Jathaka stories

Thrutheeya Kachchapa Jathakaya:

Irritating others and repercussions

Retold by Risitha DEELAKA WICKMAL SUBASINGHE

Once upon a time there lived a virtuous and compassionate ascetic who was seriously engaged in meditating. He absolutely concentrated on his meditation. His eyes were closed which was visible and ears were closed which was audible. His concentration was such that once he got into the state of meditating he becomes totally cut off from the outside world. This ascetic possessed such an admirable power of concentration.

The ascetic who lived near a river in the Himalayan mountain range put his heart and soul to meditate and to attain a supreme cognitive status. He was neither concerned of his meals nor was attached to mundane things. He accepted whatever is given either good or bad.

There lived a mischievous monkey on a tree near the cave where the ascetic used to meditate. This monkey had an unhealthy habit of deriving pleasure by hurting others. It used to come down from the tree whenever it sees the ascetic meditating. It sits on the ascetic's shoulder and meddle around with his hair, beard and the clothes. It pokes the fingers into the ascetic's nose and tries to open the ascetic's eye lids and tries to part his lips with the fingers. It also digs inside the ascetic's ears with a stick.

This behaviour would have been extremely irritating for and ordinary human, but not this compassionate and calm ascetic.

Since this ascetic possessed an extraordinary power of concentration, he tolerated these irritable pranks of the monkey. This unpleasant activity was one of the main items of the monkey's daily routine.

One day when a tortoise was basking under early morning sun on the banks of the river, the monkey assuming that the tortoise too would not react like the ascetic and tried to irritate the tortoise.

But the monkey got it all wrong and faced the unexpected. When the monkey's hand was inside the mouth the tortoise clamped its mouth shut.

The monkey yelled from the top of its voice out of great pain. Blood started dripping from the sides of the tortoise's mouth.

On seeing the incident, the ascetic parted the lips and addressed the tortoise. "O, tortoise! Have mercy on this foolish beast. This beast does the same thing to me when I'm meditating. But I did not cause any harm to this fool however much it was irritating. So, let us learn an unforgettable lesson from this." The tortoise obeyed the ascetic and let the monkey go. While the monkey was trying to climb the tree with the injured arm with great pain, the ascetic addressed the monkey, "O, you foolish beast! Thou, thyself felt the repercussion of thy unpleasant and irritable behaviour. Learn a lesson at least now and bear in mind not to repeat this folly hereafter."

The monkey never irritated the ascetic thereafter.