Once the Buddha was residing on one side of Vulture Peak. At that time, King Bimbisara, who loved his son Ajatashatru very much, let him do whatever he wished. However, his son had as his companion a bad friend, Devadatta, and did whatever Devadatta incited him to do. When his father told him to treat the ministers, subjects, people, and so forth with love and compassion rather than with harshness, he got intensely angry. The son listened to the harmful words of Devadatta, who said, “If you, the sublime son, do not assassinate your father, the time will never come for you to wield power and rule the kingdom.” Ajatashatru then personally imprisoned his father in a dark and frightful jail with the intention to kill him by starvation, and would not let anyone go near. While the king was suffering, the queen secretly brought food and served him. The son came to know about this and guarded her too. Due to this severe torture, the king’s whole body became pale and smelt filthy. Throughout these circumstances, the queen from outside the prison and the king inside, with weak and painful voices, supplicated and praised the Buddha, the supreme object of refuge of all beings, with sorrowful mourning. Victorious light rays entered through a small hole in the jail and illuminated the darkness.
The son got extremely angry when he came to know about this and covered the hole too. The son commanded an executioner to tie the king very tightly and cut off both his legs. At that moment, the king, suffering intensely, remembered the Buddha and said, “O Buddha, I pay homage to you, protect me!” The Buddha instantly appeared in front of the king in person, sat on a cushion arranged by Indra, and said, “O king! All sentient beings, who are intoxicated by the poison of attachment and anger, experience intense suffering due to their various non-virtuous actions. This is the nature of samsara being essenceless. One has to experience the results of one’s karma and without going through such suffering, it will not get purified. Hence, you must abandon desire for wealth and realize that the intense suffering you experience is your own karma. At the end of its exhaustion, you will accomplish the fruition of virtue instantly.” Consoling the king in this way, the Buddha returned to his place.
King Bimbisara then passed away and took immediate rebirth as a son of Vaishravana named Gyalwé Khyuchok. Ajatashatru, after learning of his father’s death, regretted his actions and cremated his father’s body. He was overwhelmed and ashamed with himself for committing the non-virtuous action of being wicked to his own father, and said, “Alas! Ignorant me, I will now fall into a precipitous hell. There will not be anyone to protect me when I will be burnt swiftly by the inferno of hell.” Realizing this, he went to take refuge in the Buddha, who is endowed with the ocean of compassion. When he approached near the Buddha, shivering and weeping, he said, “O Buddha, I pray you, protect me, for I executed my father out of attachment to royal wealth.” The Buddha replied, “O king! Without thinking about and examining which are virtuous and non-virtuous actions, you have listened to the slanderous words of a wicked and impudent person and committed negative actions. You have abandoned the nectar of virtue and goodness that you are endowed with. The suffering experienced by the king was his own karma. Now, you too certainly will have to undergo such suffering as he did.
“The good and bad actions committed by oneself will be recorded on one’s forehead infallibly like inscribing an image on a rock that cannot be erased by anyone. Yet, the fruition of bad actions will not ripen instantly. Therefore, if you wish to accomplish auspicious fruition, improve your intellect and your intention for peace, set living beings in harmonious livelihoods, abandon bad company, rely on spiritual friends, confess your past negative actions with intense remorse, praise correct conduct, practice generosity towards all sentient beings, abandon the non-virtues committed by beings, and purify the impure defects of the vessel (world). In these ways, if you light the wisdom-lamp through oil of the wisdom-tree, O king, your negativities will gradually diminish and finally you will attain ultimate enlightenment.” With this, he was relieved and felt the heavy load of negative actions become slightly lighter. Then, he returned to his place.
Later, the monks requested the Buddha to reveal the cause of this episode. The Buddha said, “Once upon a time in Varanasi, a merchant had four sons who enjoyed wealthy livelihoods, but their three doors (body, speech and mind) were unrestrained and remained completely carefree. They never had to face the suffering of thirst and starvation, and grew up jesting and bullying others. Once when they were drunk, they saw a pratyekabuddha coming, whom they criticized and showed anger towards. The eldest son, Sundarka, said to his brothers with a smile, ‘What if we murder this monk who is in a religious robe and carrying a begging-bowl?’ The second younger son, Kundura, said, ‘Well then! Let’s kill him by throwing him into river.’ Then the third younger son, Sundara, said, ‘Let’s fling him onto the river bank.’ The youngest son, Kundara, suggested, ‘Let’s cut off his feet with his own razor.’ They not only thought to commit such non-virtuous deeds but also uttered them aloud. It is through the ripened fruition of those deeds that they suffer accordingly. The eldest son of the merchant was Shakya Shari who died due to intoxication as a result. The second son was Shakya Mingchen and he died by drowning in a river. The third son was King Segyal who was murdered by his son. Likewise, the fourth son was King Bimbisara who met his fate after being imprisoned by his own son.
“Young but conceited with their wealth, unaware of how to analyse virtuous and non-virtuous actions, ones who frivolously rejoice in their own happiness and utter wanton talk when free from miseries are humans with the mentality of cattle. Hence, just like debts which increase with their interest, the fruition of karma will also increase and no one can stop from experiencing them.” King Bimbisara, who took rebirth as Gyalwé Khyuchok, came to the Jeta Grove in Sravasti (where Buddha resided) and made enormous offerings to the Buddha out of gratitude. Then all the retinue there generated firm faith in cause and effect, and became well aware of the adoption and abandonment of what is virtuous and non-virtuous, and their qualities and faults respectively. This is the teaching of the “Law of Cause and Effect”.
By Dorji Tshering
Final Year, NNI
