10.3 The Story about a Company of Boys
Sambahulakumārakavatthu

“One who harms with a stick,” {3.51} this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to a company of boys.

For one day, as the Teacher was entering Sāvatthī for alms, he saw by the wayside a group of boys beating a house-snake with a stick. Thereupon he asked: “Boys, what are you doing?” – “Venerable Sir,” replied the boys, “we are beating a snake with a stick.”

“Why are you doing that?” – “Venerable Sir, we are afraid he will bite us.” Then the Teacher said: “If you beat this snake, thinking to yourselves: ‘We shall thereby ensure our own happiness,’ the result will be that in the various places where you will be reborn you will not obtain happiness. They who seek to gain happiness for themselves should not strike another.” So saying, he joined the connection, and teaching the Dhamma, pronounced the following verses:

131. Sukhakāmāni bhūtāni yo daṇḍena vihiṁsati,
attano sukham-esāno, pecca so na labhate sukhaṁ.

One who harms with a stick beings
who also desire happiness,
while seeking happiness himself,
won’t find happiness after death.

132. Sukhakāmāni bhūtāni yo daṇḍena na hiṁsati,
attano sukham-esāno, pecca so labhate sukhaṁ.

One who harms not with a stick those
who also desire happiness,
while seeking happiness himself,
will find happiness after death.

At the end of the teaching those five hundred youths were established in the fruition of Stream-entry.

last updated: August 2024