Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/294

 No. 6.

DEVA-DHAMMA JĀTAKA.

On True Divinity.

"Those who fear to sin," etc. — This the Blessed One told while at Jetavana, concerning a monk of much property.

For a landed proprietor who dwelt at Sāvatthi became a monk, we are told, after the death of his wife. And when he was going to be ordained, he had a hermitage and a kitchen and a storehouse erected for his own use, and the store filled with ghee and rice, and so was received into the Order. And even after he was ordained he used to call his slaves and have what he liked cooked, and ate it. And he was well furnished with all things allowed to the fraternity; he had one upper garment to wear at night and one to wear by day, and his rooms were detached from the rest of the monastery.

One day, when he had taken out his robes and coverlets, and spread them in the cell to dry, a number of brethren from the country, who were seeking for a lodging, came to his cell, and seeing the robes and other things, asked him, "Whose are these?"

"Mine, brother," said he.

"But, brother, this robe, and this robe, and this under

1 It was on the occasion related in the Introductory Story of this Jātaka, and after he had told the Birth Story, that the Buddha, according to the commentator on that work (Fausböll, pp. 302-305), uttered the 141st verse of the Dhamma-padaŋ. The Introductory Story to No. 32, translated below in this volume, is really only another version of this tale of the luxurious monk.