The Soṇa-Nanda Jātaka

The Buddha told this story at Jetavana, and the Jātaka Aṭṭhakathā numbers it as Jātaka No. 532. It concerns a monk who supported his mother. The circumstances were the same as those in the Sāma Jātaka. The Buddha asked the monks not to take offence at this brother. He said that the sages of old had been offered rule over all India, yet refused it and supported their parents. Then he told a story of the past. It is a long tale of the Mahānipāta, and it is given here as an overview.

Long ago the city of Benares was called Brahmavaddhana, and Manoja was king there. A brahmin magnate who owned eighty crores had no heir, and his wife prayed for a son. The Bodhisatta came from the Brahma world and was born as young Soṇa. Soon after, another being came from the Brahma world and was born as young Nanda. Both learned the Vedas and the arts. When the father proposed a marriage for Soṇa, the youth said that he had enough of household life. He would look after his parents while they lived and would become an ascetic when they died. Nanda also refused to take what his brother had rejected.

The parents thought that if their young sons could give up the pleasures of the senses so easily, then they themselves ought to take the ascetic life too. They told the king and gave away all their wealth. They freed their slaves and shared out what was right among their kinsfolk. All four then left the city and built a hermitage in the Himalayas, beside a lake covered with five kinds of lotus. The two brothers looked after their parents together. Each morning they brought tooth-sticks and water for rinsing. They swept the hut and brought water to drink. They fetched sweet berries from the wood, prepared hot or cold water for bathing, dressed their parents' matted hair, and rubbed their feet. The days passed in this way.

Nanda thought he should provide fruit for his parents. He brought whatever fruit he had gathered close by, even if it was a day or two old, and offered it early in the morning. The parents ate it and then fasted for the rest of the day. Soṇa went a long way to gather sweet ripe fruit. When he brought it, his parents said they had eaten already and were fasting. His fruit was wasted, day after day. Soṇa thought that the parents were delicate and that unripe fruit would shorten their lives.

Soṇa asked Nanda to wait each day until he came, so that they could bring the food together. Nanda, who wanted the merit for himself alone, took no notice. Soṇa decided that Nanda was acting wrongly. He told him that he was past teaching and that, as the elder brother, he would look after the parents alone. He told Nanda to go elsewhere, and snapped his fingers at him. Nanda took leave of his brother and told his parents what had happened.

Nanda went into his hut of leaves and fixed his gaze on the mystic circle. That very day he attained the five higher knowledges and the eight attainments. He thought of ways to win his brother's forgiveness. He might bring sand from Mount Sineru, or water from Lake Anotatta, or the four Great Kings and Sakka. If those failed, he would bring King Manoja and all the kings of India, and then the fame of Soṇa's virtue would shine like the sun and moon. He flew to the palace gate at Brahmavaddhana and sent word that an ascetic wished to see the king.

The king offered food and clothing, but the ascetic would take none of it. Nanda said that by his own power he would win the rule of all India for the king. He promised that no blood would be shed, not even a fly's worth, and that no treasure would be spent. The king believed him and set out with his army. Nanda shaded the host from the heat, held back the rain, cleared the road, and flew ahead seated on an antelope skin. At Kosala the two armies met in battle, and Nanda spread his skin between them and caught every arrow. When the arrows were all gone, the armies stood helpless. Nanda told the king of Kosala that the kingdom would stay his if he submitted to Manoja, and the king agreed.

In this way Manoja took Aṅga and Magadha and became lord of all India. It took seven years, seven months, and seven days. He led the hundred and one kings back to Brahmavaddhana and feasted them for seven days. Nanda stayed away, because he did not wish to show himself until the king had enjoyed his glory for a week. On the seventh day the king reflected that this power had not come from his parents or from anyone else, but from the ascetic. He remembered Nanda, and Nanda appeared in the air before him.

The king asked in verse whether Nanda was an angel, a minstrel-god, Sakka, or a mortal with magic powers. Nanda answered that he was a mortal. The king offered him chariots, elephants, treasure, a palace, and even half the kingdom. Nanda refused it all. He asked only that the king and the other rulers plead for him. His aged parents were living under his brother's care, and he wished to be allowed to serve them too. The king agreed and gathered the hundred and one kings and his host of twenty-four armies.

Soṇa saw the procession coming through his divine sight. He knew that the kings, who had seen so many wonders from Nanda, might doubt his own power and speak ill of him. That would lead them to a bad rebirth. So he took a carrying pole that hung in the air four inches from his shoulder and flew to Lake Anotatta for water. He passed close by the king. Nanda saw him and, not daring to be seen, vanished into the Himalayas. The king asked who it was, and Soṇa answered in verse. He said that he never left the ascetic rule and supported his parents day and night. Then he made a path to the hermitage and hurried home to seat his father.

The king and the rest came to the hermitage, and Nanda came back as well. After greetings, Nanda rose and bowed to his parents and brother. He asked in verse to be allowed to serve his aged parents once again. Soṇa spoke to the kings. He said that whoever spurns the ancient custom of his forefathers and sins against his elders is reborn in hell, and that the charge of the family falls on the eldest son. As the eldest, he gladly took up that duty and would never forsake the Right. The kings were delighted and turned their devotion from Nanda to Soṇa. They said that he had lit a lamp in the night.

Nanda then offered himself as Soṇa's slave. Soṇa was not angry with him. He had acted as he did only to humble his brother's pride. Now he forgave him. Their mother asked leave to embrace Nanda, and Soṇa gave it. She kissed Nanda's head, and her heart shook with joy like a young leaf in the wind. Soṇa told Nanda that a mother is the way to heaven, and that he must care for her. He then described a mother's long labours for her child, and said that one who neglects either parent will meet a hard fate, while one who tends them in old age will find joy. The kings, hearing him, believed. He established them in the five precepts, and they ruled righteously and went to heaven. Soṇa and Nanda served their parents as long as they lived and were destined for the Brahma world.

The Buddha closed the discourse by naming the birth. The parents had been members of the Great King's court. Nanda had been Ānanda, King Manoja had been Sāriputta, and the hundred and one kings had been eighty chief elders and certain others. The twenty-four armies had been the Buddha's disciples. The sage Soṇa had been the Buddha himself. At the end of the truths, the monk who had cared for his mother was established in the fruition of the First Path.

The Jātaka Aṭṭhakathā places this story among its long tales because it carries more than one lesson. Nanda gained great power and used it to restore a family. Soṇa held a greater power, and he used it to teach the kings that parents deserve reverence. The story shows that shared service needs patience on both sides, and that apology is easier to give when it is matched by forgiveness. For a devotee, the tale makes a quiet point. The people who raised us are the first teachers we have, and caring for them is a path to merit that no throne can match.