Pabbata-Upatthara Jātaka

Jataka No. 195 of the Pali Canon was told by the Buddha at Jetavana. King Pasenadi of Kosala came to him troubled because a courtier had wronged him in the royal harem. The Buddha asked whether the courtier was useful to the king and whether the king loved the woman, and the king said yes to both. The Buddha replied that a useful servant and a dear woman should not be destroyed, and that wise kings of old had also borne such matters. He then told a story from the past.

In that former life, when Brahmadatta ruled Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a courtier's family and later became the king's adviser in both worldly and spiritual affairs.

A courtier of the king had wronged him in the harem. The king reflected that the man was too valuable, and the woman too dear to him, for him to destroy either of them.

So the king decided to ask a wise man whether he could bear what had happened, and he sent for the Bodhisatta.

The king put his question in a verse. On a pleasant mountain plain, he said, lotus pools had formed, and a jackal drank from a pool guarded by a lion, even though it knew the danger it was in.

The Bodhisatta replied in a verse of his own. When wild creatures of every kind drink from a great pool, he said, the pool does not stop being a pool and is not spoiled. In the same way the woman's lapse does not make her any less a woman, for such a pool is shared by all who come to drink, and in the end it is purified. If both the courtier and the woman were dear to the king, he should be patient and keep his impartiality.

The pool in the answer is the king's own household: many may come to it, and its worth is not lost to the king because of one failing. The Bodhisatta did not ask the king to pretend nothing had happened. He asked him to meet it with patience rather than punishment.

The king took the advice. He forgave both of them and told them to do wrong no more, and they reformed. He went on to give alms and do good, and at the end of his life he was reborn in heaven. Patience here is not weakness, since it leaves room for the offenders to be told plainly to do wrong no more, and for them to change. That is the fruit the story names: a household that is spared destruction, wrongdoers who reform, and a ruler whose generosity continues until the end of his life.

The Buddha had begun with the king of Kosala, and the old story answered him exactly. Having heard the discourse, King Pasenadi likewise forgave the pair and remained impartial. Seen this way, the Bodhisatta's answer is neither indulgence nor indifference. It asks a ruler to weigh what the offender is worth, what the one offended against has lost, and what a harsh sentence would add that patience could not. A king who acts only from anger gives away his own judgment; a king who pauses to ask a wise friend keeps it. The same counsel suited King Pasenadi, who had come to the Buddha in distress, and it suits anyone who holds power over others and feels the pull to punish before understanding.

At the end, the Buddha identified the characters: Ananda was the king of Benares, and the Buddha himself was the wise counsellor. Patience and impartiality in a ruler, he showed, can spare a household what anger would destroy. In this way the old story gave the king of Kosala not a rule but a way of looking, which he could carry back to his own court.