The Story of the Varāha-jātaka
There lived a boar in a cave in the Vindhya mountains. It was endowed with buddhāṃśa. The boar lived with a monkey in harmony and performed tasks that helped all the animals.
Once, there was torrential rain for five days. A lion appeared at the mouth of the cave with his wife and son and said – “We don’t get to eat any animal in this condition! Death is the best solution!” The female said – “Why don’t you both eat me and sate your hunger!” Upon hearing this conversation, the boar offered its body to them. The lion let his son feast on the boar first and then it ate the leftovers. Though it was left with its skeleton only, the boar did not lose its life. In the meantime, the lioness died of hunger. The father and the son left the place leaving behind her body. The next morning, the monkey came out of the cave, saw the state of the boar and said “I am sure you are divinely gifted. If you want me to do anything for you, pray tell me!” The boar said – “My wish cannot be fulfilled even by the Vidhi. The lioness died right in front of my eyes – I wish that it came alive, ate me and find satisfaction!” The next moment, Dharma appeared there, and swayed his hand over the boar. It turned into a sage. “I had come in the guise as a lioness to win over you, having known that you have taken the vow of helping others. Instead, you won over me and have procured this life of a muni!” Upon the request of the varāha-muni, Dharma converted the monkey too into a muni and vanished from there. The dead lioness disappeared from the place as well.
In this manner, with the help of the devas, our wishes can get fulfilled.
Once, a brāhmaṇa came from Pāṭalīputra and asked for the ring that was gifted by Kālajihva. He happily gave it away. Another day, a prince by name Indukalaśa approached him and requested him for his sword and horse – he said that his elder brother had snatched the ancestral kingdom. He gave that as well. The elder brother, Kanakakalaśa, who was defeated came to Vinītamati and said that he would enter the fire. The king said – “I anyway don’t have any children. You are like my son. You may possess my kingdom and rule it!” He convinced Kanakakalaśa and returned to the forest.
The king and his wife happened to end up in a desert which had no water or shade. He grew tired and fell asleep there. However, when he woke up and looked around, it had turned into a nandana-vana (the garden in svarga). This was the result of his dāna. One day, there came a renegade named Somaśūra who had escaped royal punishment and was distraught. Looking at him forlorn, Vinītamati took him to his hut and treated him with great hospitality. “Sir, first we must abandon ignorance. Indeed, ignorance is a hurdle for both iha (here) and para (hereafter); I shall narrate a story in this regard. Listen!” Saying so, he [Vinītamati] recounted the next tale –
The Story of Devabhūti
In the land of Pāñcāla, there lived a brāhmaṇa named Devabhūti. One day, a donkey made its way into the precincts of his residence and ate up the different plants and vegetables that were growing there. Upon seeing this, Devabhūti's wife Bhogavatī took a staff in her hand and chased after the donkey. The donkey fell into a pit and broke its leg. Looking at this, the washerman who owned the donkey beat up the woman and kicked her. She had been pregnant and because of being hit by the washerman, her child died in the womb. The brāhmaṇa filed a complaint with the mayor of the city. The mayor cogitated upon the matter and said, “Until the donkey’s broken foot heals completely, let the brāhmaṇa carry the washerman’s bags; the washerman should impregnate the brāhmaṇa's wife. Listening to this verdict, both the brāhmaṇa and his wife committed suicide by consuming poison. The king had the mayor executed. The mayor died and was reborn as an insect. Therefore, the darkness of ignorance must be lit up by the lamp of the śāstras – this great truth [the Doctrine of Perfections] was instructed to him in a methodical manner thus –
1. Dānapāramitā – The Pinnacle of Philanthropy
Long ago, Kurukṣetra was ruled by a king named Malayaprabha. There was once a terrible famine in his kingdom and he set out to offer money to his subjects; his ministers stopped him. His munificence stopped right there. At that juncture, his son Induprabha said, “Father! Why do you ignore your subjects, misguided by these evil ministers? You are the kalpavṛkṣa (all-granting tree) to your subjects and they are the kāmadhenu (wish-fulfilling cow) to you!” The king replied, “Do you suppose that I have unlimited wealth? Without that, if I’m supposed to become the kalpavṛkṣa for my subjects; in fact, why don’t you become the kalpavṛkṣa for them?” The prince said, “Either I become a kalpavṛkṣa or I will die; only one of the two!” Saying so, he went away to a forest and began performing rigorous tapas. At once, the famine faded away. Indra was delighted by his tapas and made him a kalpavṛkṣa. Through its long branches and through the cries of birds, it [the wish-fulfilling tree] appeared to be calling the attention of seekers far away. Every day, people used to have their wishes fulfilled. They had no inadequacies of any kind. At that point, Indra came there and said, “Your selflessness and attitude of service have reached fulfilment; come to svarga now!” Induprabha replied, “There are already many kalpavṛkṣas there, which are offering their fruits and flowers and fulfilling the needs of many. Should I come there just to be one more comfortably placed kalpavṛkṣa! Will not the hopes of all the people here get destroyed?” Indra then said, “If that is the case, come to svarga along with all your subjects!” The prince said, “If you are so delighted, please take all my subjects to svarga; but I have nothing to do with your svarga. I shall remain here, performing tapas for the benefit of others.” Indra agreed and took every citizen along with him to svarga. The prince got back to his original form, performed tapas and eventually became a bodhisattva. Thus people who are munificent always attain siddhi.
2. Śīlapāramitā- The pinnacle of conduct
There lived a parrot called Hemaprabha in the Vindhya mountains, it was born from buddhāṃśa (part of Buddha) and was the king of parrots. The wife of an attendant of this parrot called Cārumati was killed by a hunter, which brought immense sorrow to the attendant. To help him overcome the sorrow, Hemaprabha tried to console him saying, ‘My friend! Your wife didn’t die; she ran with her life; let me show you.’ The parrot took the attendant to the lake nearby, showed its own reflection and said, ‘See there; it's your wife!’ But it doesn’t touch me, doesn’t talk to me; angry may be! - thinking thus it brought a gooseberry and gave it to its beloved. The berry came up floating, it asked, ‘What’s this?’ Hemaprabha said, ‘I shouldn’t tell you this; but out of affection towards you I’m telling you, your wife now loves someone else. Let me show you.’ saying so it showed the reflection of both the parrots. The attendant at once attained vairāgya. The king said, ‘You can even consume poison, but shouldn’t believe women; they lead people of good nature astray; one should thus shun their company, adhere and practice śīla (good conduct).’
3. Kṣamāpāramitā- The pinnacle of forgiveness
In the Kedāra mountains there was a great muni named Śubhanaya. One night thieves who had hidden some stolen gold in that vicinity came to take it back. Their search for their stuff was in vain. They assumed that Śubhanaya would have taken it and they abused him and thrashed him. He said, ‘I haven’t taken it; I haven’t even seen it.’ They chopped off his hands and legs, gouged his eyes out and went away. The next day his disciple who was a king named Śekharajyoti came by and was shocked to see his situation, he sent his guards to search for those thieves and was about to punish them by killing them all. Śubhanaya said, ‘O king! If you kill them I’ll use the same weapon to kill myself; they aren’t the reason; if they are indeed the cause then anger is the root cause; the cause of anger is the gold which wasn’t available; the cause for that is my own bad deeds in my previous lives; for that the cause is my ignorance; thats the culprit; that should be killed; why shouldn’t they be saved from death? If they hadn't done this, who would I forgive?’ He spoke thus and spared their lives. By the tapas he had performed his eyes, hands and legs were revived; he attained siddhi. Thus people who can forgive can cross the ocean that is the samsāra.
To be continued...
The current article is a translation of Prof. A R Krishnasastri’s Kannada classic Kathāmṛta along with additional segments added from the original Kathā-sarit-sāgara (of Soma-deva). Bṛhat-kathā-mañjarī (of Kṣemendra) and Bṛhat-kathā-śloka-saṃgraha (of Budha-svāmin) have also been referred to. The translation has been rendered by Raghavendra GS, Arjun Bharadwaj, Srishan Thirumalai, and Hari Ravikumar.
The original Kannada version of Kathāmṛta is available for free online reading. So are the other works of Prof. Krishna Shastri
