that it is beset with occupations inimical to religious conduct and to tranquillity. When treating of the virtue of detachment, this is to be propounded : 'Those who have once got the taste for detachment will not go back to worldly pleasures.'
The Pâli version of this story is not found in the Pâli Gâtaka nor in the Kariyâpitaka. The whole tale taka. The whole tale is nothing but a plea for the virtue of world-renunciation, the naishkrama, roughly dressed in the shape of a story, and may serve as a kind of introduction to the subsequent tales, where the state of an ascetic is glorified.
XIX. The Story of the Lotus-Stalks.
(Cp. the Pâli Gâtaka, No. 488, Fausb. IV, 305-314; Kariyâpitaka III, 4.)
Those who have learnt to appreciate the happiness of detachment are hostile to worldly pleasures ; they will oppose them, like one opposes a deception, an injury. This will be taught as follows.
One time the Bodhisattva was born in an illustrious family of Brâhmans, far-famed for their virtues and their freedom from reprehensible vices. In this existence he had six younger brothers endowed with virtues similar to his, and who out of affection and esteem for him always imitated him; he had also a sister, who was the seventh. Having studied the Vedas with their auxiliary sciences, likewise the Upavedas[1], he obtained great renown on account of his learning, and high respect from the side of the people. Attending on his father and mother with the utmost piety. yea, worshipping them like deities, and instructing his brothers in different branches of science like a spiritual teacher or a father, he dwelt in the world, being
- ↑ The Upavedas are the four sciences of medicine (âyurveda), military sciences (dhanurveda), music (gândharvaveda), and mechanics (silpasâstra), which theory attaches to the Rig-, Yagur-, Sâma-, and Atharva-veda respectively.
