Once upon a time in the reign of Brahmadatta, king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in the form of Sakka. At that time a man, who lived in the kingdom of Kasi, came into the Himalaya region, and adopting the life of an ascetic lived on wild fruits. One day he found in the forest a young deer that had lost its dam. He took it home to his hermitage, and fed and grew it. The young deer grew up a handsome and comely beast, and the ascetic took care of it and treated it as his own child.

One day the young deer died of indigestion from a surfeit of grass. The ascetic went about lamenting and said, “My child is dead.” Then Sakka, king of heaven, exploring the world, saw that ascetic, and thinking to alarm him, he came and took his stand in the air and said:

To sorrow for the dead do ill become

The lone ascetic, free from ties of home.

The ascetic hearing this said:

Should man with beast consort, O Sakka, grief

For a lost playmate finds in tears relief.

Then Sakka said:

Such as to weep are fain may still lament the dead,

Weep not, O sage, it is vain to weep the wise have said.

Of by our tears we might prevail against the grave,

Thus would we all unite our dearest ones to save?

While Sakka was thus speaking, the ascetic recognising that it was useless to weep, and singing the praises of Sakka, said:

As ghee-fed flame that blazes out amain

Is quenched with water, so he quenched my pain.

With sorrow’s shaft my heart was wounded sore:

He healed my wound and did my life restore.

The barb extracted, full of joy and peace,

At Sakka’s words I from my sorrow cease.

After thus admonishing the ascetic, Sakka departed to his own place of abode.

The Master here ended his lesson and identified the Birth: – “At that time the old man was the ascetic, the novice was the deer, and I myself was Sakka.”