Jataka 436
Samugga Jātaka
The Box
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 is another story where the original is quite misogynistic. I have done my best to alter it to identify the real villain as sensual desire. This is in keeping with the Buddha’s Dharma.
“From where do you come, friends?” The Master told this story while he was living at Jetavana. It is about a worldly-minded brother. The Master, they say, asked him if it were true that he was yearning for the world. He confessed that it was so. The Master said, “Why, brother, do you desire a woman? Sensual desire is wicked and unworthy. Of old Asura demons swallowed women, and even though they guarded them in their belly, they could not keep them from tempting men. How then will you be able to do so?” And then he told this story from the past.
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta abandoned sensual pleasures. He entered the Himālayas and adopted the holy life. He lived there subsisting on wild fruits, and he developed the Faculties and Attainments.
Not far from his hut of leaves there lived an Asura demon. From time to time he went near to the Great Being and listened to the Dharma. Nonetheless, taking up position in the forest on the high road where men gathered together, he caught and ate them.
At this time an exceedingly beautiful noble lady from the kingdom of Kāsi settled in a frontier village. One day she went to visit her parents. As she was returning this demon saw the men that formed her escort, and he rushed upon them in a terrible form. The men dropped their weapons and fled. When the demon saw a lovely woman seated in the chariot, he fell in love with her. And carrying her off to his cave, he made her his wife.
From then on he brought her ghee, husked rice, fish, meat and the like, as well as ripe fruit to eat. He dressed her in robes and ornaments, and in order to keep her safe, he put her in a box which he swallowed. In this way he guarded her in his belly.
One day he wanted to bathe. He went to the tank where he threw up the box and took her out of it. He bathed and anointed her, and when he had dressed her he said, “For a short time enjoy yourself in the open air.” And without suspecting any harm, he went a little distance off and bathed.
At just this time the son of Vāyu, who was a magician, was carrying a sword and walking through the air. When she saw him, she waved to him and urged him to come to her. The magician quickly descended to the ground. Then she placed him in the box, sat down on it, and waited for the Asura to return.
As soon as she saw him coming, before he had gotten near to the box, she opened it, and getting inside she lay down over the magician, wrapping her garment around him. The Asura came, and without examining the box, thought it was only the woman. He swallowed the box and set out for his cave. While he was on the road he thought, “It has been a long time since I have seen the recluse. I will go today and pay my respects to him.” So he went to visit him. The recluse, seeing him while he was still a long way off, knew that there were two people in the demon’s belly, and uttering the first stanza, he said:
From where come you?
Right welcome all the three!
Be pleased to rest with me awhile,
I hope, I trust you live at ease and happily.
’Tis long since any of you passed this way.
On hearing this the Asura thought, “I have come quite alone to see this recluse. Yet he speaks of three people. What does he mean? Does he speak from knowing the exact state of things, or is he mad and talking nonsense?” Then he went up to the recluse and saluted him. And sitting at a respectful distance, he spoke the second stanza:
I've come to visit you alone today,
No creature keep me any company
Why do you then, O holy hermit, say,
“From where you come?
Right welcome, all the three.”
Said the recluse, “Do you really want to hear the reason?” “Yes, holy sir.” “Hear then,” he said, and he spoke the third stanza:
Yourself and your dear wife are two, be sure,
Enclosed within a box she lies secure.
Safe-guarded ever in your belly, she
With Vāyu’s son does sport there merrily.
On hearing this the Asura thought, “Magicians surely are full of tricks. Suppose his sword is in his hand. He will rip open my belly and make his escape.” And being greatly alarmed, he threw up the box and placed it before him.
The Master, to make the matter clear, in his Perfect Wisdom repeated the fourth stanza:
The demon by the sword was greatly terrified,
And from his mouth disgorged the box upon the ground.
His wife, with lovely wreath adorned as if a bride,
With Vāyu's son disporting merrily was found.
No sooner had the box opened than the magician muttered a spell, and—seizing his sword—he sprang up into the air. When he saw this, the Asura was so pleased with the Great Being that he repeated the remaining verses, inspired mainly with his praises:
O stern ascetic, your clear vision saw
How low poor man, a desire’s slave, may sink.
As life itself tho’ guarded in my claw,
The desire did play the wanton, as I think.
I tended her with care both day and night,
As forest hermit cherishes a flame,
And yet her beauty, tempting all sense of right,
—To yield to desire needs must end in shame.
I thought within my body, hid from sight,
She must be mine—but “Desire” was her name—
And yet her beauty, tempting all sense of right,
—To yield to desire needs must end in shame.
Man with desire’s strong allure does vainly cope,
In vain he trusts that his defense is sure.
Like precipices down to hell that slope,
Poor careless souls desire to doom allure.
The man that finds the path of peace of mind
Lives happily and from all sorrow free.
He this true bliss in solitude will find,
Free from desire and its witchery.
Figure: The Asura and the Bodhisatta
With these words the demon fell at the feet of the Great Being, and praising him, he said, “Holy sir, through you my life was saved. Owing to passion I was nearly killed by the magician.” Then the Bodhisatta expounded the Dharma to him, saying, “Do not harm her. Keep the Precepts,” and he established him in the five moral precepts, The Asura said, “Even though I guarded her in my belly, I could not keep her safe. Who else will want her?” So he let her go and returned to his forest home.
The Master, his lesson ended, taught the Four Noble Truths. At the conclusion of the teaching, the worldly-minded brother attained fruition of the First Path (stream-entry). Then the Master identified the Birth: “In those days I was the recluse with the supernatural powers of sight.”
