The Brahmin and The Snake

Once upon a time a king called Janaka was reigning
in Benares. At that time the Bodhisatta was born in a
brahmin family, and they called his name young Senaka.
When he grew up he learned all the arts of Takkasila, and
returning to Benares saw the king. The king set him in
the place of minister and gave him great glory. He taught
the king things temporal and spiritual. Being a pleasant
preacher of the law he established the king in the five
precepts, in alms-giving, in keeping the fasts, in the ten
ways of right action, and so established him in the path
of virtue. Throughout the kingdom it was as it were the
time of the appearing of the Buddhas. On the fortnightly
fast the king, the viceroys and others would all assemble
and decorate the place of meeting. The Bodhisatta taught
the law in a decorated room in the middle of a deer-skin-
couch with the power of a Buddha, and his word was like
the preaching of Buddhas. Then a certain old brahmin
begging for money-alms got a thousand pieces, left them
in a brahmin family and went to seek alms again. When
he had gone, that family spent all his pieces. He came
back and would have his pieces brought him. The brahmin,
being unable to give them to him, gave him his daughter
to wife. The other brahmin took her and made his dwell-
ing in a brahmin village not far from Benares. Because
of her youth his wife was unsatisfied in desires and sinned
with another young brahmin. There are sixteen things
that cannot be satisfied: and what are these sixteen?
The sea is not satisfied with all rivers, nor the fire with
fuel, nor a king with his kingdom, nor a fool with sins, nor
a woman with three things, intercourse, adornment and
child-bearing, nor a brahmin with sacred texts, nor a sage
with ecstatic meditation, nor a novice with honour, nor
one free from desire with penance, nor the energetic man
with energy, nor the talker with talk, nor the politic man
with the council, nor the believer with serving the church,
nor the liberal man with giving away, nor the learned with
hearing the law, nor the four congregations 1 with seeing
the Buddha. So this brahmin woman, being unsatisfied
with intercourse, wished to put her husband away and do
her sin with boldness. So one day in her evil purpose she
lay down. When he said, " How is it, wife ? " she answered,
" Brahmin, I cannot do the work of your house, get me a
maid." " Wife, I have no money, what shall I give to get
her ? " " Seek for money by begging for alms and so get
her.'' "Then, wife, get ready something for my journey."
She filled a skin-bag with baked meal and unbaked meal,
and gave them to him. The brahmin, going through
villages, towns and cities, got seven hundred pieces, and
thinking, " This money is enough to buy slaves, male and
female," he was returning to his own village : at a certain
place convenient for water he opened his sack, and eating
some meal he went down to drink water without tying the
mouth. Then a black snake in a hollow tree, smelling the
meal, entered the bag and lay down in a coil eating the
meal. The brahmin came, and without looking inside
fastened the sack and putting it on his shoulder went his
way. Then a spirit living in a tree, sitting in a hollow of
the trunk, said to him on the way, " Brahmin, if you stop
on the way you will die, if you go home to-day your wife
will die," and vanished. He looked, but not seeing the
spirit was afraid and troubled with the fear of death, and
so came to the gate of Benares weeping and lamenting.
It was the fast on the fifteenth day, the day of the
Bodhisatta's preaching, seated on the decorated seat of
the law, and a multitude with perfumes and flowers and
the like in their hands came in troops to hear the preaching.
The brahmin said, "Where are ye going?" and was told,
"O brahmin, to-day wise Senaka preaches the law with
sweet voice and the charm of a Buddha : do you not know ? '
He thought, "They say he is a wise preacher, and I am
troubled with the fear of death : wise men are able to
take away even great sorrow : it is right for me too to go
there and hear the law." So he went with them, and when
the assembly and the king among them had sat down
round about the Bodhisatta, he stood at the outside, not
far from the seat of the law, with his mealsack on his
shoulder, afraid with the fear of death. The Bodhisatta
preached as if he were bringing down the heavenly Ganges
or showering ambrosia. The multitude became well
pleased, and making applause listened to the preaching.
Wise men have far sight. At that moment the Bodhisatta,
opening his eyes gracious with the five graces, surveyed
the assembly on every side and, seeing that brahmin,
thought, "This great assembly has become well pleased
and listens to the law, making applause, but that one
brahmin is ill pleased and weeps: there must be some
sorrow within him to cause his tears : as if touching rust
with acid, or making a drop of water roll from a lotus leaf,
I will teach him the law, making him free from sorrow
and well pleased in mind." So he called him, " Brahmin,
I am wise Senaka, now will I make thee free from sorrow,
speak boldly," and so talking with him he spoke the first
stanza :

Thou art confused in thought, disturbed in sense,
Tears streaming- from thine eyes are evidence;
What hast thou lost, or what dost wish to gain
By coming- hither? Give me answer plain.

Then the brahmin, declaring his cause of sorrow, spoke
the second stanza :

If I go home my wife it is must die,
If I go not, the yakkha said, 'tis I;
That is the thought that pierces cruelly:
Explain the matter, Senaka, to me.

The Bodhisatta, hearing the brahmin's words, spread
the net of knowledge as if throwing a net in the sea,
thinking, "There are many causes of death to beings in
this world: some die sunk in the sea, or seized therein
by ravenous fish, some falling in the Ganges, or seized by
crocodiles, some falling from a tree or pierced by a thorn,
some struck by weapons of divers kinds, some by eating
poison or hanging or falling from a precipice or by extreme
cold or attacked by diseases of divers kinds, so they die :
now among so many causes of death from which cause
shall this brahmin die if he stays on the road to-day, or
his wife if he goes home ? " As he considered, he saw the
sack on the brahmin's shoulder and thought, " There must
be a snake who has gone into that sack, and entering he
must have gone in from the smell of the meal when the
brahmin at his breakfast had eaten some meal and gone
to drink water without fastening the sack's mouth: the
brahmin coming back after drinking water must have gone
on after fastening and taking up the sack without seeing
that the snake had entered : if he stays on the road, he
will say at evening when he rests, ' I will eat some meal,'
and opening the sack will put in his hand : then the snake
will bite him in the hand and destroy his life : this will be
the cause of his death if he stays on the road : but if he
goes home the sack will come into his wife's hand ; she will
say, ' I will look at the ware within,' and opening the sack
put in her hand, then the snake will bite her and destroy
her life, and this will be the cause of her death if he goes
home to-day." This he knew by his knowledge of expedients.
Then this came into his mind, " The snake must be a black
snake, brave and fearless; when the sack strikes against
the brahmin's broadside, he shews no motion or quivering;
he shews no sign of his being there amidst such an assembly:
therefore he must be a black snake, brave and fearless " :
from his knowledge of expedients he knew this as if he
was seeing with a divine eye. So as if he had been a man
who had stood by and seen the snake enter the sack,
deciding by his knowledge of expedients, the Bodhisatta
answering the brahmin's question in the royal assembly
spoke the third stanza:

First with many a doubt I deal,

Now my tongue the truth declares;
Brahmin, in your bag of meal

A snake has entered unawares.

80 saying, he asked, " O brahmin, is there any meal in
that sack of yours ? " " There is, O sage." " Did you eat
some meal to-day at your breakfast time ? " " Yes, O sage."
" Where were you sitting ? " " In a wood, at the root of a
tree." " When you ate the meal, and went to drink water,
did you fasten the sack's mouth or not ? " "I did not, O
sage." "When you drank water and came back, did you
look in before fastening the sack?" "I fastened it without
looking in, O sage." " O brahmin, when you went to drink
water, I think a snake entered the sack owing to the
smell of the meal without your knowledge: such is the
case : therefore put down your sack, set it in the midst
of the assembly and opening the mouth, stand back and
taking a stick beat the sack with it: then when you see
a black snake coming out with its hood spread and hissing,
you will have no doubt " : so he spoke the fourth stanza :

Take a stick and beat the sack,

Dumb and double-tongued is he;
Cease your mind with doubts to rack;

Ope the sack, the snake you'll see.

The brahmin, hearing the Great Being's words, did so,
though alarmed and frightened. The snake came out
of the sack when his hood was struck with the stick, and
stood looking at the crowd.

When the question had been so answered by the
Bodhisatta, a certain snake-charmer made a mouth-band
for the snake, caught him and let him loose in the forest.

The brahmin, coming up to the king, saluted him and
made obeisance, and praising him spoke half a stanza :

Well won is Janaka the king's great gain,
That he wise Seiiaka doth see.

After praising the king, he took seven hundred pieces
from the bag and praising the Bodhisatta, he spoke a
stanza and a half wishing to give a gift in delight:

Art thou the All-seer, queller of what is vain?
Doth wisdom dread belong to thee?

These seven hundred pieces, see,
Take them all, I give them thee;
'Tis to thee I owe my life,
And the welfare of my wife.

Hearing this, the Bodhisatta spoke the eighth stanza :

For reciting poetry

Wise men can't accept a wage:
Rather let us give to thee,

Ere thou take the homeward stage.

So saying, the Bodhisatta made a full thousand pieces
to be given to the brahmin, and asked him, "By whom
were you sent to beg for money ? " " By my wife, O sage."
" Is your wife old or young ? " " Young, O sage." " Then
she is doing sin with another, and sent you away thinking
to do so in security : if you take these pieces home, she
will give to her lover the pieces won by your labour:
therefore you should not go home straight, but only after
leaving the pieces outside the town at the root of a tree
or somewhere": so he sent him away. He, coming near
the village, left his pieces at the root of a tree, and came
home in the evening. His wife at that moment was seated
with her lover. The brahmin stood at the door and said,
"Wife." She recognised his voice, and putting out the
light opened the door: when the brahmin came in, she
took the other and put him at the door : then coming back
and not seeing anything in the sack she asked, " Brahmin,
what alms have you got on your journey?" "A thousand
pieces." "Where is it?" "It is left at such and such a
place: never mind, we will get it to-morrow." She went
and told her lover. He went and took it as if it were his
own treasure. Next day the brahmin went, and not seeing
the pieces came to the Bodhisatta, who said, "What is the
matter, brahmin ? " "I don't see the pieces, O sage." " Did
you tell your wife?" "Yes, O sage." Knowing that the
wife had told her lover, the Bodhisatta asked, "Brahmin,
is there a brahmin who is a friend of your wife's ? " " There
is, O sage." "Is there one who is a friend of yours?"
" Yes, O sage." Then the Great Being caused seven days'
expenses to be given him and said, " Go, do you two invite
and entertain the first day fourteen brahmins, seven for
yourself and seven for your wife : from next day onwards
take one less each day, till on the seventh day you invite
one brahmin and your wife one : then if you notice that
the brahmin your wife asks on the seventh day has come
every time, tell me." The brahmin did so, and told the
Bodhisatta, " O sage, I have observed the brahmin who is
always our guest." The Bodhisatta sent men with him to
bring that other brahmin, and asked him, "Did you take
a thousand pieces belonging to this brahmin from the
root of such and such a tree ? " "I did not, O sage." " You
do not know that I am the wise Senaka ; I will make you
fetch those pieces." He was afraid and confessed, saying,
"I took them." " What did you do ?" " I put them in such
and such a place, O sage." The Bodhisatta asked the first
brahmin, "Brahmin, will you keep your wife or take
another ? " " Let me keep her, O sage." The Bodhisatta
sent men to fetch the pieces and the wife, and gave the
brahmin the pieces from the thief's hand; he punished
the other, removing him from the city, punished also the
wife, and gave great honour to the brahmin, making him
dwell near himself.