Four on a Log
(Gratitude)
Once upon a time, King Brahmadatta of
Benares had a son. He grew up to be a mean and cruel man, the sort who’s always
trying to prove that he’s tougher than everyone else. He was a bully who
constantly pushed people around and picked fights. Whenever he spoke to people,
it was with a stream of obscenities — right out of the gutter. And he was
always quick to get angry, like a hissing snake that had just been stepped on.
People inside and outside the palace
avoided him like the plague and ran away from him as if he was a starving
man-eating demon. Behind his back, everyone called him the ‘Evil Prince’.
One day, the prince decided to go for
a swim in the river and so took his servants and attendants out with him.
Suddenly, the sky turned dark and gloomy, and it started to rain cats and dogs.
Eager to show that he was a courageous person, he yelled at his servants to
take him into the river and bathe him before taking him back to the shore
again. Following his orders, the servants took the prince out to midstream.
“This is our chance!
Let’s kill the Evil Prince. Whatever
we do here, the king will never find out,” they whispered to one another. “Into
the flood waters you go, you good-for-nothing!” With that, they threw him into
the stormy river.
When they returned to the bank, the
others asked about the prince when they found him missing.“We don’t know. As
the storm came, he must have swum faster than us and gone back to Benares,”
they replied.
“Where is my son?” questioned the
king when the servants were back in the palace.
“We do not know, your Majesty. We
thought he had returned to the palace first when the rainstorm set in.” So,
King Brahmadatta had a search party organised and began looking for the prince.
They searched carefully, all the way down to the riverside, but could not find
him.
This was what had actually happened:
In the utter darkness, howling wind and pelting rain, the prince had been swept
along the raging river. Luckily, he was able to grab hold of a floating dead
log which he clung onto for dear life. As he was being tossed along the river
like a helpless rag doll, the prince was so afraid of drowning that he bawled
like a terrified, vulnerable baby!
Now, a very rich man had just died in
Benares. He had buried his treasure trove of 40 million gold coins in the
riverbank, along the same stretch of river. Due to his miserly ways and
attachment to wealth, he was reborn as a snake at the same spot where he had buried
his treasure to guard it.
Now, at a nearby spot on the same
riverbank, another rich miser had also stashed away a treasure of 30 million
gold coins. Likewise, due to his stinginess and craving for money, he had been
reborn as a water rat at that exact same place to watch over the gold. When the
river became stormy, both the snake and the water rat were flooded out of their
holes and into the raging river. Like the prince, they both happened to grasp
onto the same dead log that was carrying the frightened, wailing prince. The
snake climbed up on one end and the water rat on the other.
At that moment, a young parrot was
washed up onto the same dead log. This parrot had been roosting in a tall tree
that grew nearby the river. But when the rainstorm came, the tree was uprooted
and the little parrot fell into the water. The heavy rain and the strong wind
hampered the parrot when it tried to fly.
So these four floated downstream
together upon the log, towards a bend in the river. A holy man happened to be
living humbly in a little hut nearby. This holy man was a Bodhisattva. He was
born into a rich, upper-class family in Kasi. But he renounced his wealth and
position when he grew up, and now lived alone next to the river.
When the log floated past the holy man’s
hut at midnight, he heard the panicky shrieks of the Evil Prince. “I will not
let this poor frightened man perish before my eyes. I must rescue him from the
water and save his life.”
“Don’t be afraid! I will save you!”
he shouted as he ran down the riverbank and jumped into the rushing torrent.
With great strength and effort, he grabbed the log and pulled it safely to
shore.
When the holy man noticed the poor
wet animals, he brought all three and the prince into his cosy little hut. He
started a small fire, and thinking that the weaker animals were in need of
drying first, gently warmed them by the fire. When they were warm and dry, he
set them aside before allowing the prince to warm himself. Next, the holy man
brought out some fruits and nuts. Again, he fed the more helpless animals
before attending to the waiting prince.
Not surprisingly, this made the Evil
Prince furious! “How dare this holy man value these dumb animals more highly
than me, a great royal prince!” he thought angrily. Because of this thinking,
he nursed a bitter grudge against his saviour.
The next day, the holy man dried the
dead log in the sun. He chopped it up and used the firewood to cook their food
and keep them warm. After a few days, all four recovered their strength and the
waters had subsided. It was time for them to leave. The snake came to the
gentle Bodhisattva to say goodbye first. It coiled its body on the ground,
arched itself up, bowed its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I’m
grateful to you for saving my life. I have buried a treasure of 40 million gold
coins in a certain place. To repay your kindness to me, I will gladly give it
to you, for all lives are priceless! Whenever you are in need of money, just
come down to the riverbank and look for me by calling out, ‘Snake! Snake!’ ”
The water rat was next to bid the
holy man farewell. Facing the Bodhisattva, it stood up on its hind legs, bowed
its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I cannot thank you enough for
saving my life. I, too, have buried a treasure of 30 million gold coins in a
certain place. To repay your kindness, I will also gladly give it to you, for all
lives are priceless! Whenever you are in need of money, just look for me at the
riverbank by calling out, ‘Rat! Rat!’ ”
The depth of gratitude and generosity
shown by the snake and the water rat was a far cry from their previous stingy
human lives! Then came the parrot’s turn to say goodbye to the holy man. It
bowed its head respectfully and said, “Venerable one, I am grateful to you for
saving my life, but I do not possess any silver or gold. However, if you are
ever in need of the finest rice, just look for me at the riverbank by calling
out, ‘Parrot! Parrot!’ With the help of my relatives from all the forests of
the Himalayas, we will bring you cart-loads of the most precious fragrant rice,
for all lives are priceless!”
The Evil Prince was the last to take
his leave. As his mind was bent on avenging the insults he thought he received
from the holy man, he was far from feeling grateful to him for saving his life.
In fact, he thought only about killing the holy man if he ever saw him again.
But he masked his true intent and said, “Venerable one, please come to me when I’m
the king and I will provide you with the Four Necessities — food, clothing,
shelter and medicine.” With that, he returned to Benares and was soon crowned
as the new king.
The holy man decided to check if the
gratitude of these four was real. So, he went down to the riverbank and called
out, “Snake! Snake!” At the sound of the first word, the snake slithered out of
its home under the ground. It bowed respectfully and said, “Holy one, under
this very spot lies 40 million gold coins. Dig them up and take them with you!”
“Very well,” replied the holy man,
“When I’m in need, I will come again.”
Saying goodbye to the snake, he
walked along the riverbank to where the rat lived, and called out “Rat! Rat!”
The water rat appeared and just like the snake, it too showed the spot where
its treasure lay and offered its hoard to the holy man.
Next, he called out “Parrot! Parrot!”
The parrot flew down from its home at the top of a tree, bowed respectfully and
said, “Holy one, do you need fine fragrant rice? I will summon my relatives and
we will bring you the best rice in all of the Himalayas.”
The holy man replied, “Very well,
when I’m in need, I will come again.”
Finally, he set out to see the king.
He travelled to the royal garden and slept there for the night. The next
morning, in a very humble and dignified manner, he went to collect alms in the
city of Benares.
That same morning, the ungrateful
king happened to be leading a vast procession around the city seated on a
magnificently-adorned royal elephant. When he saw the Bodhisattva coming
towards him from a distance, he thought, “Aha! This lazy homeless bum is coming
to sponge off me. Before he can brag to everyone how much he did for me, I must
have him beheaded!”
“This worthless beggar must be coming
to ask for something. Don’t let the lazy good-fornothing get near me. Arrest
him immediately, tie his hands behind his back, and whip him at every street
corner. Take him out of the city and execute him. Then spear his body through a
sharpened stake and leave it for all to see,” he instructed his servants.
The king’s men followed his cruel
orders. They tied up the innocent holy man like a common criminal and whipped
him mercilessly at every street corner on the way to the execution place. But
no matter how hard the whip cut into his flesh, he remained dignified. After
each slash of the whip, he simply exclaimed, for all to hear, “This proves that
the old saying is still true — ‘It pays more to pull logs from a river than to
help an ungrateful man’.”
Some of the onlookers began to wonder
why he said that at each street corner. “This poor man’s pain must have been
caused by an ungrateful man,” they said to one other.
“Oh holy man, how have you helped an
ungrateful man?” they asked.
Then he told them the whole story,
and in conclusion, he said, “I rescued this king from a terrible flood, and in
doing so, I brought this pain upon myself for I did not follow the saying of
the wise and the old. That’s why I repeatedly say ‘It pays more to pull logs from
a river than to help an ungrateful man’.”
After hearing this story, the people
of Benares became enraged. “This good man saved the king’s life, but instead of
repaying his kindness, he treated him so cruelly. How can such an ingrate
possibly be a good king? He can only be dangerous to us. Let’s overthrow him!”
Rage turned the citizens of Benares
into a mob. They pelted the king as he rode on his royal elephant, with arrows,
knives, clubs and stones, killing him. They dragged his corpse and threw it
into a ditch by the side of the road.
Then, they made the holy man their
new king. He ruled Benares well. Then one day, he decided to visit his old
friends at the riverbank with a huge procession.
“Snake! Snake!” he called out. The
snake came out, offered its respect and said, “My lord, if you wish, you are
welcome to take the treasure.” So, the king had his servants dig up the 40
million gold coins. Next, he went to the water rat’s home and called out its
name. “My lord, if you wish, you are welcome to take my treasure,” it said
after offering its respect. This time, the king’s servants dug up 30 million
gold coins.
Lastly, the king called out for the
parrot. The parrot flew to the king, bowed respectfully and said, “If you wish,
my lord, I will collect the finest fragrant rice for you.”
But the holy king replied, “Not now,
my friend. When rice is needed, I will request it from you. Now let us all
return to the city.”
When they reached the royal palace in
Benares, the king had the 70 million gold coins guarded in a safe place. He had
a golden bowl made for the snake to live in, and a maze produced from the best
crystals to house the rat. For the kind parrot, he had a golden cage made, one
with a gate that it could latch and unlatch from the inside.
Every day, the king gave rice puffs
and the sweetest bees’ honey on golden plates to the snake and the parrot. And
on another golden plate, he dished the most aromatic scented rice to the water
rat.
The king became famous for his
generosity to the poor. He and his three animal friends lived together in
perfect harmony for many years. When they died, they were all reborn as they
deserved.
The moral is ✏ Gratitude is a reward, which is itself rewarded.
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