Setaketu Jātaka

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was the King in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a famous teacher. He taught the sacred texts to 500 students. The senior of them was named Setaketu. He was born of a brahmin family from the north, and he was very proud of his caste.

One day he went out of the town with other pupils, and when he was returning, he saw an outcaste. “Who are you?” he said. “I am an outcaste.” He feared that the wind might touch his own body after striking the outcaste’s body, so he cried, “Curse you, you ill-omened outcaste. Get to leeward.” The brahmin moved quickly to windward, but the outcaste was too quick for him and moved to the windward side of him. Then Setaketu abused and reviled him all the more. “Curse you, ill-omened one.” The outcaste asked, “Who are you?” “I am a brahmin student.” “Very well. If you are, you will be able to answer a question for me.” “Yes.” “If you can’t, I will put you between my feet.” (In Asia the feet are loathed because they are dirty.) The brahmin, feeling confident, said, “Proceed.” The outcaste asked the question, “Young brahmin, what are the quarters?” “There are four quarters, the east and the rest.” The outcaste said, “I am not asking about that kind of quarter, and you, ignorant even of this, loathe the wind that has struck my body.” So he grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him down between his feet.

The other pupils told their teacher of the affair. He asked, “Young Setaketu, have you been put between an outcaste’s feet?” “Yes, teacher. The son of a slave put me between his feet, saying, ‘He doesn't know even the quarters.’ But now I know what to do to him.” And so he reviled the outcaste angrily.

But the teacher admonished him. “Young Setaketu, do not be angry with him. He is wise. He was asking about another kind of quarter, not this. What you have not seen or heard or understood is far more than what you have.” And he spoke two stanzas by way of admonition:

Friend, be not angry, anger is not good.

Wisdom is more than you have seen or heard.

By “quarter” parents may be understood,

And teacher is denoted by the word.

The householder who gives food, clothes and drink,

Whose doors are open, he a “quarter” is.

And “quarter” in the highest sense, we think,

Is that last state where misery shall be bliss.

(This passage is based on puns that do not translate into English, but I think you can glean the meaning. The four quarters are parents, teachers, generous householders, and enlightenment.)

So the Bodhisatta explained the quarters to the young brahmin. But he kept thinking, “I was put between an outcaste’s feet.” So he left that place and went to Takkasilā University where he learned all the arts from a famous teacher there. With that teacher’s permission he left Takkasilā, and he wandered about learning all the practical arts. He came to a frontier village where he found 5oo recluses living near it. There he was ordained by them. Here he, too, learned all their arts, texts, and practices.

They accompanied him to Benares. On the next day he went to the palace yard begging for alms. The King, pleased with the recluses’ conduct, gave them food in the palace and lodging in his garden. One day he sent them food, saying, “I will salute your reverences this evening in the garden.” Setaketu went to the garden, and gathering the recluses, he said, “Sirs, the King is coming today. Now by pleasing kings a man may live happily all the years of his life. So some of you do the swinging penance, some lie on thorned beds, some endure the five fires, some practice the mortification by squatting, some the act of diving, and some of you repeat texts.”

After these orders he sat down at the door of a hut on a chair with a head rest. He put a book with a brilliant-colored wrapping on a painted stand. Then he explained texts as they were requested by four or five intelligent pupils.

At that moment the King arrived. He saw them doing these false penances, but being fooled, he was delighted. He went up to Setaketu, saluted him, and sat on one side. Then turning to his family priest he spoke the third stanza:

With uncleansed teeth, and goatskin garb and hair

All matted, muttering holy words in peace,

Surely no human means the good they spare,

They know the Truth, and they have won Release.

The priest heard this and spoke the fourth stanza:

A learned sage may do ill deeds, O King,

A learned sage may fail to follow right.

A thousand Vedas will not safety bring,

Failing virtues, or save from evil plight.

When the King heard this, he took away his favor from the ascetics.

Setaketu thought, “This King took a liking to us, but this priest has destroyed it as if he had cut it with an axe. I must talk to him.” So talking to him he spoke the fifth stanza:

“A learned sage may do ill deeds, O king.

A learned sage may fail to follow right.”

You say “then Vedas are a useless thing,”

Virtue with self-restraint are requisite.

The priest hearing this, spoke the sixth stanza:

No, Vedas are not useless utterly.

Though works with self-restraint true doctrine is.

Study of Vedas lifts man’s name on high,

But it’s by conduct that he reaches Bliss.

So the priest refuted Setaketu’s doctrine. He made them all laymen, gave them shields and weapons, and appointed them to be attendants on the King as high-ranking officers.