The King's Gold

The seven seers, Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Bharadvāja, Gautama, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni, were wandering the earth in the old days, practising austerities and training themselves in deep meditation to reach the eternal world of Brahman, and the good Arundhatī was with them. A woman named Gaṇḍā served them all, and her husband was Paśusakha, a śūdra, of the class that serves the others.

Then a great drought came, and the whole world went hungry and could barely stay alive. Some time before, at a sacrifice, a king had given his own son to the priests as their sacrificial fee. Now, in that time of famine, the boy, whose life was short, came to the end of his days. The seers, burning with hunger, gathered round him, and when they saw that the king's son was dead, those best of seers, driven by hunger, cooked him in a pot. There was nothing to eat in the world of mortals, and the ascetics, trying to keep themselves alive, had come to a hard way of living for the sake of food.

King Vṛṣādarbhi of the line of Śibi was travelling, and he saw them on the road, cooking, in their suffering. Ascetics, he said, to receive a gift is to be saved, and those who receive are nourished. Hear what wealth I have. A brahmin who asks is dear to me. I would give each of you a thousand mules, swift and white, with their bulls, and with young. I will give you hundreds upon hundreds of oxen, fine beasts that bear the yoke and keep a family, strong ones that carry loads over the earth, and as many of the best young cows and gentle milk cows. Choice villages, rice and barley, juices, jewels, and what else that is hard to find shall I give you? Do not set your minds like this on what should not be eaten. What shall I give you to nourish you?

The seers said, King, a gift from a king is honey to taste and poison after. You know that; why do you tempt us? The warrior rests on the brahmin as on a god, and the brahmin, made spotless by austerity, when he is pleased, pleases the gods. Whatever austerity a brahmin gains, even in a single day, a king's gift, once taken, burns it up as a fire burns a forest. Be well always, king, with your giving. Give it all to those who ask for it. So they spoke, and went from there. The meat the wise seers had been cooking was left uncooked. They left it there and all went into the forest, looking for food.

Then at the king's bidding his ministers went into the forest and gathered fig fruits and set about giving them as a gift. They brought other figs too, with gold hidden inside, and the seers' servants ran to take them. But Atri felt that they were heavy and said, These are not to be taken. We are not fools, we are not slow of mind. We know these are gold. We are awake, and we see. What is taken here brings bitter fruit after death. Whoever wants happiness here and after death must not take it.

Then each of the seers spoke in turn. Vasiṣṭha said, Gold counted by the hundred, measured by the thousand: the man who takes much in this way comes to the worst end of all. Kaśyapa said, All the rice and barley on earth, the gold, the cattle and the women, are not enough for one man. So the wise man turns to peace. Bharadvāja said, The horn of the ruru deer grows as the deer grows, and so does a man's craving. It has no measure. Gautama said, There is nothing in the world that could fill a man. A man is like the sea, and is never filled. Viśvāmitra said, When a man who longs for something has his longing fulfilled, another longing, thirst itself, pierces him like an arrow. Jamadagni said, Restraint in receiving holds a man's austerity firm. A brahmin who gives way to greed lets that wealth flow away. And Arundhatī said, A store of wealth gathered for the sake of dharma is approved by some. But here, a store of austerity is better than a store of wealth.

Gaṇḍā and Paśusakha, who served the seers, turned from the gold as well. Gaṇḍā said, My masters are strong, and they fear this fierce danger. I am weak, and I fear it all the more. Paśusakha said, The highest thing in dharma is what the brahmins count as wealth. I would serve a learned man faithfully, to learn the way of it.

Then the seers said, Let it go well with the king whose people these are, and with his giving, the king who gives us fruit with a trick hidden in it. And they left the fruit with the gold in it, and all of them, firm in their vows, went another way. The ministers went back and said to the king, They suspected a trick and left these fruits, and they are going another way. Know this, king.