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A crucial study of Apaṇṇaka Jātaka based on its contradictory features against traditional
Bodhisattva practice
Suman S. Barua

All schools of Buddhism, exist in the present world, developed the practice of bodhisattva as

one of their core practices. In Buddhist literature, the collections of past life stories of

Sakyamuni Buddha, named as ‘Jātakamāla’ or ‘Jātaka’ are recognized as stories related to

the practice of bodhisattva perfection in Buddha’s previous lives. The Apaṇṇaka Jātaka is

one of the stories, believed to be a past event of Gautama Buddha as bodhisattva, in which

perfection of truth (sacca pārami) as a bodhisattva is depicted.

Having gone through certain passages of this jātaka story I was completely lost in my own

thoughts about the actual / true practice of bodhisattva perfection. How does one practice a

bodhisattva life? Having read this story I was struggling to find answer to the question, how

can we distinguish between an ordinary man and a bodhisattva? The bodhisattva concept

presented in this story, in many ways, contradicts with the popular practice of bodhisattva

found in any Buddhist school today. Before going to the major argument, I would like to

provide a concise definition on the practice of bodhisattva which will be convenient to

understand why certain features presented in Apaṇṇaka jātaka are contradictory to

bodhisattva practice.

According to tradition, almost every Buddhist school holds the view that a bodhisattva has to

be someone who undertakes the vows to dedicate his entire sansaric journey for the welfare

and benefit of others and to save all sentient beings by liberating them from this samsaric

journey. A bodhisattva practitioner doesn’t think of his own benefits, gain, profit, liberation

etc as long as all other sentient beings are not liberated. In short, bodhisattva is the highest

noble being that process every noble quality in this world. His Highness Tanzin Gyatso (The
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14th Dalai Lama) in his work, ‘A Flesh of Lightening in the Dark Night’ defines the nature of

bodhisattva as,

Bodhi means enlightenment, the state devoid of all defects and endowed with
all good qualities. Sattva refers to someone who has courage and confidence
and who strives to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Those who
have this spontaneous, sincere wish to attain enlightenment for the ultimate
benefit of all beings are called Bodhisattvas. Through wisdom, they direct their
minds to enlightenment, and through their compassion, they have concern for
beings……Driven by the desire to help beings, one thinks, for their sake, I must
attain enlightenment.1

Contradictory concept of bodhisattva practice found in the story

Having known this concise background definition on bodhisattva practice, if a vigilant

attention is directed towards certain passages of Apaṇṇaka jātaka, we can vividly detect the

absence of proper bodhisattva qualities in the assigned bodhisattva character of the story. As

the story is incorporated in the jātaka collection it certainly meant to depict the character of

bodhisattva perfections. The story also opens with the claim that it is meant to practice the

perfection of truth. But paying close attention to certain passages in the story it can be

claimed that although the story is meant to be about perfection of truth, there are certain

qualities associated with the character of bodhisattva which are to be questioned. The big

question is, when a bodhisattva is practicing certain perfection (pārami) in one life do all

other noble qualities absent from him?

The very first thought occurred in the mind of wise caravan leader (known to be a

Bodhisattva), I would argue, itself is a sort of discriminating thought which is obviously

1
Gyatsa, Tenzin (14th Dalai Lama), ‘A flash of lightning in the dark of night : a guide to the bodhisattva's way of
life’- (p-12)
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unexpected from a character like bodhisattva. As the jātaka relates, the two caravan leaders

wanted to set their journey with the purpose of trading to some distant place. It is obvious for

an ordinary merchant to think of all the alternatives to sell his / her goods with a good price

and also to look down upon other merchants. Such thoughts can be acceptable, if the story is

not related to the practice of bodhisattva vows. But if we recollect the definition of

‘bodhisattva’ provided by the 14th Dalai Lama, it can be said that it is not appropriate for a

bodhisattva to look down upon his colleagues or competitors as foolish, "If this silly young

fool travels with me and if our thousand carts stay together….”2 This particular statement of

bodhisattva shows that he is discriminating other merchant and he has negative views about

other people. In certain other passages it can be clearly noticed that the mind of bodhisattva

was preoccupied with various worldly / unwholesome thoughts.

The Bodhisatta saw considerable benefits in going later, and thought, 'if they
go first they will make uneven ground level: I'll go on a path that has already
been used. Their oxen will have eaten the tough, tangled grasses, while mine
will eat new standing, sweet grasses. In a place where there is no water they
will dig the ground and get water so we'll drink from wells that have been dug
by others. Setting prices is life-destroying work. I'll go later and sell mine
when the price has been set.3

The citation clearly depict that the mind of bodhisattva is being deluded with worldly

thoughts here in the story which certainly contradicts with the definition given by the Dalai

Lama. The character of bodhisattva, presented in the story, is someone who is attached to his

own benefits and gains rather than thinking of benefits of others. In this story bodhisattva is

more interested in safeguarding his own self and possessions than other beings.

2
Ken & Kawasaki, Visakha, ‘Jataka Tales of the Buddha’ ( Part I), also available @
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/kawasaki/bl135.html
3
Shaw, Sarah, ‘The Jātakas: birth stories of Bodhisatta’- (p-16)
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A close study of the story gives enough evidence to claim that the bodhisattva although had

some knowledge about the road they took for the journey and knew that the other merchant

was not claver enough to cross the wilderness successfully, yet didn’t share any of his

experience to help the other merchant. If he was practicing a bodhisattva life in such case he

should have informed the other merchant about the difficulties one might face during such a

long journey. If bodhisattva had enough compassion for the other merchant, people or the

oxen, he could inform all the possible ways (he used) to escape from such difficulties and

save many lives. But there was not even a single advice from bodhisattva to help the other

merchant which shows lack of concern and empathy in the character of bodhisattva. If we

proceed further with the story we also can notice the dishonest character of bodhisattva

presented in the story. At certain passage of a different translation of Apannka jātaka we are

being informed that when bodhisattva came across the possessions of foolish merchant he

took advantage of those abandoned possessions. As it is depicted in the story,

At daybreak the merchant replaced his own weak carts for stronger ones and
exchanged his own common goods for the most costly of the abandoned
merchandise.4

During our class, in one of the lecture there was an argument concerning ethics of friends of

the rabbit who took the possessions of others after announcing for three times.5 In this case

we can notice that bodhisattva himself is taking advantage of abandoned possessions without

even a single announcement. The story also informs us that having reached the intended place

with his goods bodhisattva sells them at a price which is three times higher than the usual

price.6 This particular behaviour of bodhisattva creates space for readers to question about the

ethics of bodhisattva. Is it appropriate for a bodhisattva to take advantage of other’s

4
Ken & Kawasaki, Visakha, ‘Jataka Tales of the Buddha’ ( Part I), also available @
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/kawasaki/bl135.html
5
Shaw, Sarah, ‘The Jātakas: birth stories of Bodhisatta’- (p-117)
6
Ibid – (p-21)
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possession? Can a bodhisattva make profits by deceiving the customers? It is usually normal

for a merchant to sell his goods with a fair price as he is doing it for his own living. But, to

me, it sounds strange to hear that a bodhisattva is deceiving people by selling goods higher

than the usual price. When I read this part of the story it became more difficult for me to

believe that the story is related to bodhisattva practice and that bodhisattva was no one other

than Buddha Gautama himself.

Literary theory found in the Jātaka

If we look at the literary theory of the jātaka as a secular work it can be said that the work is

rich enough with its contents that teach people various lessons about life. The work talks

about the usefulness of traditional and cultural knowledge people receive from their

ancestors. If we notice carefully we can see how the wise merchant uses his traditional and

experimental knowledge to escape from various dangers in wilderness. He is simply using the

knowledge he has got from his ancestors or his own experienced knowledge which saves his

own life and also life of many people who followed him.

There are poisonous trees in the wilderness, so do not eat so much as a leaf, a
flower or a fruit which you have not eaten before ………. And has anyone here
seen the tip of even one rain-cloud, lightning, which they agreed should be
seen from four or five yojanas away.7

On the other hand the character of foolish caravan leader shows that in life people them-

selves create problem due to their own ignorance which finally becomes demons for their

own life. If we examine the story from ethical point of view we can notice that the story is in

favour of secular or business ethics than religious ethics (Buddhist ethics in particular).

Considering the act of wise caravan leader it can be claimed that he is applying business

ethics in order to gain more profit from his customers. He is selling goods with the intention

7
Ibid – (p-19)
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of collecting greater benefits comparing to his usual budget. There isn’t much emphasize of

bodhisattva practice or application of Buddhist ethics depicted with the activity of wise

caravan leader.

Emphasize on the practice of moral life and taking refuge in the triple jewels can be noticed

in the first half of the jātaka story. Buddha himself claims that people who take refuge in the

triple gems will not go through any kind of bad rebirths. He also confirms that people who

take refuge in his dispensation will be able to leave this human body and take birth in the

heavenly realm and shining gods, will endow with highest qualities and finally be freed from

rebirth.8

As mentioned earlier, the primary focus of the jātaka is to inform people about the value of

holing the truth. Although there isn’t much emphasize on diverse practice of bodhisattva

vows, yet we can notice certain sense of irrevocable trust in truthfulness in the heart of wise

caravan leader which finally brings success in his life. But it is not clear, how clinging to

truth [by the wise merchant] relates to the friends of Anathapiṇḍika who left the refuge of

Buddha / triple gems during his absence. We have no evidence whether the wise merchant

was a Buddhist or follower or other traditions. The only information we have is that he was

quite determined to his own knowledge and firmly believes them to be true and doesn’t buy

other’s advice. What Buddha is trying to clarify here might be that, he is confirming the

essence of taking refuge in the triple gems [the truth] and holding them with unshakable

confidence which can help sentient beings to be successful in life? Or is it about not getting

manipulated by other’s ideas and opinions but to examine them with one’s common sense as

the wise merchant did after having conversation with the yakkhas?

8
Ibid – (p-13)
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Examining the above illustrations it can be said that the work is quite successful from a

secular perspective as the work has enough resources for the readers to get benefit while

living a worldly life. But if we examine the contents of the jātaka from a Buddhist

perspective we have to accept the fact that the work still has many weak points which has to

be corrected in order to make it a successful work on bodhisattva practice. Although the main

focus of the jātaka is about the perfection of truth, attention also has to be drawn to other

aspects of perfections that are associated with the life of bodhisattva. We cannot ignore other

practices of bodhisattva while trying to establish one single perfection of bodhisattva life.

There has to be some appropriate balance among all the characteristics (perfections) of a

bodhisattva practice while emphasizing on one particular aspect of bodhisattva practice.

Work Cited

Gyatso, Tenzin, ‘A flesh of lightening in the dark of night: a guide to the bodhisattva’s way of
life’, Sambala Publication, Boston – 1994.

Ken & K. Visakha, ‘Jataka Tales of the Buddha’, (Part I), Buddhist Publication Society,
Kandy – 1995

Shaw, Sarah, Dr. ‘The Jātakas: birth stories of Bodhisatta’, Penguin Books, New York -2006