Jataka 462
Saṃvara Jātaka
King Saṃvara
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
The story in the beginning may be a little hard to comprehend. The practice of jhāna—which is the same as “samadhi”—can be extremely difficult to obtain. It is a meditative state of deep absorption. This is the state that the monk in question sets off to attain.
The Jātaka itself does a nice job of showing the combination of kindness and wisdom. The Prince first earns the love and respect of all those around him. Then he shows compassion to his brothers who have come to usurp his power. It shows a unique combination of strength and compassion.
“Your nature, mighty monarch.” The Master told this story when he was at Jetavana. It is about a monk who had ceased to strive. This, we learn, was a young man of family who lived in Sāvatthi. Having heard the Master’s teaching, he renounced the world. Fulfilling the tasks imposed by his teachers and preceptors, he learned by heart both divisions of the Pātimokkha (the rules of the monastic code).
After five years had passed, he said, “When I have been instructed in how to attain jhāna (samadhi), I will go live in the forest.” Then he took leave of his teachers and preceptors and proceeded to a frontier village in the kingdom of Kosala. The people were pleased with his deportment. He made a hut of leaves and there was attended to. Entering upon the rainy season, zealous, eager, striving in strenuous endeavor he strove after the state of jhāna for the space of three months. But he was unable to attain samadhi. Then he thought, “I am the most devoted to worldly conditions among the four classes of men taught by the Master! What have I to do with living in the forest?” (The four classes of people: The first type is running from darkness towards darkness. The second is running from brightness towards darkness. The third is running from darkness towards brightness. And the fourth is running from brightness towards brightness.) Then he said to himself, “I will return to Jetavana, and there, in beholding the beauty of the Tathāgata and hearing his discourse sweet as honey, I will pass my days.”
So he relaxed his striving. And setting forth, he came in the due course of time to Jetavana. His preceptors and teachers, his friends and acquaintances asked him why he had returned. He informed them, and they reproved him for it, asking him why he had done this. Then they led him into the Master’s presence. “Why, brothers,” said the Master, “do you lead this brother against his will?” They replied, “This brother has come here because he has relaxed his striving.” “Is this true, as they tell me?” asked the Master. “Yes, sir,” the man said. The Master said, “Why have you ceased to strive, brother? For a weak and slothful man there is in this holy life no high fruition, no liberation from suffering. Only those who make a strenuous effort accomplish this. In days long gone by you were full of strength and easy to teach. And in this way, even though you were the youngest of all the hundred sons of the King of Benares, by holding fast to the admonition of wise men, you obtained the White Umbrella.” (The white umbrella is the symbol of royal authority.) So saying, he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King in Benares, the youngest of his hundred sons was named Prince Saṃvara. The King put each of his sons in the charge of a different courtier with directions to teach them each what they needed to learn. The courtier who instructed the Prince Saṃvara was the Bodhisatta. He was wise and learned, and he filled the place of a father to the King’s son. As each of the sons was educated, the courtiers brought them before the King. The King gave each of them a province, and then he let them go.
When the Prince Saṃvara had been perfected in all learning, he asked the Bodhisatta, “Dear father, if my father sends me to a province, what am I to do?” He replied, “My son, when you are offered a province, you should refuse it and say, ‘My lord, I am the youngest of all. If I go away, there will be no one about your feet. I will remain where I am, at your feet.’”
Then one day, when Prince Saṃvara had saluted him and was standing on one side, the King asked him, “Well, my son, have you finished your learning?” “Yes, my lord.” “Choose a province.” “My lord, there will be emptiness about your feet. Let me remain here at your feet and in no other place!” The King was pleased, and he consented.
After that he remained there at the King’s feet. And once again he asked the Bodhisatta, “What else am I to do, father?” “Ask the King,” he said, “for some old park.” The Prince complied, and he asked for a park. With the fruits and flowers that grew there, he made friends with the powerful men in the city. Again he asked the Bodhisatta what he was to do. “Ask the King’s leave, my son,” said the Bodhisatta, “to distribute the food-money within the city.” So he did this, and without the least neglect of any person, he distributed the food-money within the city.
Again he asked the Bodhisatta’s advice, and after soliciting the King’s consent, he distributed food within the palace to the servants. He distributed the horses to the army, without any omission. To messengers that came from foreign countries he assigned their lodging. For the merchants he fixed the taxes. All that had to be arranged he did alone. In this way, following the advice of the Great Being, he made friends with everyone, those in the household and those without, all in the city, the subjects of the kingdom and strangers. By his charm he became bound to them as if by a band of iron. To all of them he was dear and beloved.
When in due time the King lay on his deathbed, the courtiers asked him, “When you are dead, my lord, to whom shall we give the White Umbrella?” “Friends,” he said, “all my sons have a right to the White Umbrella. But you may give it to the one that pleases you.” So after his death, and when the funeral ceremonies had been performed, on the seventh day they gathered together. They said, “Our King instructed us to give the Umbrella to the one that pleases us. Prince Saṃvara is the one that we desire.” So they uplifted the White Umbrella with its festoons of gold over him, escorted by his kinsmen.
The great King Saṃvara—holding dearly to the advice of the Bodhisatta—reigned in righteousness.
The other 99 princes heard that their father was dead and that the Umbrella had been uplifted over Saṃvara. “But he is the youngest of all,” they said. “The Umbrella does not belong to him. Let us uplift the Umbrella over the eldest of us all.” They all joined forces and sent a letter to Saṃvara asking him to resign the Umbrella or fight. Then they surrounded the city. The King told this news to the Bodhisatta and asked what he was to do now. He answered, “Great King, you must not fight with your brothers. Divide the treasure belonging to your father into 100 portions. Send 99 of them to your brothers with this message: “Accept this share of your father’s treasure, for I will not fight with you.” And this he did.
Then the eldest of the brothers, Prince Uposatha, summoned the rest of them together. He said to them, “Friends, there is no one able to overcome the King. This is our youngest brother, and even though he has been our enemy, he does not remain so. He sends us his wealth and refuses to fight with us. Now we cannot all uplift the Umbrella at the same moment. Let us uplift it over one of us only and let him alone be the King. So when we see him, we will hand over the royal treasure to him and return to our own provinces.”
Then all of the princes ended the siege of the city and entered it, no longer enemies. The King told his courtiers to welcome them. He sent them out to meet the princes. The princes entered on foot with a great following. They mounted the steps of the palace, and showing all humility towards the great King Saṃvara, they sat down in a lowly place. King Saṃvara was seated under the White Umbrella upon a throne. His magnificence was great and splendid. Whatever place he looked upon trembled and quaked. Prince Uposatha, seeing the magnificence of the mighty King Saṃvara, thought to himself, “I think that our father knew that Prince Saṃvara would be King after his death, and so he gave us provinces but did not give one to him.” Then addressing the King, he repeated three stanzas:
“Your nature, mighty monarch, sure the lord of men well knew,
The other princes he honored, but gave nothing to you.
“While the King lived was it, or when a god to heaven he went,
That seeing their own benefit, your kinsmen gave consent?
“Say by what power, O Saṃvara, you stand above your kin,
Why do your brothers not unite from you the place to win?”
On hearing this, King Saṃvara repeated six stanzas to explain his own character:
“Because, O Prince, I never grudge great sages what is meet,
Ready to pay them honor due, I fall before their feet.
“Me envying none, and apt to learn all conduct meet and right,
Wise sages each good precept teach in which they take delight.
“I listen to the bidding of these sages great and wise,
My heart is bent to good intent, no counsel I despise.
“Elephant troops and chariotmen, guard royal, infantry—
I took no toll of daily dole, but paid them all their fee.
“Great nobles and wise counsellors waiting on me are found,
With food, wine, water (so they boast) Benares does abound.
“Thus merchants prosper, and from many a realm they come and go,
And I protect them. Now the truth, Uposatha, you know.”
Prince Uposatha listened to this account of his character, and then he repeated two stanzas:
“Then be above your kith and kin, and rule in righteousness,
So wise and prudent, Saṃvara, your brothers you shall bless.
“Your treasure-heaps your brothers will defend, and you shall be
Safe from your foes as Indra’s self from his arch enemy.”
(“Indra” is the King of the Asuras who are the enemies of the devas, or gods.)
Figure: Be above your kith and kin, and rule in righteousness.
King Saṃvara paid great honor to all his brothers. They remained with him for a month and half. Then they said to him, “Great King, we would go and see if there are any scoundrels loose in our provinces. All happiness to your rule!” They each departed to his province. And the King lived according to the advice and counsel of the Bodhisatta, and at the end of his days he went to swell the hosts of heaven.
The Master, having finished this discourse, added, “Long ago, brother, you followed instruction. So why do you not now sustain your effort?” Then he taught the Four Noble Truths at the conclusion of which this monk was established in the fruit of the First Path (stream-entry). Then the Master identified the birth: “At that time this brother was the great King Saṃvara, Sāriputta was Prince Uposatha, the Elders and secondary Elders were the other brothers, the Buddha’s followers were their followers, and I was the courtier who advised the King.”
