Jataka 356
Kāraṇḍiya Jātaka
Kāraṇḍiya’s Story
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
The lesson in this story shows up many times in the Pāli Canon. The message might be, in short, “Don’t waste your energy.” The Buddha was a keen and practical observer of people, and if it was clear that they could not hear his message, he kept quiet. The Dharma is not some idealized view of life. It is relentlessly practical.
It is also interesting that hunters and fishermen are called out in particular. It is part of the Buddhist tradition that people who have professions that involve killing animals come back as those animals in their next life.
Finally, it is fascinating that the person who commits an error in judgment is one of the Buddha’s chief disciples and one of the most extraordinary practitioners in Buddhist history, Sāriputta. This shows—once again—that the Dharma and the world of the Buddha is not some idealized, sugar-coated version of reality. This is the real world with real people. Even the Buddha did things that did not turn out well. So if you feel like you are less than perfect in your life, welcome to the club.
“Why in forest.” The Master told this story told when he was at Jetavana. It is about the Captain of the Faith (Sāriputta). They say that when wicked people such as hunters, fishermen and the like came to him, the elder told them about the moral law. And he would teach any others that he might see from time to time, saying, “Receive the law.” Through respect for the elder, they would not disobey his words and accepted the law, but then they failed to keep it. They still followed each after his own business.
The elder took counsel with his fellow monks and said, “Sirs, these men receive the law from me, but they do not keep.” They answered, “Holy sir, you preach the law to them against their wishes. As they dare not disobey what you tell them, they accept it. But from now on, do not preach the law to people as these.” And the elder was offended.
On hearing of this incident they started a discussion in the Dharma Hall. They discussed how the elder Sāriputta preached the law to any that he happened to see. The Master came and asked what was the topic that the brothers were debating in their assembly. On hearing what it was, he said, “Not now only, monks, but formerly also he preached the law to any men he might see even though they did not ask for it.” And then he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into and and grew up in a brahmin household. He became the chief pupil of a world-renowned teacher at Takkasilā University. At that time this teacher preached the moral law to anyone that he might see, fishermen and the like, even if they did not want it. He repeatedly implored them to keep the law. But though they received it, they did not keep it. The teacher spoke of this to his disciples. His disciples said, “Holy sir, you preach to them against their wishes, and therefore they break the law. From now on preach only to those who wish to hear you and not to those who do not wish to hear it.” The teacher was filled with regret, but even so he still taught the law to all who he happened to see.
Now one day some people came from a certain village and invited the teacher to partake of the cakes offered to brahmins. He summoned his disciple named Kāraṇḍiya and said, “My dear son, I am not going, but you are to go there with these 500 disciples and receive the cakes. And bring the portion that falls to my share.” So he sent him.
The disciple went, and as he was returning, he saw a cave on the road. A thought struck him. “Our master teaches the law without being asked to all that he sees. I will convince him to preach only to those that wish to hear him.” And when the other disciples were comfortably seated, he got up. He picked up a huge stone, threw it into the cave, and again and again he repeated the action. Then the disciples stood up and said, “Sir, what are you doing?” Kāraṇḍiya did not say a word. They went quickly and told their master. The master came and spoke to Kāraṇḍiya the first stanza:
Why in forest all alone
Taking up a mighty stone,
Did you hurl it with a will,
Mountain cave as if to fill?
On hearing his words, Kāraṇḍiya—to rouse his master—uttered the second stanza:
I would make this hilly land
Smooth as palm of human hand.
Thus I level knoll and hill
And with stones each hollow fill.
The brahmin, on hearing this, repeated the third stanza:
Never one of mortal birth
Has the power to level earth.
Scarce Kāraṇḍiya can hope
With a single cave to cope.
The disciple, on hearing this, spoke the fourth stanza:
If a man of mortal birth
Has no power to level earth,
Heretics may well refuse,
Brahmin, to adopt your views.
Figure: Leveling the Earth
On hearing this the teacher made an appropriate reply. For he now recognized that other men might be different from him, and thinking, “I will no longer act in this way,” he uttered the fifth stanza:
Friend Kāraṇḍiya, in short
For my good you do exhort.
Earth can never levelled be,
Neither can all men agree.
Thus did the teacher sing the praises of his disciple. And he, after he had thus admonished his teacher, escorted him home.
The Master, having ended this lesson, identified the birth: “At that time Sāriputta was the brahmin, and I was the disciple Kāraṇḍiya.”
