BUDDHACARITA 2.25: The King's End-gaining Plan

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−    Upajāti (Bālā)

naiḥśreyasaṁ tasya tu bhavyam-arthaṁ śrutvā purastād-asitān-maharṣeḥ

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kāmeṣu saṅgaṁ janayāṁ-babhūva vanāṁ na yāyād-iti śākya-rājaḥ || 2.25

2.25

But having heard before, from the great seer Asita,

That the prince's future purpose would be transcendent bliss,

The Śākya king encouraged in his son 
attachment to sensual desires,

So that he might not go to the forest.

COMMENT:

Two of the three manuscripts upon which EB Cowell based his text omitted the 4th pāda of today's verse. Relying on the other manuscript (which may have contained a 4^th pāda only as a result of the copyist's conjecture), EBC's text has:

vṛddhir bhavac-chākyakulasya rājñāḥ

“the increase of the king of the present Śākya race.”

EBC noted that “The last pāda seems spurious as it is only found in C [the third of the three manuscripts]. I have tried to make some sense by reading buddhiḥ (judgement) for vṛddhiḥ (increase).”

Hence EBC's translation of the 3^rd and 4^th pādas is:

“the anxious care of the king of the present Śākya race turned the prince to sensual pleasures.”

EH Johnston surmised that the 4^th pāda of the old Nepalese manuscript (of which EBC's manuscripts were copies) was illegible except for the last two syllables, rājñāḥ. Based on the Tibetan translation, EHJ amended his text of the 4^th pāda to:

vanāni yāyād-iti śākya-rājaḥ.

At the translation stage, however, EHJ noted that “the restoration of T [the Tibetan translation] is not quite certain, apparently vanaṁ for vanāni. C [the Chinese translation] is no help and I should prefer vanaṁ na yāyād iti.

EHJ's translation of the 3^rd and 4^th pādas was:

“he feared lest he should go to the forests and therefore he turned him to sensual pleasures.”

On the surface, then, today's verse points to an important fact in the Buddha's biography, which is namely that the king took steps to encourage his son to become attached to sensual pleasures and thereby, by the universal law of unintended consequences, helped to bring about the very result that he feared.

Digging deeper is always difficult, but particularly so in today's verse when so much uncertainty attaches to the 4^th pāda.

I have accepted EHJ's final conjecture as a stopgap, but I suspect that if we had Aśvaghoṣa's original words, they would contain an encouragement to dig deeper, and ask just what it is about the end-gaining mind, that it causes us to bring about a result that is the opposite of what we wanted. 

This irony relates to the tactic that the Buddha used to help Nanda move on from attachment to his sensual desire for Sundarī, in Aśvaghoṣa's Epic Story of Beautiful Joy. It also relates to ironies that everybody can observe for himself or herself in sitting practice -- whereby in our efforts to be mindful, we go around looking like zombies; in our efforts not to interfere with breathing, we interfere like hell; and in our efforts to let body and mind spontaneously drop off,  we become self-conscious, stilted and stiff. 

I could go on -- in our efforts to keep precepts we can't stop breaking them; and in our efforts to be seen as heroic, we end up looking to everybody like the bad guy. Enough said. 

VOCABULARY

naiḥśreyasam (acc. sg.): mfn. leading to happiness or future beatitude

naiḥ: (strengthening particle)

śreyasa: n. welfare , happiness , bliss (mostly ifc.)

tasya (gen. sg.): his

tu: but

bhavyam (acc. sg.): mfn. future, due to be

artham (acc. sg.): mn. aim, purpose; cause , motive , reason

śrutvā = abs. śru: to hear, listen, learn, be informed/enlightened [see discussion in BC1.76-1.78]

purastāt: ind. before

asitāt (abl. sg.): m. Asita, “the Not-White One.”

maharṣeḥ (abl. sg.): m. the great seer

kāmeṣu (loc. pl.): m. desires, sensual pleasures

saṅgam (acc. sg.): m. sticking , clinging to , touch , contact with (loc.); addiction or devotion to , propensity for , (esp.) worldly or selfish attachment or affection , desire , wish , cupidity

janayām babhūva = 3^rd pers. sg. periphrastic causative perfect jan: to generate , beget , produce , create , cause

vanāni (acc. pl.): n. forest

yāyāt = 3^rd per. sg. optative yā: to go to, set out for

iti: thus

śākya-rājaḥ (nom. sg.): m. the Śākya king, king of the Śākyas

vṛddhiḥ (nom. sg.): f. growth , increase , augmentation , rise , advancement , extension , welfare , prosperity , success , fortune , happiness

buddhi: f. intelligence , reason , intellect , mind , discernment , judgement

bhavac-chākyakulasya rājñāḥ (gen. sg. m.): of the king of the present Śākya clan

bhavat: mfn. present

shākya-kula: Śākya clan

rājan: m. king

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