The Ascetic In Love

Post sayings and stories you find interesting or useful.
Post Reply
User avatar
yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

The Ascetic In Love

Post by yawares »

Dear Member,

April Fool today and 'Happy Birthday' to me! Yes, today is my birthday. As my extra special gift, Dr. Sastri translated this cute story from Youtube(Thai version) because I love this story very much and I couldn't find it online. And I wish to share this lovely birthday gift with you all.

Mutulakkana Jataka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BjJ-8L0 ... ure=relmfu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doing The Best I Can : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LytBz9fuNPY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

************************
Mutulakkana Jataka: The Ascetic In Love
[Translated from Youtube by Dr.Tep Sastri]

While the Buddha was residing at the Jetavanaram, there was a young monk who fell in love with a pretty girl in Savatti. He was in a such a great distress that it obstructed his practice of Dhamma-vinaya. So he was asked to report to his preceptor and the Buddha. He admitted the cause of his discontent in the Holy life.

Then the Buddha told him that such overwhelming sexual passion was not unusual; even an ardent ascetic who was endowed with most arduous attainments, such as the five Abhinnas and the eight Samapattis, that are capable of suppressing passionate interferences , might fall in love with a pretty woman and temporarily lost all his superpower. And so the Buddha told the following Mutulakkana Jataka story of the ascetic in love.
---------

Once upon a time, there was a young man of a wealthy family. He was fond of study and became very well educated; but then he realized that all the known subjects of study could not help people abandon sufferings. So he left his home to search for the Escape, traveling throughout the Indian subcontinent. Ultimately, he became an ascetic who practiced sexual chastity and dwelled in patience prayer along with the forest creatures in the Himavanta.

One day, the Ascetic flew to the city of Varanasi for alms food, he got an invitation to give a sermon to king Brahmadatta at his palace. The king welcomed him with great respect, and after listening to his teaching, invited him to take residence in the royal garden of the palace. While the Ascetic was residing in the royal garden, he preached to the king, the royal family and courtiers. They all respected him and followed his doctrine in unity and delight in harmony.

Once there were riots at the country's borders. King Brahmadatta came to tell the Ascetic that he had to be busy raising an army to subdue the enemies for a while, but his queen Mutulakkana would take care of the preparation of food and listening to the sermon along with her royal people. And the queen did everything according to the king's order.

One day, the Ascetic was in deep meditation and so he did not come out for his alms food on time. After waiting for a long time, the queen took a rest. When the Ascetic suddenly came for food, she got up so quickly that her silk garments fell off, revealing her beautiful body. In that moment the Ascetic was in love and could not resist the sexual passion. He went back to his place and was so in deep distress that he no longer coming to the palace for alms food.

Seven days passed by, the King came back with victory. He was surprised to learn that the Ascetic had not come out for alms food as usual, so he decided to visit him. After having some conversation, the Ascetic confessed that the cause of depression was due to his love for the queen which was inappropriate; he then expressed a desire to go back to the Himavanta. But King Brahmadatta did not want to lose his beloved teacher, so he thought of a clever plan to win the Ascetic back as the great royal teacher. He proposed that the Ascetic stay and in return to that, the king promised to give his queen to the Ascetic (in secret, no one in the palace knew) plus a house outside the palace as a wedding gift. The Ascetic accepted.

Queen Mutulakkana went to live with the Ascetic according to the king's clever plan. First, she made him do the house chores and moving her bed and furnitures from the palace, which took him days to finish. Townspeople were disturbed by the actions of the hermit, working from mornings till nights, abandoning alms food and preaching he used to do. Once the house was ready for nice living, the Ascetic wanted to make love to his wife. But the queen spoiled his passion by lecturing him about his stature as the great teacher, his being the great hermit who had left worldly life to find the noble truth. The queen's trick worked! Waking up from the blinding sensuality, the Ascetic now felt ashamed of his inappropriate behavior. So disgusted, he made up his mind to turn back to the ascetic life and the peace that he used to know. The next day, he returned the queen to King Brahmadatta and flew back to reside at the Himavanta and never came back to town again.

--------
At the closing of the Mutulakkana Jataka story the Buddha told the monk that he was the lovesick Ascetic, the king was Ananda and the queen was Uppalavana.

*******************************
Love Buddha's dhamma,
yawares
Last edited by yawares on Sat Dec 15, 2012 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
bodom
Posts: 7215
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:18 pm
Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: The Ascetic In Love

Post by bodom »

Yes, today is my birthday.


Happy Birthday yawares and thanks for all the great stories you've been sharing!

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
User avatar
yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Re: The Ascetic In Love

Post by yawares »

bodom wrote:
Yes, today is my birthday.


Happy Birthday yawares and thanks for all the great stories you've been sharing!

:anjali:
Dear "bodom",

Thank you for reading my stories, that made me so happy on my birthday.

Sincerely,
yawares
User avatar
mikenz66
Posts: 19932
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:37 am
Location: Aotearoa, New Zealand

Re: The Ascetic In Love

Post by mikenz66 »

Hi yawares,

That's a very nice story.

The message has some interesting similarities to this sutta:
Ud 3.2 Nanda Sutta
http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ead#unread" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Mike
Post Reply