The Bodhisatta was once a royal chaplain’s son. The righteous and generous King of Kuru wanted to make a greater effort at doing what was good and true, and he asked his chaplain, Sucirata, what this was. This was a profound and difficult question, Sucirata said, and he did not feel qualified to answer it. But his friend Vidhura, the King of Varanasi’s chaplain, would be able.
Without delay, the king sent Sucirata out to ask him. On his way, Sucirata visited other sages around India, but none could answer the question. In Varanasi, Sucirata went to Vidhura’s house early in the morning, and the two talked as friends. When breakfast was over, Sucirata explained why he came and he asked Vidhura to explain truth and goodness.
To Sucirata’s surprise, Vidhura said this question was too much for him and he could not answer it. But he said his eldest son was far wiser than he and sent Sucirata to get an answer from him. The son welcomed his father’s friend, but he was presently having an affair with a married woman and was thus not in the right frame of mind to answer such a monumental question. He sent Sucirata to his younger brother, the middle son, but he too was distracted by an affair with a married woman. Their youngest brother, the Bodhisatta, was only seven years old, but the middle son told Sucirata not to hesitate asking him because he was one hundred thousand times smarter than he himself was, and could answer with the mastery of a Buddha.
Sucirata found the Bodhisatta and other boys playing in the street and asked his question. With a voice as sweet as honey that magically spread across the whole city, the Bodhisatta said that to reach heaven, a king must never do anything wicked and must be a shining example of righteousness to others.
For such a wise answer, the people roared applause, waved cloth in the air, snapped their fingers, and threw ten million coins’ worth of jewelry at the Bodhisatta’s feet. Sucirata wrote the entire answer on a golden tablet and gave the Bodhisatta a thousand-weight of gold.
Back in Kuru, the king followed the Bodhisatta’s advice for the rest of his life, and went to heaven when he died.
In the Lifetime of the Buddha
When the Buddha heard some of his disciples discussing his supreme wisdom, he told them this story so they knew that he’d also been very good at answering questions in the past.
The King of Kuru, Sucirata, Vidhura, the eldest son, and the middle son were earlier births of Ananda, Anuruddha, Maha Kassapa, Moggallana, and Sariputta, five of the Buddha’s top disciples.
