Bodhisatta’s Wisdom: A Jataka Story of Cruelty and Consequences

In this Jataka story, the Bodhisatta was once a wise and renowned teacher. A cruel and violent prince was sent to study with him in the city of Taxila. The Bodhisatta, knowing the prince’s nature, advised him that power gained through violence is fleeting and that one will always reap the consequences of their actions. However, the prince dismissed the Bodhisatta’s wisdom and completed his studies with little change in his character.

When the prince’s father died, he ascended to the throne and surrounded himself with a royal chaplain who was just as cruel and greedy as he was. The chaplain convinced the king to launch an aggressive campaign to conquer all of India. The king’s army swept through kingdom after kingdom, capturing and defeating their rulers, until they reached Taxila. There, the Bodhisatta had fortified the city’s walls so strongly that they were impenetrable.

The chaplain, however, suggested a brutal plan to guarantee victory: they would sacrifice all the kings they had captured to the guardian deity of the banyan tree under which they camped. The king agreed, and one by one, the kings were brought to the royal tent, tortured, and sacrificed in a gruesome ritual. The bodies were thrown into the Ganges River.

After the bloodshed, the king continued his march, but as he advanced, a goblin tore out one of his eyes, and a vulture dropped a sharp bone onto his other eye, blinding him. In agony, the king returned to the banyan tree, realizing too late the truth of the Bodhisatta’s warning. He died soon after, lamenting that he would never see his beautiful queen again, and went straight to hell. His chaplain met the same fate.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha
The Buddha revealed that the cruel king from this story was an earlier incarnation of a prince who once commissioned a grand palace, only to blind the architect afterward so that no one could build something as magnificent again. The Buddha also identified the chaplain as the earlier birth of Devadatta, his adversary, who would later become a source of great conflict for him.

Moral:
This story teaches that cruelty, violence, and evil deeds inevitably lead to one’s own downfall. Despite their initial power or success, those who act with malice and harm others will ultimately face the consequences of their actions. True wisdom lies in kindness, compassion, and restraint, which bring lasting peace and well-being.