This Jataka tale illustrates the perfection of character of determination (adhitthana).
The Bodhisatta was once a king. He had previously reigned with wisdom and virtue for eighty-four thousand years as King Makhadeva, as told in the Makhadeva Jataka (#9). Before taking the throne, he had served as prince and viceroy, each for the same length of time. Throughout the Bodhisatta’s life, his barber had standing orders to inform him if he spotted a grey hair. When the first grey strand appeared, the Bodhisatta became fixated on his death and decided to immediately abdicate and live out his final eighty-four thousand years as an ascetic in a mango grove. That same day, he passed the throne to his eldest son, gave a village as a gift to his barber, and walked away from society. During this final phase of his life, the Bodhisatta cultivated the four perfect virtues, and he was reborn in heaven after he died.
The Bodhisatta watched with pride as his son, his grandson, and on and on through eighty-four thousand less two generations followed this exact same path through life and death, always ruling righteously while on the throne. But he now knew that he and his family had not quite done enough to enter the path to nirvana, so he decided to return to the human realm as the present king’s son to finish off the line. Upon his rebirth, the present king’s fortune-tellers recognized the signs and knew why the Bodhisatta had been born. Thus the king named him Prince Nimi (“Hoop”) since the family’s cycle would finally be completed.
From childhood through his time on the throne, the Bodhisatta was uncompromisingly righteous and generous. He built five alms halls around the city to give his subjects great gifts, taught them about morals, and encouraged all to lead devout lives. So many people absorbed his lessons and were reborn in heaven that the gods took notice and sang the Bodhisatta’s praise. Always striving for perfection, the Bodhisatta wondered whether leading a holy life or giving alms was the most fruitful action. As the Bodhisatta pondered this question, the throne of Indra, king of the gods, became warm, and in a flash of light he entered the Bodhisatta’s bedchamber to provide the answer: virtuous living is more fruitful by far, but great men do both.
When Indra returned home and told the other gods where he had been, they implored him to invite the Bodhisatta to visit heaven, and Indra agreed. On the night of a full moon, he sent his charioteer, Matali, to get the Bodhisatta. Pulled by one thousand thoroughbred horses, the chariot shone magically in the sky, at first appearing to people on earth as if it were a second moon, and made a grand entrance to the palace. The Bodhisatta accepted the invitation, telling his subjects he would return to them soon.
When the Bodhisatta got in the chariot, Matali asked him which road he wanted to travel: the road where the wicked dwell or the road where the righteous dwell. The Bodhisatta answered he would like to see both. So Matali first drove to Vetarani, the river of hell, covered with fire and filled with corrosive brine. The Bodhisatta was filled with dread by the torment of the souls cast into the river, and he asked what sins they had committed. Matali explained they were people who had hurt the weak. Then Matali drove on to the next hell, where souls were being torn apart by dogs, vultures, crows, and ravens. Again the Bodhisatta, horrified by the sight, asked what had led to their fate, and Matali said they had been stingy or rude to ascetics and holy men.
Wanting the Bodhisatta to see all the different hells, Matali continued, place to place, explaining at each the sin that led people to its particular torture.
- People who torment good people are beaten with red-hot coals.
- People who bribe witnesses to lie or refuse to pay off debts are tossed into a pit of fiery coals.
- People who hurt ascetics and holy men are cast into a huge iron cauldron set in flames.
- People who catch and kill birds have their necks wrung and are thrown in boiling water.
- People who sell good grain mixed with chaff are scorched with heat to make them very thirsty and then given water that turns to chaff when they try to drink it.
- People who steal have their bodies pierced with spikes, spears, and arrows.
- Hunters, fishers, and butchers are cut and torn to little bits.
- People who hurt their friends must eat dirt and dung from a foul-smelling lake.
- People who murder their parents must drink from a foul-smelling lake of blood.
- Market sellers who cheat their customers hang from hooks in their mouths like fish.
- Adulterous women are buried in the ground up to their waists and set afire.
- Men who seduce and steal other men’s wives are seized by their legs and thrown headfirst into a pit of burning coals.
- Heretics suffer the most terrible, intolerable pain of anyone destined for hell.
The gods wondered why Matali and the Bodhisatta were so slow to arrive. Indra divined the reason and sent a young god to tell Matali to come quickly because he was using up the Bodhisatta’s life. When he received the message, Matali magically showed the Bodhisatta all the other hells simultaneously and then turned his chariot toward heaven.
Along the way, Matali took the Bodhisatta to see eight glorious palaces made of gold, crystal, and jewels, surrounded by beautiful gardens filled with nymphs dancing and playing music. The Bodhisatta was overcome with joy and asked what good deeds these gods had done in their previous lives to earn such a reward. Matali explained that they were regular people who treated guests like family, observed the holy days, and generously supported ascetics with clothes, food, drink, bedding, and other necessities.
Indra sent another message to Matali telling him to stop delaying. So Matali magically displayed many more palaces earned by the righteous and then drove on past the seven hills surrounding Mount Meru and the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, finally arriving at the impressive Cittakuta Gate of Indra’s heaven. It was decorated with statues of Indra and guarded by tigers, and as the Bodhisatta entered, the gods greeted him with flowers and perfumes. In Sudhamma, the gods’ jeweled assembly hall, Indra offered to let the Bodhisatta stay and enjoy the celestial pleasures. But the Bodhisatta refused, saying that in good time he would earn these rewards the proper way, through his deeds.
The Bodhisatta stayed for a week, discussing with the gods how to live a moral life, and then Matali took him back to his kingdom. He told his subjects what he had seen and urged them to be good in this life so they would go to heaven in the next. When his barber found a grey hair, the Bodhisatta followed the tradition he had begun and put his son on the throne to be the last of the line, then walked into the mango park.
In the Lifetime of the Buddha
One evening, the Buddha and some of his disciples were walking in the same mango park where he, as both King Makhadeva and King Nimi, had lived as an ascetic after finding a grey hair. He wanted his companions to know about his behavior in these past lives, so he smiled. Ananda, one of the Buddha’s top disciples, asked why he smiled, and the Buddha told them this story.
The charioteer Matali was an earlier birth of Ananda; Indra was an earlier birth of Anuruddha, another of the Buddha’s top disciples; and the other kings were earlier births of the Buddha’s present followers.
