Have you ever wondered how the great masters worked for lifetimes toward their enlightenment? Here are three astounding stories from Gautama the Buddha’s earlier lives.
Sadhguru: Before he became a Buddha, Gautama strived for many lifetimes to become enlightened. Because he had no particular master and no flood of energy to take him onward, he strived hard to perfect himself with certain qualities like compassion and love. There are many wonderful stories where he spoke of his previous lifetimes.
In one particular life, his name was Shibi. Because of his previous merit, he was born as a prince and became a king. He fought battles and became an emperor with a large empire. Then a reminder of the past came to him, and he knew that his life was not about being an emperor and ruling people, but about striving for his enlightenment and becoming a light unto others. So, he started practicing compassion.
One day, he was sitting in the forest and wanted to do certain practices of meditation, when a wounded dove came flapping and fell in his lap. He picked it up and saw that the dove’s wing was broken and a hunter’s arrow had pierced it. He tore his upper cloth and tried to fix the wing. In the meantime, the hunter[1] came and said, “That is my bird. You must give it to me.” Emperor Shibi said, “The bird landed in my lap, so I do not have to give it to you.”
The hunter reminded him, “You are the emperor; you are the law, but you yourself are breaking the law. The law of this land is that the prey belongs to whoever shoots it. Are you going to break the law of this land? And what about my food? This is my livelihood. You are claiming a bird that I shot for yourself. The future generations will curse you for that. The emperor, who is supposed to be the very embodiment of law, breaks the law for his own convenience.”
Then Shibi said, “I understand the law, but I am aspiring and striving to get in tune with a higher law. Please allow me this one bird. Let me be compassionate to it.” The hunter said, “No. I do not know about any higher laws. All I know is the law of the land. I go by that, and I expect you to go by that too.” Shibi looked at the bird. The bird looked up at him pitifully, hoping he will save its life. So Emperor Shibi said, “Whatever the weight of the bird, I will cut that much flesh from my thigh and give it to you.”
The hunter looked at the emperor and thought that this was the emperor’s way of deceiving him. The hunter said, “That is fine. Weigh the bird, and whatever the weight, you give the same amount of flesh to me because all I want is food.” Shibi took out a knife, sliced off a certain part of his thigh and gave it to the hunter. He limped for the rest of his life because of that.
[1] In some versions of the story, it is a hawk.
In another life, he was an emperor again. Now he was much more evolved and was certain that he is headed toward his ultimate liberation, so he was giving all his wealth to charity. He built huge places where people on the spiritual path could come and stay, and he always gave them whatever they asked for without hesitation. This news spread everywhere, and everyone knew that if you ever needed anything, all you had to do was go and ask him. It did not matter what people asked for, he never said no to anyone. He had taken a vow in his life that if anyone asked for anything, he would never say no.
He went to a point where he said, “If someone asks for my limbs, I will cut them and give them away.” Indira, the king of all the gods, thought, “This guy is becoming so popular. Everyone is raving about him.” He came to the emperor disguised as an old and blind Brahmin. The emperor asked, “What do you wish for?” The Brahmin said, “I have lost both my eyes. You have two wonderful eyes. One eye is more than enough for you to pass through this life. You can give me one.”
So the Emperor said, “Until this moment, no one gave me this opportunity. I have been waiting for someone to ask me something really big. You are the first one to ask. My joy is such that I will give you both my eyes.” All the ministers and others around said, “This is not possible. This man is just trying to misuse your generosity. And above all, what will he do with eyes? He will only see his poverty and other people’s wealth, and struggle. You are the emperor; you are the eyes of the world. It is your responsibility not to lose your eyes. You becoming blind is not good for the people.”
No matter what they said, the emperor replied, “I have already promised it. I am not someone who is going back on his promise. This man asked for one eye. I will give both,” and he actually pulled out both his eyeballs and gave them to the man. Like this, he strived hard for many, many lifetimes.
In another life, he was a sage. This was two lifetimes before he came as Gautama. There was a younger spiritual aspirant who walked with him. Both of them were wandering in the forest. They came upon a cave and walked in. There, they found a tigress who had just delivered a litter of cubs, and she was very hungry. There was no food around. She had an instinctive affection toward her cubs, but the hunger that was burning in her stomach was such that she was on the verge of eating her own cubs.
The sage saw this and said, “The sanctity of the love that she has for the cubs will be destroyed in this world if she eats up her own children. I cannot let this happen.” He sent the younger aspirant to get some food for the tigress. But then he saw there was no time to wait, or else she would eat her own cubs. So he took a stone, smashed his own head, and fell in front of the tigress to become her food.
The younger person who had gone out did not find any food. When he came back, he found that the tigress was halfway through the body of the older sage. He realized what had happened and was overjoyed that he had walked with a man who was willing to give his own body as food to a tigress, just to save her from eating her own cubs.
Like this, Gautama strived for almost fifteen to eighteen conscious births before he came to his ultimate realization. In his experience, it was not hardship, but in other people’s eyes, it definitely was. One way is to set up elaborate systems and an order where we can work upon people, and they can slowly go on. Otherwise, if we not only want to arrive at individual realization in a short span of time but also establish a cauldron into which people in the future can fall and dissolve, then we really need to look beyond “what is me” and “what is not me.” “What about me?” and spirituality cannot happen together.
