The Sādhusīla Jātaka

The Buddha told this story at Jetavana, and the Jātaka Atthakatha records it as Jātaka No. 200, the Sādhusīla Jātaka. It begins with a worried father. A brahmin had four daughters, and four men had come to ask for their hands. Each suitor was different from the others, and the father could not decide which of them deserved a bride.

The first suitor was fine and handsome. The second was old and well advanced in years. The third was a man of good family. The fourth was a good man, whose conduct was virtuous. The brahmin asked himself whom he should give his daughters to, and he turned the question over without reaching an answer.

At last he thought that the Supreme Buddha would surely know. He prepared a quantity of perfumes and garlands and went to the monastery. He saluted the Master and sat to one side, and he told the whole matter from beginning to end. Then he asked his question: to which of these four should he give his daughters?

The Master replied that wise men had asked this very question in olden days. Rebirth had clouded the brahmin's memory, he said, and so he could not remember it. At the brahmin's request, the Buddha told an old-world tale.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a brahmin's son. When he came of age he received his education at Takkasilā (a renowned center of learning in ancient northwest India). On returning home he became a famous teacher.

In that age too there was a brahmin with four daughters, and the same four kinds of suitors came for them. This brahmin also could not decide. "I will enquire of the teacher," he thought, "and give the girls to whomever he says."

He came into the teacher's presence and spoke the first verse. One is good, and one is noble, one has beauty, one has years. Answer this question, brahmin: of the four, which best appears?

The Bodhisatta heard the question and gave a clear judgment. Even when a man has beauty and other such qualities, he said, he is to be despised if he fails in virtue. For that reason the other qualities are not the true measure of a man. Of the four suitors, he said, it was the virtuous one he himself favored.

Then he spoke the second verse. Beauty is good, and the aged deserve respect, for this is right. Noble birth is good too. But virtue, he said, is what he delighted in.

The brahmin heard the answer and acted on it. He gave all his daughters to the suitor who was virtuous.

When the discourse was over, the Master declared the Truths and identified the birth. At the end of the Truths the brahmin attained the fruit of the First Path. The Buddha said, "This brahmin was the brahmin then, and the famous teacher was I myself."

The verse in this Jātaka does not tell anyone to despise beauty, age, or family. It says that each of these has its place, and that respect for the aged is right. What it refuses to do is let any of them stand in for goodness. A handsome man, an old man, or a well-born man may be a good husband, but none of those facts proves it.

For a devotee choosing a partner, a friend, a teacher, or a leader, the advice is the same as the Bodhisatta gave. Look at conduct first. Looks fade, years pass, and a good name can be inherited without being earned, but virtue is the one thing a person carries from one day to the next, and the one that decides whether a household will be a place of peace.

The Buddha's answer also shows how he treated a worried householder. He did not scold the brahmin for hesitating, and he did not hand down a rule. He reminded him that wise people had faced this choice before, told him the story, and let the old teacher's verse speak. The brahmin went home with a clear mind, and in the end he saw the truth for himself.