Makhādeva Jātaka

The Makhadeva Jataka, numbered 9 in the Pali collection and recorded in the Jataka Atthakatha, was told by the Buddha at Jetavana. The occasion was the Great Renunciation, which is related in the Nidana Katha. The monks sat in the Hall of Truth praising the Master's renunciation of the world.

The Buddha entered the hall, took his seat, and asked what the monks were discussing. They said it was nothing other than praise of his renunciation. The Master replied that the Tathagata had not renounced the world only in these latter days. In bygone days he had done the same. When the monks asked him to explain, he made clear what rebirth had hidden from them.

Once, in Mithila in the realm of Videha, there was a king named Makhadeva, who was righteous and ruled righteously. He had amused himself as a prince for eighty-four thousand years. He had then ruled as viceroy for eighty-four thousand years, and as king for eighty-four thousand more.

After all those long years, one day Makhadeva said to his barber, asking him to tell him whenever he saw grey hairs on his head. Many years later, the barber found a single grey hair among the raven locks and told the king. The king asked him to pull it out and lay it in his palm. The barber plucked it with golden tongs and placed it in the king's hand.

The king still had eighty-four thousand years to live. Even so, at the sight of that one grey hair he was filled with deep emotion. He seemed to see the King of Death standing over him, or to be shut in a blazing hut of leaves. He cried out that he had been foolish, for grey hairs had come before he had rid himself of his faults. The more he thought, the more he burned within, and sweat rolled down his body. This very day, he resolved, he would leave the world for the monk's life.

He gave the barber a village that yielded a hundred thousand pieces of money. Then he sent for his eldest son. He told him that grey hairs had come upon him, that he had had his fill of human joys, and that the time for his renunciation had arrived. He asked the prince to take the sovereignty. For himself, he would live in the pleasure garden known as Makhadeva's Mango-grove and walk the ascetic's path.

His ministers came and asked why the king was taking up the monk's life. Holding the grey hair in his hand, he spoke a stanza. It says that the grey hairs on his head are Death's own messengers, come to rob him of life, and that it is time to turn from worldly things and seek saving peace on the hermit's path. That same day he gave up his sovereignty and became a recluse.

Living in that Mango-grove, he cultivated the four perfect states (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) within himself for eighty-four thousand years. He died with unbroken insight and was reborn in the Brahma world. Passing from there, he became king again in Mithila, this time under the name of Nimi. After uniting his scattered family, he again became a hermit in the same Mango-grove, won the four perfect states once more, and passed again to the Brahma world.

After repeating that he had renounced the world in bygone days, the Master preached the Four Truths (the Four Noble Truths at the heart of his teaching). Some of his hearers entered the First Path (the first of the four stages of awakening), some the Second, and some the Third. Then he identified the birth. Ananda was the barber, Rahula was the son, and the Buddha himself was King Makhadeva. He had told two stories, and he showed the connection between them.

Makhadeva does not renounce because of grief or loss. He renounces because he has paid attention. A single hair, a small and ordinary sign, becomes a message he can no longer ignore. The story also shows renunciation as something that passes on. Makhadeva leaves the throne to his son, and the practice later returns in the life of Nimi. The Jataka invites each hearer to ask a simple question: what is my grey hair, and when will I stop postponing the answer?