried to end his friendship with a certain man. They said that he was not Anāthapiṇḍika’s equal in either birth or wealth.
But the great merchant replied that friendship should not depend on the equality or inequality of such superficial factors. And when he traveled to oversee his vast land holdings, he put this friend in charge of his estate.
Everything came to pass as in the Kālakaṇṇi Jātaka (Jātaka 83). But in this case when Anāthapiṇḍika related the danger his house had been in, the Master said, “Layman, a true friend is never inferior. The measure is the ability to be a friend. A true friend is always superior, for all such friends will not fail to help you when you are in need. It is your real friend that has now protected your wealth. In days gone by a similar true friend saved a sprite’s mansion.” Then at Anāthapiṇḍika’s request, he told this story of the past.
(In the Kālakaṇṇi Jātaka Anāthapiṇḍika’s true friend saves his house from being robbed by quick thinking and clever action.)
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a sprite (fairy) in the King’s pleasure garden. He lived in a clump of kusa grass as a lowly kusa sprite. Now in the garden near the King’s seat there was a beautiful Wishing Tree (also called the “Mukkhaka” or “foremost” tree). It had a straight trunk and spreading branches. It was greatly favored by the King.
A mighty deva king who had been reborn as a superior tree sprite lived in the tree. And the Bodhisatta had a close and intimate friendship with this tree sprite.
Now the King’s palace had only one pillar to support the roof and that pillar grew weak. So the King sent for carpenters and ordered them to replace the pillar and make it secure. The carpenters looked around for a tree that would do and, not finding one elsewhere, went to the pleasure garden and saw the Mukkhaka. Then they went back to the King. “Well,” he said, “have you found a tree that will do?”
“Yes, sire,” they said. “But we don’t want to cut it down.”
“Why not?” the King said.
Then they told him how they looked everywhere for a suitable tree. They did not find one anywhere else, but they did not want to cut down the sacred tree.
“Go and cut it down,” he said, “and make the roof secure. I will replace it with another tree.”
So they went off. They took a sacrifice to the pleasure garden and offered it to the tree. In their conversation they let it slip that they were going to come back and cut it down on the next day. Hearing their words, the tree sprite knew that her home would be destroyed. She burst into tears as she clasped her children to her breast, not knowing where to take them. Her friends, the spirits of the forest, came to find out what the matter was. But not one of them could think of a way to keep the carpenters from cutting down the tree. They all embraced her with tears and sorrow.
At this moment the Bodhisatta arrived to call upon her friend the tree sprite. They told him the news.
“Have no fear,” the Bodhisatta said cheerfully. “I will make sure that the tree is not cut down. Just wait and see what I do when the carpenters come tomorrow.”
On the next day the Bodhisatta assumed the shape of a chameleon. Starting at the roots, he worked his way up the tree until he spread himself through all of the branches. Then the Bodhisatta whipped his head rapidly back and forth. This made the tree look like it was full of holes. When the carpenters arrived, their leader struck the tree with his hand. He exclaimed that the tree was rotten and that they didn’t look carefully enough before making their offerings the day before. So off he went full of scorn for the great strong tree.
Figure: The Kusa Sprite Saves the Tree
In this way the Bodhisatta saved the tree sprite’s home. And when all her friends and acquaintances came to see her, she joyfully sang the praises of the Bodhisatta as the savior of her home. She said, “Sprites of the trees, for all our mighty power we did not know what to do, while a humble kusa sprite was clever enough to save my home for me. Truly we should choose our friends without considering whether they are superior, equal, or inferior. For anyone who is able can help a friend in the hour of need.” And she repeated this stanza about friendship and its duties:
Let great and small be equals all,
Do each their best, if harm befall,
And help a friend in evil plight,
As I was helped by kusa sprite.
Thus did she teach the assembled devas, adding these words, “Anyone who needs to escape from an evil plight must not consider whether someone is an equal or a superior. You should make friends of the wise no matter what their station is in life.” And she lived her life, and she and the kusa sprite finally passed away to fare according to her karma.
His lesson ended, the Master identified the birth by saying, “Ānanda was the tree sprite, and I was the kusa sprite.”
