The Uraga Jātaka

The Buddha told this story at Jetavana, and the Jātaka Aṭṭhakathā numbers it as Jātaka No. 154. Two high officers served the king of Kosala. They quarrelled all the time, and neither the king nor their friends and relatives could bring them together. The Buddha saw that both men were ripe for the path. On one day he went to the house of the first, and on the next day to the house of the second.

In each house the Buddha spoke about the blessings of loving-kindness. Both men listened, and each of them attained the Fruit of the First Path (the first stage of enlightenment). They made peace, confessed their faults to one another, and asked forgiveness. That same day they sat down and ate together before the Teacher. Afterwards they walked with him to the monastery, carrying flowers, perfumes, and food as offerings.

The monks were amazed. They said among themselves that the Buddha had united in a single day two men whom even the king could not reconcile. When the Teacher entered the hall, they told him so. He answered that this was not the first time he had reconciled these two, and then he told them of an earlier life.

In the days when Brahmadatta ruled at Benares, a great festival drew crowds of people, gods, serpents, and garuḷas. A serpent and a garuḷa stood side by side among the spectators. The serpent did not know who his neighbour was and rested a hand on the garuḷa's shoulder. They turned and recognised one another, and each saw a natural enemy. Both took fright and ran.

The serpent fled, and the garuḷa flew after him. The chase led towards a river. Beside the river stood a leaf hut in which the Bodhisatta lived as a hermit. That day he had taken off his bark garment and gone into the water to bathe and cool himself.

The serpent, hard pressed, changed himself into a jewel and hid in the hermit's bark garment that lay on the bank. The garuḷa landed nearby and saw what the serpent had done. He could not touch the belongings of a holy man. So he stood at a respectful distance and spoke to the hermit in verse. He said that the wretched snake had taken refuge inside a bark robe, and that out of reverence for the hermit's holiness he would not seize it, hungry though he was.

The Bodhisatta, who was standing in the water, praised the garuḷa's restraint. He wished him a long life, protected by Brahmā (a high divine being of Buddhist cosmology), and wished that he might never lack heavenly food. He asked him not to devour the serpent out of reverence for his holiness, even though he was hungry. The garuḷa heard him and held back.

The hermit came out of the water and took up his garment. He gathered both creatures and brought them to his hermitage. There he taught them about the blessings of loving-kindness. They listened, and the old fear and hunger between them eased. They lived together in harmony from that day on.

When the discourse ended, the Buddha linked the two stories. The two officers who had quarrelled were the serpent and the garuḷa of old. The Buddha himself had been the hermit who brought them to peace. He had united them in the past by teaching loving-kindness, and he had done the same in the present.

The Jātaka Aṭṭhakathā keeps this story because it shows what authority cannot do. A king could not bring two angry men to peace, and a garuḷa could not rest beside a serpent. A holy person who offered neither threat nor judgement managed it. Loving-kindness did not argue the case for either side. It made room for both to put down their fear. For a devotee today, the tale suggests that reconciliation begins when someone is willing to teach goodwill, and keeps it themselves, in the middle of the quarrel.