Nimi Jātaka

The Nimi Jataka, numbered 541 in the Pali collection and recorded in the Jataka Atthakatha, is one of the long Mahanipata birth stories. The Buddha told it while staying in Makhadeva's mango park near Mithila. One evening he was walking there with a large company of monks when he noticed a pleasant spot and allowed a smile to show on his face.

When the Reverend Ananda asked why he smiled, the Buddha answered that he had once lived in that spot, deep in meditation, in the time of King Makhadeva. Then, at Ananda's request, he sat down on a seat offered to him and told a story of the past. This birth story is long, and it is told here as a summary rather than verse by verse.

In Mithila, in the kingdom of Videha, King Makhadeva saw his first white hair, gave a village to his barber, made his son king, and became a hermit in the mango park. His son did the same, and so did each prince after him, to the number of eighty-four thousand less two. Each saw a white hair, took up the ascetic life in the same park, and was reborn in the Brahma world.

Makhadeva, standing in the Brahma world, looked down on his family and was glad. He wondered whether Nirvana would come now, saw that it would not, and resolved to round off the line himself. He was conceived in the womb of the king's consort in Mithila. At his birth the soothsayers said the boy was born to complete the family, so the king named him Nemi, meaning the hoop of a chariot wheel. The name is also given as Nimi.

From childhood the boy loved giving, virtue and the Sabbath vows. When his father took up the ascetic life, Nimi became king. He built five almshalls, one at each of the four city gates and one in the middle of the city. In each he gave a hundred thousand pieces of money every day. He kept the Five Precepts, observed the Sabbath on moon-days, and urged the people to give alms and do good.

Many of his people were reborn among the gods, and the gods sang his praises in the hall of the Thirty-three. Then a thought arose in the king himself: which is more fruitful, the holy life or giving alms? At that moment Sakka's throne grew hot. Sakka saw the king's thought and came to answer it. He filled the palace with light and stood glowing in the king's chamber.

Sakka said who he was, and invited Nimi to ask what he wished. Nimi asked whether holy living or almsgiving brings more fruit. Sakka answered that the holy life is far more fruitful. Great kings of the past, for all their sacrifices, had not passed beyond the realm of hungry spirits, while ascetics of the holy life had passed beyond it. Yet he added that both are the thoughts of great men, and that Nimi should stay watchful in both, giving alms and following virtue.

Returning to the gods, Sakka told them what had happened. They longed to see the king who was their teacher, so Sakka sent his charioteer Matali to Mithila. The chariot appeared like a second moon on the full-moon night, and the people marvelled. Matali offered two roads, one past the wicked and one past the good. Nimi wished to see both, and chose to see the hells first. Before leaving, he told his people to be watchful and to give alms.

Matali first showed him the river Vetarani, a river of torment in the hell realms, and then other realms of suffering. At each, Nimi asked what deed had led to it, and Matali explained how sin ripens. The answers named harming the weak, abusing ascetics, bearing false witness, selling bad grain as good, taking life, and betraying trust. Because the journey was taking so long, Sakka sent word for Matali to hurry. Matali then showed the rest at a glance and turned toward heaven.

In the heavens Nimi saw bright mansions and learned what good deeds had earned them. One belonged to a woman who, as a household slave, had welcomed a guest as a mother would her son. Another belonged to Sonadinna, who built seven hermitages for ascetics. Others belonged to lay followers who gave parks and wells, fed the tranquil, and kept the Sabbath. The chariot passed the mountains round Sineru, the great cosmic mountain of Buddhist cosmology, and came to the great gateway of the Thirty-three.

The gods welcomed Nimi to the hall Sudhamma with flowers and perfumes, and Sakka offered him a seat and divine pleasures. Nimi declined. He said that bliss given by another's hand is like a borrowed chariot, and that he preferred what stood on his own deeds. He would go back to do good among men, give alms, and practise self-control. He stayed seven days among the gods, thanked Matali, and was driven home.

Matali set the king down at the same window in Mithila. The crowd gathered and asked what the world of the gods was like. Nimi described the happiness of the gods and urged the people to give alms and do good. Later his barber found a white hair. Nimi gave the barber a village, made his son king, and went to the same mango park as a hermit. His son, Kalarajanaka, also renounced the world and ended the line.

Having finished the discourse, the Master said that this was not the first time the Tathagata had left the world. Then he identified the birth. Anuruddha was Sakka, Ananda was Matali, and the eighty-four thousand kings were his followers. King Nimi was the Buddha himself.

The Nimi Jataka keeps two goods side by side. Sakka says plainly that the holy life bears more fruit, yet he does not tell the king to stop giving. Nimi's own conduct completes the answer. He sees the results of harm and of kindness with his own eyes, and then declines the easy comfort of heaven. He returns to his city and teaches what he has seen. The tour does not make him fearful or proud. It makes him ready to renounce at the proper time.