Ja 299 Komāyaputtajātaka
The Birth Story about (the Brahmin’s Son) Komāyaputta (3s)

Alternative Title: Komāraputtajātaka (Cst)

In the present some monks are quarrelsome and rude, until Elder Moggallāna frightens them. The Buddha tells a story of frivolous ascetics who used to keep a pet monkey to make them laugh. When away one time a brahmin arrived and taught the monkey to meditate, much to the chagrin of the ascetics.

The Bodhisatta = (the brahmin’s son) Komāyaputta,
the monks = the frivolous ascetics (keḷisīlā tāpasā).

Keywords: Frivolity, Meditation, Animals.

“Previously you were used.” {2.447} This story the Teacher told in Pubbārāma, about some monks who were rude and rough in their manners. These monks, who lived on the floor below that where the Teacher was, talked of what they had seen and heard, and were quarrelsome and abusive. The Teacher called Mahāmoggallāna to him, and bade him go startle them. The elder rose in the air, and just touched the foundation of the house with his great toe. It shook to the furthest edge of ocean! The monks were frightened to death, and came and stood outside. Their rough behaviour became known among the monks. One day they got to talking about it in the Dhamma Hall. “Friend, there are some monks who have retired to this dispensation which leads to safety, who are rough and rude; they do not see the impermanence, sorrow and unreality of the world, nor do their duty.” The Teacher came in, and asked what they were discussing as they sat there. They told him. “This is not the first time, monks,” said he, “that they have been rough and rude. They were the same before.” And he told them a story.

In the past, when Brahmadatta reigned king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a brahmin’s son in a village. They named him Komāyaputta. By and by he went out and embraced the ascetic life in the region of the Himālayas. There were some frivolous ascetics who had made a hermitage in that region, and there they lived. But they did not take the means to focus on the Meditation Object. They fetched the fruits from the woods, to eat; then they spent the time laughing and joking together. They had a monkey, rude-mannered like themselves, which gave them endless amusement by his grimaces and antics.

Long they lived in this place, till they had to go amongst men again to get salt and condiments. After they went away, the Bodhisatta lived in their dwelling-place. The monkey played his pranks for him as he had done for the others. The Bodhisatta snapped his fingers at him, and gave him a lecture, saying: “One who lives with well-trained ascetics {2.448} [2.306] ought to behave properly, ought to be well-advised in his actions, and devoted to meditation.” After that, the monkey was always virtuous and well-behaved.

After this, the Bodhisatta moved away. The other ascetics returned with their salt and condiments. But the monkey no longer played his pranks for them. “What’s this, my friend?” they asked. “Why don’t you make sport, as you used to do?” One of them repeated the first verse:

1. Pure tuvaṁ sīlavataṁ sakāse,
Okkantikaṁ kīḷasi assamamhi,
Karohare makkaṭiyāni makkaṭa,
Na taṁ mayaṁ sīlavataṁ ramāmā ti.

Before your character in our presence, you played repeatedly in this hermitage, monkey, come on, make a monkey’s grimace, we don’t find delight in your character.

In this connection, character in our presence means in the presence of us jokers. Sīla means having character, generally meaning having good character, being virtuous. But then it can be modified, so that one who is keḷisīla has a playful character, so is a joker.

Repeatedly means like an animal repeatedly you play.

Come on, make, here come on is an address.

Monkey’s grimace means what is reckoned as sporting a grimace on the face, distorting the face.

We do not find delight in your character, what was previously your playful nature, playfulness, today we do not delight in, you do not make us delight, what is the reason?

On hearing this, the monkey repeated the second verse:

2. Sutā hi mayhaṁ paramā visuddhi,
Komāraputtassa bahussutassa,
Mā dāni maṁ maññi tuvaṁ yathā pure,
Jhānānuyutto viharāmi, āvuso ti.

By me the supreme purity was heard, from the well learnèd Komāraputta, now don’t think of me as previously, I live engaged in meditation, friend.

In this connection, by me is a dative with the meaning of an instrumental. This is a very interesting definition, which I don’t find noted in Wijesekera’s Syntax.

Purity means the purity of absorption.

From the well learnèd, from having many of the meditation object preliminaries and the eight attainments, and heard a lot, and the fact of having penetration, he is well learnèd.

You (untranslated), amongst these he calls on one ascetic, now you do not know me like previously, I am not the same as before, for I have gained a teacher, this is the explanation.

Hereupon the ascetic repeated the third:

3. Sace pi selasmi vapeyya bījaṁ,
Devo ca vasse na hi taṁ virūḷhe,
Sutā hi te sā paramā visuddhi,
Ārā tuvaṁ makkaṭa jhānabhūmiyā ti.

If you should sew a seed upon a rock, the Deva might rain, but it will not grow. By you the supreme purity was heard, far from you, monkey, is absorption’s ground.

This is the meaning: if you would sew the five kinds of seed on the back of a stone, the Deva might rain thoroughly, but because it is not in a field it will not grow, in the same way the supreme purity of absorption was heard by you, but as you are born in the animal realm, you stand far from absorption’s ground, it is not possible for you to produce absorption, like this they blamed the monkey.

When the Teacher had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths, and identified the Jātaka, “At that time these monks were the frivolous ascetics, but Komāyaputta was I myself.”

 

last updated: November 2024