"Lo! the land,"--This story the Master told while residing at Jetavana concerning the temptation of a Brother by the wife of his unregenerate days. And in telling the story he asked the Brother by whom he had been led astray. "By a former wife," said he. "Verily, Brother," the Master said, "she worketh mischief for you. Of old it was owing to her that you fell away from mystic meditation and were mightily destroyed." And so saying he told a story of the past.
"Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta ruled in Benares, the Bodhisattva was born of a wealthy family in the Brahmins of the North, and when he had come of age and had been trained in all the arts, he adopted the ascetic life, and after developing supernatural powers by the exercise of mystic meditation he took up his abode in the Himalayas. Exactly in the same way as related in the Alambusa Birth a doe conceived by him and brought forth a son who was called Isisinga. Now when he was grown up, his father admitted him to holy orders and had him instructed in the rites inducing mystic meditation. In no long time he developed by this means supernatural faculties and enjoyed the bliss of ecstasy in the region of the Himalayas, and by mortification of the senses he became a sage of such severe austerity that the abode of Sakka was shaken by the power of his virtue. Sakka by reflection discovered the cause of it, and thinking, 'I will find a way to break down his virtue,' for the space of three years he stopped rain from falling in the kingdom of Kasi, and the country became as it were scorched up, and when no crops came to perfection, the people under the stress of famine gathered themselves together in the palace yard and reproached the king. Taking his stand at an open window, he asked what was the matter. 'Your Majesty,' they said, 'for three years no rain has fallen from heaven, and the whole kingdom is burned up and the people are suffering greatly: cause rain to fall, Sire.' The king, taking upon him moral vows and observing a fast, yet failed to bring down the rain. It was then that Sakka at midnight entered the royal chamber and illuminating it all round was seen to stand in mid air. The king on seeing him asked, 'Who art thou?' 'I am Sakka,' he said. 'Wherefore art thou come?' 'Does rain fall in your realm, Sire?' 'No, it does not rain.' 'Do you know why it does not rain?' 'I do not know.' 'In the Himalaya country, Sire, dwells an ascetic named Isisinga, who from the mortification of his senses is severely austere. He constantly, when it begins to rain, looks up at the sky in a rage and so the rain ceases.' 'What then is to be done now?' 'Should his virtue be broken down, it will rain.' 'But who is able to overcome his virtue?' 'Your daughter, Sire, Nalinika can do it. Summon her here and bid her go to such and such a place and make a breach in the virtue of the ascetic.' And, having thus admonished the king, Sakka returned to his own abode. On the morrow the king took counsel with his courtiers and summoning his daughter addressed her in the first stanza:
"'Lo! the land lies scorched and ruined and my realm sinks to decay:
"On hearing this she repeated a second stanza:
"'How shall I endure this hardship, how, midst elephants astray,
"Then the king repeated two stanzas:
"'Seek thy happy home, my daughter, and from thence without delay
"'Horses, elephants, and footmen--go, begirt with brave array,
"Thus for the protection of his realm did he talk with his daughter even of such things as should not be spoken of in words. And she readily lent an ear to his proposals. Then, after giving her all that she required, he sent her away with his ministers. They went to the frontier and, after pitching their camp there, they had the princess conveyed by a road pointed out to them by some foresters, and at break of day, entering the Himalaya country, they arrived at a spot close to the ascetic's hermitage. At this very moment the Bodhisattva, leaving his son behind in the hermitage, had gone into the forest to gather wild fruits. The foresters themselves approached the hermitage and, standing where they could see it, they pointed it out to Nalinika and repeated two stanzas:
"'With plantain marked, midst bhurja trees so green,
"'Yon smoke, methinks, arises from the flame
"And the king's ministers at the very moment when the Bodhisattva had gone into the forest surrounded the hermitage and set a watch over it, and making the princess adopt the disguise of an ascetic, and arraying her in an outer and inner garment of beautiful bark adorned with all manner of ornaments, they bade her take in her hand a painted ball tied to a string and sent her into the hermitage grounds, while they themselves stood on guard outside. So playing with her ball she entered the cloister. Now at that moment Isisinga was seated on a bench at the door of his hut of leaves, and when he saw her coming he was terrified and got up and went and hid himself in the hut. And she drew nigh to the door and continued playing with her ball."
The Master, to make this point and more beside clear, repeated three stanzas:
"Bedecked with gems as she drew nigh, a bright and lovely maid,
"And while before the hermit's door with ball the damsel plays,
"But when he saw her sporting thus, forth from his cell he broke,
"'Fruit of what tree may this, Sir, be, that however far 'tis tost
"Then she telling him of the tree spoke this stanza:
"'Mount Gandhamadana, the home wherein I dwell, can boast
"Thus did she speak falsely, but he believed her, and thinking it was an ascetic he greeted her kindly and uttered this stanza:
"'Pray, holy sir, come in and take a seat,
"[Being an ingenuous youth and never having seen a woman before he was led to believe the extraordinary story she told him, and through her seductions] his virtue was overcome and his mystic meditation broken off. After disporting himself with her till he was tired, he at length sallied forth and finding his way down to the tank he bathed and, when his fatigue had passed off, he returned and sat in his hut. And once more, still believing her to be an ascetic, he asked where she dwelt, and spoke this stanza:
"'By what road hither hast thou come,
"Then Nalinika recited four stanzas:
"'North of this the Khema flows
"'Mango, tilak, sal full-grown,
"'Here with dates and roots, I ween,
"'Roots and berries here abound,
"The ascetic, on hearing this, to put her off till his father should return, spoke this stanza:
"'My father foraging for fruit is gone;
"Then she thought: 'This boy because he has been brought up in a forest does not know that I am a woman, but his father will know it as soon as ever he sees me, and will ask me what business I have here and striking me with the end of his carrying-pole, he will break my head. I must be off before he returns and the object of my coming is already accomplished,' and telling him how he was to find his way to her house she repeated another stanza:
"'Alas! I fear I may no longer stay,
"When she had thus devised a plan for her escape, she left the hermitage, and bidding the youth, as he was wistfully looking after her, to stay where he was, she returned to the ministers by the same road by which she had come there, and they took her with them to their encampment and by several stages reached Benares. And Sakka that very day was so delighted that he caused rain to fall throughout the whole kingdom. But directly she had left the ascetic, Isisinga, a fever seized upon his frame and all of a tremble he entered the hut of leaves and putting on his upper robe of bark he lay there groaning. In the evening his father returned and missing his son he said, 'Where in the world is he gone?' And he put down his carrying-pole and went into the hut, and when he found him lying there he said, 'What ails you, my dear son?' And chafing his back he uttered three stanzas:
"'No wood is cut, no water fetched, no fire alight. I pray
"'Until to-day the wood was ever cut,
"'To-day no wood is cleft, no water brought,
"On hearing his father's words, in explaining the matter, he said:
"'Here, Sire, to-day a holy youth has been,
"'Smooth-cheeked and beardless was this stripling wight,
"'His face was wondrous fair, and from each ear
"'Yet other ornaments the youth did wear,
"'No robe of bark, sign of ascetic grim,
"'Fruits of what tree beneath his waist are bound,
"'The tresses on his head were wondrous fair,
"'But when his locks he did perchance unbind
"'His very dust was fair to look upon,
"'His fruit so bright and fair, of varied hue,
"'His teeth in even rows, so pure and white,
"'His voice so soft and smooth, yet firm and clear
"'Its tone I thought subdued, pitched far too low
"'His warm arms flashing in their gold array,
"'Smooth were his limbs, his tresses long untied,
"'His hands were white as cotton, gleaming bright
"'No load of grain he brought, nor ever could
"'This rumpled couch with leaves of creepers made
"'To-day no holy texts can I recite,
"'Tell me, dear father, for thou know'st it well,
"'I've heard him speak of glades, with flowerets gay,
"The Great Being on hearing the boy talk such nonsense knew at once that through some woman he had lost his virtue, and by way of admonition he repeated six stanzas:
"'An ancient home for sages long has stood
"'Friendships exist and then they cease to be;
"'Friendship is formed by constant intercourse;
"'Shouldst thou set eyes upon this youth once more,
"'Demons there be that through the wide earth run
"On hearing what his father had to say the youth thought, 'She was a female yakkha, he says,' and he was terrified and put away the thought of her from him. Then he asked his father's pardon, saying, 'Forgive me, dear father, I will not leave this spot.' And his father comforted him, saying, 'Come, my boy, cultivate charity, pity, sympathy and equanimity,' and he proclaimed to him the attainment of the Perfect States. And the son walked accordingly therein and once more developed mystic meditation."
The Master, having finished his lesson, revealed the Truths and identified the Birth:--At the conclusion of the Truths the back-sliding Brother was established in the fruition of the First Path:--"At that time the wife of his unregenerate days was Nalinika, the back-sliding Brother was Isisinga, and I myself was the father."