Jataka 203
Khandha-vatta Jātaka
The Duty to Snakes
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
This is a story is about how dangerous snakes can be and how expressing loving-kindness to them can provide protection. This may sound like a tall tale, but I have actually heard a story about how this is put into action today. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu tells this story. When he first went to Thailand there were a lot of snakes. They were everywhere and they were all dangerous. There were a lot of cobras around, and he was a little freaked out by them. So he talked to his teacher about it, and his teacher taught him a “pirit” or protective chant for the snakes. Every time he saw a snake, he was told to repeat the chant. He did this, and as a result he lost his fear of the snakes, and most importantly, he was never bitten.
“Virūpakkha snakes I love.” (Virūpakkha is a type of nāga, a snake or serpent deity.) The Master told this story while he was at Jetavana. It is about a certain monk.
As he sat at the door of his living room chopping wood, we are told, a snake crept out of a rotten log and bit his toe. He died on the spot. The whole monastery soon learned how he had come to his sudden death. In the Dharma Hall they began talking about it, saying how the brother was sitting at his door chopping wood when a snake bit him, and how he died immediately from the bite.
The Master came in and wanted to know what they were discussing as they sat there together. They told him. He said, “Monks, if our brother had practiced loving-kindness towards the four royal races of serpents, that snake would not have bitten him. Wise recluses in by-gone days - before the Buddha was born - were released from the fear that sprang from these serpents by using loving-kindness to these four royal races.” Then he told them this story from the past.
(According to the Pāli Canon, there are four royal families of nāgas. They are the Virupakkhas, the Erāpatha, the Chabbyaputtas, and the Kanhagotamakas. For their own protection, monks are advised to fill their hearts with lovingkindness for all of these classes of nāgas. [AN 2.72])
Once upon a time, during the reign of Brahmadatta as King of Benares, the Bodhisatta came into the world as a young brahmin from Kāsi. When he came of age, he abandoned his sense desires and took up the life of a recluse. He developed the supernormal powers (1. Replicate and project bodily-images of oneself, 2. Make oneself invisible, 3. Pass through solid objects, 4. Sink into solid ground, 5. Walk on water, 6. Fly, 7. Touch the sun and moon with one's hand, 8. Ascend to the world of the god Brahmā in the highest heavens) and the Attainments (jhānas). He built a hermitage by the bend of the Ganges River near the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and there he lived surrounded by a band of recluses absorbed in the rapture of meditation.
At that time there were many kinds of snakes on the Ganges bank. They did mischief to the recluses, and many of them died from snake bites. The recluses told the Bodhisatta about the problem. He summoned all the recluses to meet him. He said, “If you showed goodwill to the four royal races of snakes, no serpents would bite you. Therefore from this time forward show goodwill to the four royal races.” Then he added this verse:
“Virūpakkha snakes I love,
Erāpatha snakes I love,
Chabbyāputta snakes I love,
Kaṇhāgotamas I love.”
After naming the four royal families of snakes, he added, “If you can cultivate goodwill towards these, no snake will bite you or do you harm.” Then he repeated the second verse:
“Creatures all beneath the sun,
Two feet, four feet, more, or none—
How I love you, every one!”
Having declared the nature of the love within him, he uttered another verse by way of prayer:
“Creatures all, two feet or four,
You with none and you with more,
Do not hurt me, I implore!”
Then again, in general terms, he repeated one verse more:
"All you creatures that have birth,
Breathe and move upon the earth,
You be happy, one and all,
Never into mischief fall.”
Figure: Smitten, Not Bitten
Thus he set forth how one must show love and goodwill to all creatures without distinction. Then he reminded his hearers of the virtues of the Three Treasures, saying, “Infinite is the Buddha, infinite the Dharma, and infinite the Saṇgha.” He said, “Remember the quality of the Three Treasures.” And having thus shown them the infinity of the Three Treasures and wishing to show them that all beings are finite, he added, “Finite and measurable are creeping things: snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, lizards, mice.” Then again, “As the passions and lusts in these creatures are the qualities that make them finite and limited, let us be protected night and day against these finite things by the power of the Three Treasures which are infinite. Always remember the value of the Three Treasures.” Then he recited this stanza:
“Now I am guarded safe, and fenced around,
Now let all creatures leave me to my ground.
All honor to the Blessed One I pay,
And the seven Buddhas who have passed away.”
(The earliest Pāli Buddhist texts name seven Buddhas. They are sometimes called “The Seven Buddhas of Antiquity.” They are Vipassī, Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakasandha, Koṇāgamana, Kassapa, and Gautama.)
And bidding them to also remember the seven Buddhas while they did honor, the Bodhisatta composed this guardian charm and delivered it to his band of sages. From then on the sages bore in mind the Bodhisatta’s admonition. They cherished love and goodwill and remembered the Buddha’s virtues. As they did this, all the snakes departed from them. And the Bodhisatta cultivated the Excellencies (brahma-vihāras) and was reborn in Brahma’s heaven.
When the Master ended his discourse, he identified the birth: “The Buddha’s followers were then the followers of the sage, and I was their teacher.”
