Sayha Jataka

The Buddha told this Jataka, No. 310 of the Pali canon, while residing at Jetavana. It concerned a monk who had lost his taste for the Dhamma. He had seen a beautiful woman while out on his alms round in Savatthi. The Teacher confirmed that the monk had indeed grown discontented with the holy life. He reminded the monk that wise men of old had faced a similar test. Even when offered the high dignity of royal family priest, they had rejected it outright and chosen the ascetic path instead. He told this story to prove it.

In the days when a king reigned in Benares, his family priest had a son. That son was born on the very same day the queen bore her own son, the future heir. This son of the priest was the Bodhisatta. From birth, he and the young prince were raised together as equals under the care of nurses. They wore the same ornaments and ate the same food, sharing every comfort of the palace. When they came of age, the two were sent together to study at the renowned university of Takkasila. Their boyhood closeness ripened there into a firm and lasting friendship.

In time, the old king made his son viceroy. Before long the young man ascended the throne in his father's place. The Bodhisatta considered his own situation carefully. He reasoned that his dear friend, now king, would surely seek him out before long. Surely he would raise him to the high and comfortable office of royal family priest, succeeding his own father in that honored role, now that opportunity allowed it.

But reflecting further, the Bodhisatta found that he wanted no part of a householder's life, however honored it might be. He resolved instead to renounce the world entirely. Without informing the king, he withdrew quietly into the Himalayan wilderness and took up the ascetic life. Through sustained practice he developed the higher faculties and attainments of meditation, living in deep solitude far from any court.

When the new king had settled into his reign, he remembered his old companion. He resolved to bring him back and fulfill the very office the Bodhisatta had once expected, that of royal family priest. He dispatched his trusted councillor, a man named Sayha, into the forest. Sayha's instructions were to find the ascetic and persuade him to return to Benares and accept the honored position.

Sayha travelled into the Himalayan wilds and found the Bodhisatta living simply in his hermitage. He delivered the king's wish: that his friend return and be raised to the dignity of family priest, an office of wealth, comfort, and high standing at court. When the Bodhisatta did not immediately agree, Sayha pressed his case again and again. He urged him not to let such an honor slip away.

In response, the Bodhisatta spoke the verses for which this Jataka is remembered. No throne on earth, however vast or richly guarded by the surrounding seas, could tempt him into such shame. The lust of wealth and fame that it represented only doomed a person to suffering in future lives, he said. Better, he declared, to wander the earth homeless, bowl in hand, begging from door to door. That was far better than to sit as a king or his minister, prey to sinful desires, bearing the burden of tyrannical rule and vexing the very people he was meant to protect.

Hearing this firm and considered refusal, Sayha understood that no further persuasion would move his friend from the path he had chosen. He returned to Benares and reported to the king. The Bodhisatta would not be swayed by any offer of rank or riches, however generously intended.

Concluding the tale, the Buddha identified the people in it with those of his own time. Ananda was the king who had once shared a childhood with the Bodhisatta. Sariputta was the councillor Sayha, who carried the king's invitation into the forest. The Buddha himself had been the family priest's son who chose the ascetic life over every worldly honor offered to him.

This Jataka No. 310 endures as a direct answer to the very temptation that had unsettled the monk at Savatthi. It set the pull of beauty, comfort, and status against the quieter, harder path of renunciation. The Bodhisatta's refusal was not born of resentment toward his royal friend. Nor was it born of indifference to honor. It came from clear-sighted recognition that the comforts of a chaplain's office, like the comforts of kingship itself, carry entanglements and temptations that a homeless, simple life does not. The Buddha offered this ancient refusal to the discontented monk as proof of an old truth. Even the most flattering invitation back toward worldly life has been seen through and set aside before, by those who valued freedom from craving above every throne and honor the world could offer.