Darīmukha Jātaka

Once upon a time the Magadha King reigned in Rājagaha. The Bodhisatta was born of his chief queen, and they called him Prince Brahmadatta.

On the day of his birth, the family priest also had a son. His face was very beautiful, so they called him Darīmukha. (“Darīmukha” literally means “cave mouth.” The inference is that he had a very wide, beautiful mouth.) Both of them grew up in the King’s court, and they were dear friends together.

In their sixteenth year they went to Takkasilā University where they learned all the arts. Then, meaning to learn practical skills and understand the customs of the country, they wandered through towns, villages, and all the land. Eventually they reached Benares where they stayed in a temple. On the next day they went into the city to beg for alms.

In one of the houses in the city the people of the house had cooked rice porridge and prepared seats to feed brahmins. These people saw the two youths begging and thought, “The brahmins have come.” They invited them in. They laid a white cloth on the Bodhisatta’s seat and a red rug on Darīmukha’s. Darīmukha observed that this was an omen. He understood that this meant that his friend would be the King in Benares and that he would become the commander of the army.

They ate their food and then with a blessing left and went to the King’s garden. There the Bodhisatta lay on the royal stone seat. Darīmukha sat stroking his feet.

Now the King of Benares had been dead for seven days. The family priest had performed the funeral rites and sent out the royal carriage for seven days as there was no heir to the throne. This ceremony of the carriage will be explained in the Mahājanaka Birth (Jātaka 539). This carriage left the city and reached the gate of the garden. It was accompanied by an army of the four divisions (infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots) and by the music of hundreds of instruments. Darīmukha, hearing the music, thought, “This carriage is coming for my friend. He will become the King today, and he will give me the commander’s position. But why should I be a layman? I will go away and become a recluse.” So without a word to the Bodhisatta, he went off and hid.

Meanwhile the priest stopped the carriage at the gate of the garden. He entered the garden where he saw the Bodhisatta lying on the royal seat. Seeing the auspicious marks on his feet, he thought, “He has merit and is worthy to be King even of the four continents with 2,000 islands around them. But I wonder about his courage.” So he made all the instruments sound their loudest. The Bodhisatta woke, and taking the cloth from his face, he saw the multitude. Then covering his face again, he lay back down for a while.

When the car stopped in front of him, he sat up cross-legged on the seat. The priest—resting on his knee—said, “Lord, the kingdom falls to you.” “Why, is there no heir?” “No, lord.” “Then it is well.” And so he accepted. They coronated him right there in the garden.

In his great glory he forgot about Darīmukha. He mounted the carriage and drove among the crowds in a solemn procession around the city. They stopped at the palace gate. There he arranged the places of the courtiers and went up to the terrace. At that instant Darīmukha—seeing that the garden was now empty—went and sat on the royal seat in the garden. A withered leaf fell in front of him. In it he saw the principles of decay and death. He grasped the three marks of things (impermanence, non-self, and suffering), and making the earth echo with joy, he became a paccekabuddha (a non-teaching Buddha).

At that instant the characteristics of a householder vanished from him. A miraculous bowl and frock fell from the sky and clothed to his body. At once he had the eight requisites (an outer robe, an inner robe, a thick double robe for winter, an alms bowl for gathering food, a razor for shaving, a needle and thread, a belt and a water strainer) and the perfect conduct of an elder monk. Then by a miracle he flew into the air and went to the cave Nandamūla (the special living place of paccekabuddhas) in the Himālaya.

The Bodhisatta ruled his kingdom with righteousness, but he was infatuated with the greatness of his glory, and for 40 years he forgot about Darīmukha. In the 40th year he remembered him, saying, “I have a friend named Darīmukha. Where is he now?” He longed to see him again. From then on, even in the palace and in the assembly he would say, “Where is my friend Darīmukha? I will give great honor to the man who tells me where he is.”

Another ten years passed, and he remembered Darīmukha from time to time. Darīmukha, even though now he was a paccekabuddha, after 50 years reflected. He knew that his friend remembered him. He thought, “He is now old and has sons and daughters. I will go and teach the Dharma to him and ordain him.” By a miracle he flew through the air. He landed in the garden and sat like a golden image on the stone seat where the gardener saw him. He went up to Darīmukha and asked, “Sir, from where have you come?”

“From the cave Nandamūlaka.”

“Who are you?”

“Friend, I am Darīmukha the pacceka.”

“Sir, do you know our King?”

“Yes, he was my friend in my layman days.”

“Sir, the King longs to see you. I will tell him that you are here.”

“Go and do so.”

So the gardener went and told the King that Darīmukha had come and was sitting on the stone-seat. The King said, “So my friend has come. I will go see him.”

So he mounted his carriage, and with a great retinue he went to the garden. He saluted the paccekabuddha with a kindly greeting, and then he sat on one side. The paccekabuddha said, “Brahmadatta, do you rule your kingdom with righteousness? Do you never follow evil courses or oppress the people for money? Do you do good deeds with charity?” And after the King returned a kindly greeting, Darīmukha said “Brahmadatta, you are old. It is time for you to renounce pleasures and to be ordained.” So he taught the Dharma and spoke the first stanza:

Pleasures of sense are but brambles afire.

The "triply-rooted terror" them I call.

Vapor and dust I have proclaimed them, Sire.

Become a monk and forsake them all.

Hearing this, the King explained that he was bound by desires, and he spoke the second stanza:

Infatuated, bound and deeply stained am I,

Brahmin, with pleasures, fearful though they be.

But I love life and cannot them deny.

Good works I undertake continually.

Then even though the Bodhisatta said, “I cannot be ordained,” Darīmukha did not reject him, and he exhorted him again:

He who rejects the counsel of his friend,

Who pities him and would avoid his doom,

Thinking “this world is better,” finds no end,

Foolish, of long rebirths within the womb.

That fearful place of punishment is his,

Full of all filth, held evil by the good.

The greedy their desires can ne’er dismiss,

The flesh imprisons all the carnal brood.

So Darīmukha the paccekabuddha, showing the misery arising from conception and the misery of birth, spoke a stanza and a half:

Covered with blood and with gross foulness stained,

All mortal beings issue from the birth.

Whate’er they touch thereafter is ordained

To bring them pain and sorrow on the earth.

I speak what I have seen, not what I hear

From others. I remember times of old.

Now the Master in his Perfect Wisdom said, “So the paccekabuddha helped the King with good words,” and at the end, he spoke the remaining half-stanza:

Darīmukha did to Sumedha's ear

Wisdom in many a stanza sweet unfold.

(“Sumedha” was the name of the Buddha in a previous life.)

The paccekabuddha, showing the misery of desires, made his words understood. He said, “O King, whether you ordain or not, I have told you about the wretchedness of desires and the blessings of ordination. Be diligent.” And like a golden royal goose he rose in the air, and dancing on the clouds he reached the Nandamūlaka cave. The Great Being bowed to Darīmukha until he passed out of sight. Then he sent for his eldest son and gave him the kingdom. Then leaving his desires behind, and with a great crowd weeping and lamenting, he went to the Himālaya. There he built a hut of leaves. He was ordained as a spiritual seeker. Then in no long time he gained the Faculties (1) faith/confidence, 2) energy, 3) mindfulness, 4) concentration/samadhi and 5) wisdom/insight) and the Attainments (jhānas), and at his life’s end he was reborn in Brahma’s heaven.

(OK. I know it says “like” a golden goose. But can’t I have a little fun?)