Jataka 429
Mahāsuka Jātaka
The Great Parrot
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
This simple story has many themes: gratitude, friendship, loyalty, and selflessness. It is a gentle story, and one that can only be appreciated by gentle people.
“Wherever fruitful trees.” The Master told this story when he was living at Jetavana. It is about a certain monk. The story goes that he lived in a forest near a border village in the Kosala country, and that he received instruction in forms of meditation from the Master. The people built a hut for him on a site where men continually served him, providing him with day and night quarters, and attentively ministered to him.
In the very first month after he had entered upon the rainy season, the village burned down and the people had not so much as a seed left. As a result, they were unable to supply his alms-bowl with savory food. And although he was in a pleasant place to live, he was so distressed for alms food that he could not enter upon the Path or its Fruition. So at the end of three months he went to visit the Master. After words of kindly greeting, the Master hoped that even though he was distressed for alms food that he had a pleasant place in which to live. The brother told him how matters stood. When the Master heard that he had pleasant quarters, he said, “Brother, if this is so, a recluse ought to lay aside covetous ways, be content to eat whatever food he could get, and to fulfill all the duties of a monk. Sages of old, when they were born into the world as animals, lived on the powdered dust of the decayed tree in which they lived. They laid aside greedy desires and were contented to stay where they were. They fulfilled the law of loving-kindness. Why then would you abandon a pleasant living place just because the food you receive is scanty and coarse?” And at his request, the Master told this story from the past.
Once upon a time many parrots lived in the Himālaya country on the banks of the Ganges in a grove of fig trees. A king of the parrots there, when the fruit of the tree in which he lived had run out, ate whatever was left, whether it be a shoot or leaf or bark or rind. He drank water from the Ganges, and being very happy and contented, he stayed where he was.
Because he was happy and contented. the realm of Sakka was shaken. When Sakka reflected on the cause, he saw the parrot. And to test his virtue, he used his supernatural power to wither up the tree. The tree became a mere stump perforated with holes. It was buffeted by every blast of wind, and dust came out from holes. The parrot king ate this dust and drank the water of the Ganges, and going nowhere else, he sat perched on the top of the fig stump, withstanding the wind and the sun.
Sakka noticed how very contented the parrot was. He said, “After hearing him speak of the virtue of friendship, I will give him his choice of a boon and cause the fig tree to bear ambrosial fruit.” So he took the form of a royal goose. And preceded by Sujā (Sakka’s wife) in the shape of an Asura nymph, he went to the grove of fig trees. He perched on the bough of a tree close by and started a conversation with the parrot. He spoke the first stanza:
Wherever fruitful trees abound,
A flock of hungry birds is found.
But should the trees all withered be,
Away at once the birds will flee.
And after these words, in order to drive the parrot away, he spoke the second stanza:
Haste you, Sir Redbeak, to be gone;.
Why do you sit and dream alone?
Come tell me, please, sir, bird of spring,
To this dead stump why do you cling?
Then the parrot said, “O goose, from a feeling of gratitude, I will not forsake this tree,” and he repeated two stanzas:
They who have been close friends from youth,
Mindful of goodness and of truth,
In life and death, in weal and woe
The claims of friendship ne’er forego.
I, too, would be true, kind, and good
To one that long my friend has stood.
I wish to live, but have no heart
From this old tree, though dead, to part.
Sakka on hearing what he said was delighted, and praising him, wished to offer him a choice. So he uttered two stanzas:
I know your friendship and your grateful love,
Virtues that wise men surely must approve.
I offer you whate’er you want for choice.
Parrot, what boon would most your heart rejoice?
Figure: “Grant that the tree I love, again may live.”
On hearing this, the king parrot made his choice, speaking the seventh stanza:
If you, O goose, what most I crave would give,
Grant that the tree I love, again may live.
Let it once more with its old vigor shoot,
Gather fresh sweetness and bear goodly fruit.
Then Sakka, granting the boon, spoke the eighth stanza:
Lo! friend, a fruitful and right noble tree,
Well fitted for your dwelling place to be.
Let it once more with its old vigor shoot,
Gather fresh sweetness and bear goodly fruit.
With these words Sakka abandoned his present form, and manifesting the supernatural power of himself and Sujā, he took up water from the Ganges in his hand and dashed it against the fig tree stump. Straightway the tree rose up rich in branch and stem, and with honey-sweet fruit, it stood a charming sight like a bare Jewel Mountain. When he saw this, the parrot king was highly pleased. And singing the praises of Sakka, he spoke the ninth stanza:
May Sakka and all loved by Sakka blessed be,
As I today am blessed this goodly sight to see!
Sakka, after granting the parrot his boon and causing the fig tree to bear ambrosial fruit, returned with Sujā to his own realm.
In order to illustrate this story, these stanzas inspired by Perfect Wisdom were added at the close:
Soon as king parrot wisely made his choice,
The tree once more put forth its fruit again.
Then Sakka with his queen did fly amain
To where in Nandana the gods rejoice.
The Master, his lesson ended, said, “Thus, brother, sages of old, even though they were born in animal forms, were free from covetousness. Why then do you, after being ordained under so excellent a dispensation, follow greedy ways? So go and live in the same place.” And he gave him a form of meditation, and then he identified the Birth. The monk went back, and through spiritual insight, he attained to Arahant-hood. “At that time Sakka was Anuruddha, and I was the parrot king.”
