Jataka Tale — The Hungry Ghost
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was the reigning king in Varanasi, the Bodhisatta — a being who would become Buddha in a future life — was born a monkey in the foothills of the Himilayas.
At that time there was a farmer in a village of Kasi, who after plowing his field, loosened his oxen and began to work with a shovel. The oxen, while eating leaves in a clump of trees, little by little, wandered in to the forest. The farmer was overcome with grief when he looked up from his digging and saw they were gone. He ran into the forest to find them; lost his way, and wandered aimlessly until he reached the Himilayas.
There, having completely lost his bearing he wandered seven days without eating. Then he came upon a tinduka tree, and climbed it to eat the fruit. Slipping off the tree, he fell into a deep hole and was trapped. After waiting in this hellish place for ten days, the Bodhisatta while gathering wild fruit caught sight of the man. After practicing with a stone, he was able to haul the fellow out.
While the monkey was asleep, the man hatched a dastardly plan. “Monkey meat is good to eat, like deer.” he thought, “I should kill him and sate my hunger.” He picked up the stone and used it to split upon the monkey’s head. But although he was bleeding, the monkey was able to escape and scamper up a nearby tree. “Ho, sir! You must depart, I will just point out the way from the top of this tree and then will be off.” And so he rescued the fellow from the forest, set him on the right road, and then himself disappeared into the mountains.
The man, since he had sinned again the Great Being, became a leper; and even in this world appeared as a hungry ghost in human form. For seven years he was overwhelmed with pain. In his wanderings to-and-fro, he found his way into a park in Varanasi. There he spread a plantain leaf down in the enclosure and lay down, half maddened by his sufferings. At that moment, the king came to the park, and as he walked about, saw the man and asked him, “Who are you and what have you done to bring this suffering upon yourself?” And he told the king the whole story at length.
And while the man was speaking with the king, even as he spoke; the earth opened its mouth, and at that very moment the man disappeared and was reborn in hell. The king, when the man was swallow up in the earth, came forth from the park and entered the city.
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This story is adapted from The Jataka, translated from the Pali Canon and edited by professor E.W. Cowell; published by the Cambridge University Press in 1895.
