[121] 1. The Story of the Ambasakkhara Peta (Ambasakkharapetavatthu)
There is a city of the Vajjīs named Vesāli; there dwelt a Licchavi, Ambasakkhara. Having seen a peta outside the city, and wishing to know the reason, he questioned it on that very spot:
[The King:]
"This man has no lying down, no sitting up; for him there is no going forth and no coming back; the enjoyment of what is eaten, what is drunk, and what is chewed, and of clothes — even a serving-woman — this man has none of these.
"Those who formerly were his kinsmen, his companions seen and heard of, his good-hearted friends who felt for him — now they cannot obtain even a sight of him, for he has been cast off by those people.
"The fallen man has no friends: friends forsake him, knowing him stripped bare; but seeing wealth they crowd around — he who rises has many friends.
"Fallen from all wealth, in hardship, smeared [with blood], his body broken through and through, he hangs like a clinging drop of dew: today or tomorrow comes the destruction of his life.
"To such a one, come to the extremity of hardship, hoisted upon a stake of neem-wood — for what reason then, yakkha, do you say to him: 'Live, good sir! Life alone is better'?"
[The Peta:]
"He was a blood-relative of mine — I remember it from a former birth (jāti); and seeing him, compassion arose in me, O king: 'Let not this man of evil nature fall into hell (niraya)!'
"Passing away from here, O Licchavi, this doer of evil deeds will arise in hell — dreadful in aspect, thronged with beings, intensely scorching, bitter, and terrifying.
"Many times over better is this very stake than that hell. Let him not fall into hell — exclusively painful, bitter, terrifying, utterly piercing!
"And if he heard this word of mine, brought low by suffering (dukkha) he might give up his life; therefore I do not speak it in his presence — let not the destruction of his life come about through me."
[The King:]
"This man's case is understood; but we wish to ask you something else as well. If you grant us the opportunity, I shall ask — and you must not be angry with us."
[The Peta:]
"Truly, my promise was given then; there is no declaring to one without trust. Yet counting my word as worthy of belief even if unwillingly [believed], ask me what you will, so far as I am able."
[The King:]
"Whatever I shall see with my own eye, all of that I shall surely believe of you; but if, having seen it, I should still not believe, then, yakkha, you may impose upon me an act of degradation (niyassakamma)."
[The Peta:]
"Let this be your promise of truth to me: that having heard the Dhamma you shall gain confidence. You who seek to know, with no corruption of mind — whatever teaching you have heard, or have not heard, I shall declare it all to you, as I know it."
[The King:]
"Upon a white horse, all adorned, you ride up into the presence of the impaled man; this is a wondrous mount, lovely to behold — of what deed (kamma) is this the result (vipāka)?"
[The Peta:]
"In the middle of the city of Vesāli there was a mire-pit upon a muddy road; with a confident mind I took a single ox-skull and laid it down in the pit as a bridge.
"Setting our feet upon it, I and others passed across. This wondrous mount, lovely to behold, is the result of that very deed."
[The King:]
"Your radiance shines forth in every direction, and your fragrance drifts in every direction; you have attained the psychic power of a yakkha and are of great majesty — yet you are naked. Of what is this the result?"
[The Peta:]
"Free from anger, with an ever-confident mind, I would approach people with gentle words: as the result of that very deed my divine radiance shines without cease.
"Seeing the fame and repute of those established in the Dhamma, I would speak of them with a confident mind: as the result of that very deed my divine fragrance drifts without cease.
"While my companions were bathing at the ford, I took their clothes and hid them on the bank — seeking sport, and with no corruption of mind: because of that I am naked, and my existence is a hard one."
[The King:]
"For one who does evil in sport, they say the ripening of the deed is such as this; but for one who does it not in sport, what do they say is the ripening of his deed?"
[The Peta:]
"Those men whose minds are set on corrupt intention, defiled in body and in speech — at the breaking up of the body, in the world beyond, without doubt they go to hell.
"But others, aspiring to a good destination (sugati), delighting in giving, their natures well-composed — at the breaking up of the body, in the world beyond, without doubt they go to a good destination."
[The King:]
"How am I to know this with certainty — that this is the result of the good and the evil? Or what might I see, that I should believe it? Or who indeed could make me believe this?"
[The Peta:]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.