Dīghitikosala Jātaka

The Master told this story at Jetavana about some quarrelsome monks from Kosambī. They had come to Jetavana, and the Master addressed them at the time of their reconciliation. He called them his lawful sons in the faith, begotten by the words of his mouth.

He told them that children ought not to trample on the counsel their father has given them, yet they had not followed his admonition. The tale is numbered 371 in the Jātaka, the collection of birth stories in the Pali Canon.

The Master reminded them of sages of old. These sages had fallen into the power of the men who slew their parents and seized their kingdom. The enemies were confirmed rebels, found in a forest, yet the sages did not put them to death. They said, "We will not trample on the counsel given us by our parents."

Then he related a story of the past. In this birth story, the incident that led up to the tale and the tale itself are both set out fully in another birth story, so only the heart of it is told here. This page keeps to what the text gives.

The Jātaka does not repeat the earlier events in No. 371. The Kosambī Jātaka, No. 428, gives a short account. In it, Brahmadatta, king of Kāsi at Benares, robbed Dīghati, king of Kosala, of his kingdom and put him to death while the king lived in disguise.

Dīghati's son was Prince Dīghāvu, who is the Bodhisatta, the Buddha himself in this earlier birth. The story picks up with the prince grown up and the king of Benares, Brahmadatta, within his reach.

Prince Dīghāvu found the king of Benares lying on his side in the forest. He seized the king by his top-knot and spoke harshly. He said that he now had the marauder who slew his father and mother in his power.

At the very moment he lifted his sword, he remembered the advice his parents had given him. He thought that even if it cost him his own life, he would not trample on their counsel. He would content himself with frightening the king.

Dīghāvu spoke the first stanza. The king, he said, was in his power, lying there, and he asked what stratagem the king had to bring deliverance from his fear.

The king answered in the second stanza. He lay in the prince's power, helpless on the ground, and knew of no means of deliverance.

Then the Bodhisatta spoke the remaining verses. Good deeds and good words alone, not wealth, can bring comfort in the hour of death. Those who harbor thoughts like "that man abused me, that one struck me, a third overcame me and robbed me long ago" never mitigate their wrath.

But those who refuse such thoughts appease their wrath and live at one again. Not hate, but love alone, makes hate to cease. This is the everlasting law of peace.

After these words the Bodhisatta said he would not do the king a wrong. He told him instead to slay him, and he placed his sword in the king's hand. The king answered that he too would do no wrong to the prince.

The king swore an oath. He went with Dīghāvu to the city and presented him to his councillors. He said that this was Prince Dīghāvu, son of the king of Kosala, who had spared his life, and that he could do him no harm.

The king gave the prince his daughter in marriage. He also established him in the kingdom that had belonged to his father. From then on the two kings reigned together happily and harmoniously.

The Master ended his lesson and identified the birth. The father and mother of that time were now members of the royal household, and Prince Dīghāvu was the Master himself. In the related Kosambī Jātaka, No. 428, he names his parents of that time as the great king Suddhodana and Queen Mahāmāyā.

The tale holds one moment, the raised sword that is not struck. Everything before it was a reason to strike, and the text does not hide that. What the Bodhisatta chooses is to remember his parents' counsel more than his own wound, even at risk of his life.

The result is not weakness. By offering the sword to the king, he removes the cause of fear from both sides, and a kingdom is returned to him in peace. For the Kosambī monks, and for every devotee caught in a quarrel, the story asks one question: can the old grievance be set down so that the community can live together again?