Kaṇha Jātaka

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta ruled in Benares, there was a certain childless Brahmin. He was very wealthy, and he had a worth of eighty crores (800 million rupees). He took upon him the vows of virtue (the Precepts) and prayed for a son. Eventually the Bodhisatta was conceived in the womb of this brahmin’s wife. Because of his black color, on his nameday they gave him the name of Kaṇha-kumāra, Young Blackie. At the age of 16 years he was full of splendor, as if he were an image of some precious stone. He was sent by his father to Takkasilā University where he learned all the liberal arts, and then he returned home again. Then his father provided an appropriate wife for him. And bye and bye he inherited all of his parents’ property.

Now one day, after inspecting his treasure houses, he sat on his gorgeous divan. He took a golden plate in his hand and read these lines inscribed by his kinsmen of former days: “So much property is gained by one, so much by another.” He thought, “Those who won this wealth are seen no more, but the wealth is still seen. No one can take it where he is gone. We cannot tie our wealth in a bundle and take it with us to the next world. Seeing that it is connected with the Five Defilements (attachment, aversion, ignorance, pride, and jealousy), it is better to distribute this vain wealth in alms. Seeing that this vain body is connected with disease, it is better to show honor and kindness to the virtuous. Seeing that this transient and vain life is impermanent, it is better to strive after spiritual insight. Therefore I will distribute these vain treasures in alms so that I may perform the better deed.” So he got up from his seat, and receiving the King’s consent, he gave alms in abundance.

After doing this for seven days he saw no lessening in his wealth. He thought, “What is wealth to me? While I am not yet overcome by old age, I will take the ascetic vows. I will cultivate the Five Faculties (1) faith/confidence, 2) energy, 3) mindfulness, 4) concentration/samadhi and 5) wisdom/insight) and the Attainments (jhānas). I will become destined for Brahma's heaven!” So he had all the doors of his home set open, and he told everyone to take it all as freely given. And spurning it as an unclean thing, he forsook all desires of the eyes. And amid the lamentations and tears of a great multitude, he went forth from the city into the Himalaya region.

There he embraced the solitary life. He chose a gourd tree for his place in which to eat and resolved to live at the root of that tree. He never lived in a village but became a dweller in the woods. He never made a hut of leaves and lived at the foot of this tree in the open air. He sat there, or if he desired to lie down, he lay upon the ground. He did not use a pestle but only his teeth with which to grind his food. He ate only things uncooked by the fire. He ate once a day at one sitting. On the ground, as though he were one with the four elements, he lived, taking on the ascetic virtues. In that birth the Bodhisatta, as we learn, had very few desires.

It was not long before he attained the Faculties and the Attainments, and he lived in that spot in the bliss of ecstatic meditation. He never sought wild fruits. When fruit grew on the tree, he ate the fruit. In a time of flowers, he ate flowers. When the leaves grew, he ate leaves. When there were no leaves, he ate the bark of trees. Thus in the highest contentment he lived for a long time in that place.

In the morning he used to pick up the fruits of that tree. Never even once did he rise up and pick fruit in any other place from greediness. In the place where he sat, he stretched out his hand and gathered all the fruit there was within one arm’s length. He would eat these as they came, making no distinction between nice and nasty. As he continued to take pleasure in this way of life, the yellowstone throne of Sakka grew hot by the power of his virtue. (This throne, they say, grows hot when Sakka’s life draws towards its end, or when his merit is exhausted and worked out, when some mighty being prays, or through the potency of the virtue in priests or brahmins.)

Then Sakka thought, “Who is it would dislodge me now?” Surveying all around, he saw, living in a forest in a certain spot, the sage Kaṇha picking up fruit. And he knew that this was the sage of austerity with all of his senses subdued. “I will go to him,” he thought. “I will have him teach the Dharma in trumpet tones, and having heard the teaching that gives peace, I will offer him a boon. I will make his tree bear fruit unceasingly, and then I will return here.” Then by his mighty power he quickly descended, and taking his stand at the root of that tree behind the sage, he said, by way of testing whether or not the sage would be angry at a mention of his ugliness, the first stanza:

“Behold that man, all black of hue, that dwells on this black spot,

Black is the meat that he does eat—my spirit likes him not!”

Black Kaṇha heard him. “Who speaks to me?” By his divine insight he perceived that it was Sakka, and without turning, he replied with the second stanza:

“Though black of hue, a brahmin true at heart, O Sakka, see,

Not by the skin, but if he sin, then black a man must be.”

And then he explained the defilements that make such beings black, and he praised the goodness of virtue. He taught Sakka, and it was as though he made the moon rise in the sky. When he heard this teaching, Sakka was charmed and delighted. He offered the Great Being a boon and repeated the third stanza:

“Fair spoken, Brahmin, nobly put, most excellently said,

Choose what you will—as bids your heart, so let your choice be made.”

Hearing this the Great Being thought, “I know how it must be. He wanted to test me and see if I became angry at the mention of my ugliness. So he vilified the color of my skin, my food, my place of living. But seeing that I was not angry, he is pleased, and now he offers me a boon. Unquestionably he thinks that I live this way from a desire for the power of Sakka or of Brahma. And now, to make him certain, I must choose these boons: that I may be calm, that I may have no hatred within me or malice against my neighbor, and that I may have no greed for my neighbor’s glory or lust towards my neighbor.” And so, to resolve the doubt of Sakka, the sage uttered the fourth stanza, claiming these four boons:

“Sakka, the lord of all the world, a choice of blessings gave.

From malice, hatred, covetous, deliverance I would have,

And to be free from every lust; these blessings four I crave.”

Sakka thought: “The sage Kaṇha, in choosing his boon, has chosen four most blameless blessings. Now I will ask him what is good or bad about these four things.” And he asked the question by repeating the fifth stanza:

“In lust, in hatred, covetous, in malice, brahmin, say,

What evil thing do you behold? This answer me, I pray.”

“Hear then,” replied the Great Being, and he uttered these four stanzas:

“Because hatred, of ill-will bred, does grow from small to great,

Is ever full of bitterness, therefore I want no hate.

“’Tis ever thus with wicked men, first word, then touch we see,

Next fist, then staff, and last of all the sword stroke flashing free.

Where malice is, there follows hate—no malice then for me.

“When men make speed egged on by greed, fraud and deceit arise,

And swift pursuit of savage loot—therefore, no covetous.

“Firm are the fetters bound by lust, that thrives abundantly

Within the heart, for bitter smart—no lusting then for me.”

Sakka, his questions answered, replied, “Wise Kaṇha, you sweetly answered my questions with a Buddha’s skill. I am well pleased with you. Now choose another boon,” and he repeated the tenth stanza:

“Fair spoken, brahmin, nobly put, most excellently said,

Choose what you will—as bids your heart, so let your choice be made.”

Instantly the Bodhisatta repeated a stanza:

“O Sakka, lord of all the world, a boon you did me cry.

Where in the woods I ever live, where all alone live I,

Grant no disease may mar my peace, or break my ecstasy.”

On hearing this, Sakka thought, “Wise Kaṇha, in choosing a boon, chooses nothing connected with food. All he chooses bears upon the virtuous life.” Delighted ever more and more, he added yet another boon and recited another stanza:

“Fair spoken, brahmin, nobly put, most excellently said,

Choose what you will—as bids your heart, so let your choice be made.”

And the Bodhisatta, in stating of his boon, declared the Dharma in the concluding stanza:

“0 Sakka, lord of all the world, a choice you bid declare,

No creature should be harmed for me, O Sakka, anywhere,

Neither in body nor in mind, this, Sakka, is my prayer.”

Thus the Great Being, on six occasions given the choice of a boon, chose only that which pertained to the life of renunciation. He well knew he that the body is diseased, and that Sakka can do away with it. It is not in Sakka’s power to cleanse living beings in the Three Gates (body, speech, and mind). That being so, he made his choice so that he might teach the Dharma to him.

And so Sakka made that tree bear fruit perennially. He saluted him by touching his head with joined hands. Then he said, “Live here ever free from disease,” and he went to his own realm. But the Bodhisatta, never breaking his meditative absorption, became destined for Brahma’s world.