Sakka, and by reason of her love to him in the former birth, she was moved to say, "This one is my husband," and so chose him.
And he led her away to the heavenly city, and gave her the post of honour among great multitudes of houris; and at the end of his allotted time, he passed away according to his deeds.
When the Teacher had finished this discourse, he reproved the monk, saying, "Thus, O monk, formerly wise men, though they held rule in heaven, offered up their lives rather than destroy life; but you, though you have taken the vows according to so saving a faith, have drunk unstrained water with living creatures in it!" And he make the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka, by saying, "He who at that time was Mātali the charioteer was Ānanda, but Sakka was I myself."
END OF THE STORY ON MERCY TO ANIMALS.[1]
- ↑ In this story we have a good example of the way in which the current legends, when adopted by the Buddhists, were often so modified as to teach lessons of an effect exactly contrary to those they had taught before. It is with a touch of irony that Sakka is made to conquer the Titans, not by might, but through his kindness to animals.
