Once, a wise monk had 500 followers. One of them loved pets so much that he even adopted a poisonous snake and kept it in a bamboo cage. The followers named the snake ‘Bamboo’ and the pet lover was called Bamboo’s father. When the monk came to know about his pet, he advised Bamboo’s father […]
One day, the king’s gardener saw a young deer in the royal pleasure garden. When the gardener told the king about it, he became curious. He asked the gardener to catch it. The gardener brought some honey, which he then smeared on the grass. Soon enough, the deer started eating the grass and developed trishna
Once, a rich man became a monk. He retired to the forest and started practising Samadhi. Soon, he had 500 followers. His assistant was a disciple, who was always smiling. One day, the monk and his disciples went to live in the royal garden. When it was time to return, the king requested the head
Indra was the King of Heaven. Ugly gods called Garudas or Asuras also lived in Heaven. Indra wanted to remove these bad spirits from Heaven. Thus, he once invited them to a party and tricked them to go to a lower world. When the Asuras realised what Indra had done, they declared war on him
Once, Ananda the Blissful lived in a village of thirty families. He taught the villagers Pancha shila (five moral precepts). The people listened to him and followed him. Soon crime disappeared from that village. However, the village head was not pleased. As everyone became Ananda’s follower, the village head had no importance. So, he went
Once, the Raja of Benaras decided that his honest Price Maker Mahakyashapa was old and appointed a young man Nagarjuna in his place. Nagarjuna would buy at low prices and sell at high prices. One day, a dealer arrived to sell 500 horses. Nagarjuna declared that the 500 horses were worth just a cup of
A mountain buck near Kushinagara once fell in love with a village doe. He had a great trishna (desire) for her. After a few days, the buck decided to confess his love to the doe. He began, “Oh my sweet beauty…” Just then, he slipped and fell into a puddle. Some tree fairies, sitting nearby,
Banyan Deer was Bodhisattva. After saving the life of a doe once, Banyan further advised the king of Benaras to follow Brahma vihara (Four Sublime states of the Bodhisattva). The king understood and accepted the advice and let the two herds return to the forest. Banyan wisely led his herd of deer into the forest.
The King of Benaras had a deer park. There lived two herds led by two golden deer Banyan and Branch. Banyan was full of karuna (compassion). The King had ordered that the two golden deer would never be hunted. Now, every day a deer would be killed for the king’s dinner. So, the two herds
Once, the Deer King divided his herd into two parts. Then, he entrusted his two sons Beauty and Gray with each part. At harvest time, the Deer King asked his sons to take the herds to the mountains near Lumbini Grove to keep them safe from humans. In his hurry to get to the mountains,
Long ago, when people lived for many thousands of years, the ‘Enlightened One’ was born as Raja Makhadeva. He lived for almost 84,000 years as a child and crown prince and another 84,000 years as a young king. One day, Upali the royal barber plucked a grey hair from Raja Makhadeva’s head and showed him.
Prince Gamani was his father’s hundredth son. He had the best teacher among all his brothers. He was a monk by the name Arahant, the ‘Pure One’. When they grew up, the princes took charge of a province each. When it was Gamani’s time to take charge, Arahant, his teacher, advised him to stay back
Once, the Buddha wandered from place to place till he reached Uruvela. On his way he sat down in a grove to rest. In that same grove was a party of thirty friends who were enjoying themselves and while they were sporting, some of their goods were stolen. Then the whole party went in search
One day, a young man named Gyaani overheard a king’s adviser tell his friend, “See that dead mouse; even with that, one can become a millionaire!” Gyaani picked up the dead mouse and sold it to a shopkeeper to feed his cat. With the money, Gyaani bought sweets and sold them to flower sellers. A
Bharadvaja was a wealthy Brahmin farmer. Once he was celebrating his harvest-thanksgiving. At that time, the Buddha came with his alms-bowl, begging for food. Bharadvaja was angry and said, “It is not correct to beg. It would be more fitting for you to go to work than to beg. I plough and sow; I eat.