Jataka 284
Siri Jātaka
The Good Luck Story
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 story is couched in luck, but I think a better way to think about it is karma. In the final passage in the story the Buddha says, “Beings have no other resource but their merit won in previous births. This enables them to obtain treasures in places where there is no mine.” So while in the story in the present the wicked brahmin tries to steal Anāthapiṇḍika’s “luck,” he is unable to because Anāthapiṇḍika’s “luck” comes from his good qualities.
This is an important lesson in the Buddha’s teaching. The one thing that we take with us and carry forward into the future is our virtue, and no matter what happens, no one can take that from you.
“Whatever riches they who strive.” The Master told this story about a brahmin who tried to steal good luck. The circumstances of this birth-tale are given above in the Khadiraṅga Birth (Jātaka 40). As before, the fairy that lived in the gate tower of Anāthapiṇḍika's house was doing penance. She brought four and fifty crores of gold and filled the storerooms, and she became a friend of the great man. He led her before the Master. The Master gave a Dharma talk to her. She heard him truly, and so she attained stream-entry. After this the great man’s honor was even greater than before.
Now there was a brahmin living in Sāvatthi. He thought to himself, “Anāthapiṇḍika was once poor, and then he became famous. What if I go to see him and steal his luck?” So he went to Anāthapiṇḍika’s house. He was welcomed hospitably. After exchanging greetings, the host asked why he had come. The brahmin looked around to see where the man’s luck lay.
Now Anāthapiṇḍika had a white cock. It was as white as a scoured shell. He kept the cock in a golden cage, and in the comb of this cock lay the great man’s luck. The brahmin saw where the luck was. “Noble sir,” he said, “I teach magic charms to 500 young fellows. We are plagued by a cock that crows at the wrong time. Your cock crows at the right time. So I have come for your cock. Will you give him to me?”
“Yes,” came the reply. But the instant the word was uttered, the luck left the cockscomb and settled in a jewel hidden away in a pillow. The brahmin saw that the luck had gone into this jewel, and so he asked for it, too. As soon as Anāthapiṇḍika agreed to give it up, the luck left the jewel and settled in a club for protection that lay on the pillow. The brahmin saw it and asked again. “Take it and then leave,” Anāthapiṇḍika said, and in an instant the luck left the club and settled on the head of the owner’s chief wife, the Lady Puññalakkhaṇā.
The thievish brahmin thought when he saw this, “This is an inalienable article which I cannot ask for.” Then he told the great man, “Noble sir,” he said, “I came to your house to steal your luck. The luck was in the comb of your cock. But when you gave me the cock, the luck passed into this jewel. When you gave me the jewel, it passed into your club. When you gave the club to me, the luck went out of it and passed into the head of the Lady Puññalakkhaṇā. Surely this is inalienable, I can never get it. It is impossible to steal your luck. Keep it, then!” And rising up from his seat, he left.
Anāthapiṇḍika decided to tell the Master what had happened. So he went to the monastery and—after respectfully greeting him—sat on one side and told the Buddha all about it. The Master listened and said, “Good man, now-a-days the luck of one man does not pass to another. But formerly the luck belonging to those of small wit went to the wise.” And he told him this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a brahmin family in the realm of Kāsi. When he came of age, he was educated at Takkasilā University, after which he lived with his family. But when his parents died, he was overcome with grief, and he retired to the life of a recluse in the Himalaya Mountains. There he cultivated the Faculties (1) faith/confidence, 2) energy, 3) mindfulness, 4) concentration/samadhi and 5) wisdom/insight) and the Attainments (jhānas).
A long time passed, and finally he went down into inhabited places for salt and seasonings. He took up his quarters in the gardens of the King of Benares. On the next day, while on his alms rounds, he came to the door of an elephant trainer. This man took a fancy to his ways and manners, so he fed him, gave him lodging in his own grounds, and waited upon him continually.
Now it happened just then that a man whose business it was to gather firewood failed to get back to town from the woods in time. (Indian cities had a strict curfew.) He lay down for the night in a temple, placing a bundle of sticks under his head for a pillow. At this temple there were a number of cocks who were roaming free. They had perched nearby on a tree. Towards morning one of them, who was roosting way up high, let a dropping fall on the back of a bird below.
“Who dropped that on me?” cried the bird. “I did,” cried the cock. “Why?” “I didn’t think,” said the cock, and then he did it again. With this they both began to abuse each other, crying, “What power have you?” “What power have you?” At last the bird said, “Anybody who kills me and eats my flesh roasted on the coals gets a thousand gold coins in the morning!” And the cock answered, “Pooh, pooh. Don’t boast about a little thing like that! Anybody who eats my fleshy parts will become King. If he eats my outside, he will become commander-in-chief or chief Queen, depending on whether that person is a man or woman. If he eats the flesh by my bones, he will get the post of royal treasurer. If he is a householder or a holy man, he will become the King’s favorite!
The bird heard all this and thought. “Now if I become King, I won’t need a thousand gold coins.” So quietly he climbed the tree, caught the cock, and killed him. Then he said to himself, “Now I will be King!” As soon as the city gates opened in the morning, in he walked. He plucked the fowl, cleaned it, and gave it to his wife. He told her to make the meat nice for eating. She cooked the meat with some rice, and set it before him, bidding her lord to eat.
“Good wife,” he said, “there is great virtue in this meat. By eating it I shall become King, and you will be my Queen!" So they took the meat and rice down to the Ganges bank intending to bathe before eating it. They put the meat and the rice down upon the bank, and in they went to bathe.
Just then a breeze stirred up the water. The breeze washed away the meat. Down the river it floated until it came in sight of an elephant trainer. He was a person of great skill. He was giving his elephants a bath lower down in the river. “What have we here?” he said, and he picked it up. “It’s fowl and rice, my lord,” came the reply. He wrapped it up, sealed it, and sent it home to his wife with a message to open it for him when he returned.
The bird also ran off, with his belly puffed out with water that he had swallowed.
Now a certain recluse, who had divine vision, was the favorite chaplain of the elephant trainer. He had been thinking to himself, “My patron friend never leaves his post with the elephants. How will he ever gain a promotion?” As he pondered this, he saw this man with his divine insight, and saw what was happening. So he went and sat in his patron’s house.
When the master returned, he greeted the recluse respectfully and sat down on one side. Then, sending for the parcel, he ordered food and water to be brought for the recluse. The recluse did not accept the food which was offered him. Instead he said, “I will divide this food.” The master gave his consent. Then separating the meat into portions, he gave the fleshy parts to the elephant trainer, the outside to his wife, and he took the flesh around the bones for his own share. After the meal was over, he said, “In three days you will become King. Take care what you do!” and away he went.
On the third day a neighboring King came and threatened Benares. The King of Benares told his elephant trainer to dress himself up as the King in the royal robes, mount his elephant, and fight. The King then disguised himself as a common soldier and mingled with the ranks. Then an arrow came swiftly. It struck the King so that he perished then and there. The trainer, learning that the King was dead, sent for a large sum of money. He beat the drum, proclaiming, “Let those who want money, advance, and fight!” And so the warrior host—in a twinkling—slew the hostile King.
Figure: The King’s deceit fails!
After the King’s funeral the courtiers deliberated who was to be made King. They said, “While our King was still alive, he put his royal robes on the elephant trainer. This very man has fought and won the kingdom. To him the kingdom shall be given!” And they consecrated him King, they made his wife the chief Queen, and the Bodhisatta became his confidant.
After this discourse, the Master—in his perfect wisdom—uttered to the two following stanzas:
“Whatever riches they who strive amain
Without the aid of luck can ever gain,
All that, by favor of the goddess Luck,
Both skilled and unskilled equally obtain.
“All the world over many meet our sight,
Not only good, but creatures different quite,
Whose lot it is fruition to possess
Of wealth in store which is not theirs by right.”
After this the Master added, “Beings have no other resource but their merit won in previous births. This enables them to obtain treasures in places where there is no mine.” Then he recited the following verse.
“There is a treasury of all good things
Which both to gods and men their wishes brings.
Fine looks, voice, figure, form, and sovereignty
With all its pomp, lies in that treasury.
Lordship and government, imperial bliss,
The crown of heaven, within that treasure is.
All human happiness, the joys of heaven,
Nirvana’s self, from out that store is given.
True ties of friendship, wisdom’s liberty,
Firm self-control, lies in that treasury.
Salvation, understanding, training fit
To make Pacceka Buddhas come from it.
Thus this merit has a virtue magical,
The wise and steadfast praise it one and all.”
Lastly the cock repeated the third stanza, explaining the treasures in which lay the luck of Anāthapiṇḍika:
“A cock, a gem, a club, a wife,
All these with lucky marks were rife.
For all these treasures, be it known,
A good and kindly man did own.”
Then he identified the birth: “Elder Ānanda was the King, and the family priest was the Very Buddha.”
