Akitta Jātaka

The Buddha told Jātaka No. 480, as the Jātaka Atthakatha records it, while staying at Sāvatthi. A devout layman of that city had offered gifts to the Sangha for seven days. At the end, the Buddha thanked him and taught that gifts are to be given, whether one lives in the world or has gone forth from it. The layman asked to hear how wise people of old had given. In answer the Buddha spoke of a former birth.

When Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of a brahmin magnate whose house held eighty crores (hundreds of millions) of wealth. He was named Akitti. A younger sister, Yasavatī, was born when he was old enough to walk. At sixteen he went to Takkasilā to study, and when he returned, his parents lived on a little longer and then died.

Akitti went through the register of the family treasure. He saw how many forebears had gathered it, and how not one had taken any of it away at death. The thought troubled him deeply. Wealth that no one can carry beyond this life seemed to him a poor thing to spend a life guarding.

He asked his sister to take charge of the property. She refused, for she also wished to go forth. Akitti then had it announced that anyone who wished for money should come. For seven days he gave alms freely, and then he threw open the doors of the house and told the people it was a gift. Having let go of it all, he and his sister became ascetics, first in a hermitage of leaf and branch about three leagues from Benares.

Many people came to honour Akitti there, and gifts and attention increased. He wanted quiet, so he left. He went on to a park near Kāvīrapaṭṭana in the Tamil country, and from there to the island of Kāra, where he built a dwelling beside a great kāra tree. The Atthakatha also names this island Ahidīpa.

On Kāra Island Akitti lived on the leaves of the kāra tree, sprinkling them with water and eating them. His food was only that. Yet the Atthakatha says the fire of his virtue grew so strong that it made the marble throne of Sakka, king of the gods, grow hot. Sakka looked down and saw the ascetic on the island. He decided to test him.

Sakka came in the form of a brahmin beggar and stood before Akitti at mealtime. Akitti was glad of the chance to give. He placed his soaked leaves in the beggar's bowl, and afterward sat in joy and blessedness without having eaten. The next day Sakka came again, and Akitti gave again with the same gladness. On the third day he was weak from fasting, yet he gave once more. He reflected that a few leaves had brought him great merit, and that he was fortunate indeed.

At noon on the third day Sakka showed himself in his divine splendour. He asked Akitti why he practised such austerity, and Akitti answered in verse. He did not seek the heavens. He sought omniscience, the Buddha's knowledge. Sakka, pleased, offered a boon, and the long exchange of verses began.

Each time Sakka offered a boon, Akitti asked for release rather than reward.

First he asked to be free of longing for sons, wives and treasure. Then he asked to be free of clinging to lands, goods, gold, slaves, horses and cattle. Next he asked never to see, hear or speak with fools, for fools do wrong, load themselves with heavy burdens, and resent correction. Then he asked to see, hear and speak with the wise, who do good, carry no improper burden, and welcome correction.

His fifth request was to be free from sensual desire, and that holy mendicants might come to him daily so that he could give food. He added that his gifts might never shrink and that his heart might stay glad in giving. When Sakka offered a last boon, Akitti asked that Sakka never come to him again. He feared that the splendour of the god might one day draw him away from his vows. Sakka answered that he would not visit again.

The Buddha closed the teaching by identifying the birth. Anuruddha was Sakka, and the Buddha himself was the wise Akitti. Akitti spent the rest of his life cultivating the divine abidings of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity, and after death he was reborn in the Brahma world.

Jātaka No. 480 shows giving at its most direct. Akitti gave from almost nothing, three days in a row, with no hesitation. What he asked of a god was freedom from craving, from foolish company, and from the very visits that might have tempted him.

For the layman at Sāvatthi, and for readers now, the point is quiet. Generosity does not wait for abundance, and it is not something we pass over when little remains. The measure is the gladness with which a thing is given.