5.13 The Story about the Peta with Sixty Hammers
Saṭṭhikūṭapetavatthu

“Learning arises for a fool,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while in residence at Veḷuvana about a Peta with Sixty Hammers. [29.141]

For under the same circumstances as in the preceding story Elder Mahā Moggallāna, while descending from Vulture’s Peak with Elder Lakkhaṇa, smiled on reaching a certain spot. When Elder Lakkhaṇa asked him why he smiled, {2.69} he said: “Wait until we are in the presence of the Fortunate One and then ask me.” When Mahā Moggallāna had completed his almsround, he approached the Teacher, saluted him, and sat down respectfully on one side. Thereupon his companion asked him the same question again. Moggallāna replied as follows: “Friend, I saw a Peta three-quarters of a league in height. Sixty thousand iron hammers, AJ: there is a discrepency between the sixty hammers of the title and introductory line and the sixty-thousand hammers of the prose and verse. blazing and burning, rose and fell uninterruptedly on top of his head. Again and again they broke his skull, and again and again his skull sprang up again.

When I saw him I smiled, for I thought to myself: ‘In my present state of existence I never before saw such a being.’” In the Stories about Petas occurs the following verse, together with many others, relating to this very ghost:

A full sixty thousand
sledgehammers on all sides
fall down upon your head
and split open your skull.

The Teacher listened to the elder’s story and said: “Bhikkhus, I also saw that very creature as I sat on the Throne of Awakening. But out of compassion for others, I did not say: ‘As for those who will not believe my words, may it be to their disadvantage.’ Now, however, I will make Moggallāna my witness and tell what I saw.” When the bhikkhus heard this, they asked about the Peta’s misdeed in a previous state of existence. Thereupon the Teacher related the following

13a Story of the Past: AJ: cf. Ja 107. The Stone-Thrower and His Pupil

Once upon a time, it seems, there lived in Bārāṇasī a cripple who was an adept at the art of slinging stones. He used to sit at the city-gate under a certain banyan tree, sling stones, and cut the leaves of the tree. The boys of the city would say to him: “Make an elephant for us, make a horse for us,” {2.70} and he would make every animal they asked him to. As a reward he received from them food both hard and soft. One day, as the king was on his way to the pleasure-garden, he came to this place. The boys left the cripple within the shoots of the banyan tree and ran away. Now it was noon when the king stopped and went in among the roots of the tree, and his body was overspread with the chequered shade. [29.142]

“What does this mean?” he said, looking up. Seeing leaves cut in the forms of elephants and horses, he asked: “Whose work is this?” On being informed that it was the work of the cripple, he sent for him and said to him: “I have a Brahmin chaplain who is excessively talkative. However little be said to him, he talks much and wearies me. Could you throw a pint-pot of goat’s dung into his mouth?” – “I could, your majesty. Have goat’s dung brought, seat yourself behind a curtain with the Brahmin chaplain, and I shall know just how to go to work.” The king did as the cripple suggested.

The cripple made a hole in the curtain with the tip of a knife. While the Brahmin chaplain talked with the king, whenever he opened his mouth, the cripple threw in a pellet of goat’s dung, and the Brahmin chaplain swallowed every pellet thrown into his mouth. When the goat’s dung was exhausted, the cripple shook the curtain. The king, understanding by this sign that the goat’s dung was exhausted, said: “Teacher, while I am engaged in conversation with you, it is impossible for me to finish what I am saying. You talk so much that even in the act of swallowing a pint-pot of goat’s dung you cannot keep silent.” {2.71}

The Brahmin immediately became silent. From that time on, he dared not open his mouth and talk with the king. The king remembered the skillful work of the cripple, caused him to be summoned, and said to him: “Through you I have gained happiness.” In token of his satisfaction, he gave him the eightfold gifts, and four fine large villages, north, east, south, and west of the city. Knowing this, a minister of the king who was his counselor in things temporal and spiritual pronounced the following verse:

Having a craft is good,
See the disabled man
Who shot the pellets –
He received four villages!

Now the minister at that time was this very Fortunate One. Now a certain man, observing the worldly prosperity won by the cripple, thought to himself: “This man, born a cripple, has won great prosperity through this art of his. I also ought to learn this art.” So he approached the cripple, bowed to him, and said to him: “Teacher, impart to me this art.” – “Good friend, I cannot do so.” Although his request had been refused, he thought to himself: “Let be, I will win his favor.” Accordingly he bathed and rubbed the cripple’s hands and feet for a long time, and having thus won his favor, repeated his request. The cripple thought to himself: “This man has been [29.143] exceedingly kind to me.” And unable to refuse his request, he taught him the art. Having so done, he said to him: “Good sir, your training is now complete; what will you do now?” – “I shall go out into the world and display my art.” – “What will you do?” – “I will hit a cow or a man and kill him.” – “Good sir, the penalty for killing a cow is a hundred coins and for killing a man a thousand. Even with son and wife, you will not be able to pay. Do not commit murder. {2.72} Look for something that has neither mother nor father and for hitting which there is no penalty.”

“Very well,” said the man. So placing stones in a fold of his garment, he walked about looking for just that sort of target. First he saw a cow. “This animal has a mate,” he thought. Therefore he did not dare hit the cow. Then he saw a man. But he thought to himself: “This being has a mother and father.” Therefore he did not dare hit the man.

Now at that time a Paccekabuddha named Sunetta resided in a hut of leaves and grass near the city. When the man saw him enter the city through the gate for the purpose of receiving alms, he thought to himself: “This man has neither mother nor father. If I hit him, I shall have no penalty to pay; I will try my skill by hitting him.” So aiming a stone at the right ear of the Paccekabuddha, he let fly. The stone entered the Paccekabuddha’s right ear and came out of his left ear. The Paccekabuddha suffered intense pain, was unable to continue his almsround, and returning to his hut of leaves through the air, passed into Parinibbāna.

When the Paccekabuddha failed to come, the people thought: “Something must have gone wrong with him.” Accordingly they went to his hermitage, and when they saw that he had passed into Parinibbāna, they wept and lamented. The man who hit the Paccekabuddha saw the multitude flock to his hermitage and went there also. Recognizing the Paccekabuddha, he said: “It was he who met me face to face at the gate as he entered the city, and I hit him in trying my skill.” The multitude said: “This wicked fellow says that he hit the Paccekabuddha. Catch him! Catch him!” And straightaway they beat him and then and there deprived him of life. He was reborn in the Avīci Hell. Until this great earth was elevated a league, during all that time he suffered torment. Thereafter, because the fruit of his wicked deed was not yet exhausted, he was reborn on the summit of Vulture’s Peak as a Peta with Sixty Hammers.

The Teacher, after relating the story of his deed in a previous state of existence, said: {2.73} “Bhikkhus, if a fool acquires art or power, [29.144] it results to his disadvantage; for a fool who acquires art or power turns it to his own hurt.” And joining the connection and teaching the Dhamma, he pronounced the following verse:

72. Yāvad-eva anatthāya ñattaṁ bālassa jāyati,
hanti bālassa sukkaṁsaṁ, muddham-assa vipātayaṁ.

Learning arises for a fool
only to his disadvantage,
it destroys the fool’s good fortune,
it will destroy his very head.

At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.