Once upon a time when Dhananjaya was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta became a parrot named Radha. He was a well-grown bird with perfectly-formed limbs. And his younger brother was called Potthapada. A certain fowler trapped these two birds and brought them as a present to the king of Benares. The king put the pair in a golden cage and took care of them and gave them honey and parched corn to eat in a golden dish and sugar-water to drink. Great attention was paid them, and they attained to the highest degree of honour.

Then another forester brought a big black monkey, called Kalabahu, as a present to the king, and from the fact of his coming later than the parrots, he received still greater gain and respect, while that paid to the parrots fell off. The Bodhisatta through his possession of Buddha qualities said not a word, but his younger brother, from the absence of these qualities being unable to put up with the honour paid to the monkey, said, “Brother, formerly in this royal house men gave us savoury food, but now we get nothing, and they offer it all to the monkey Kalabahu. As we receive neither gain nor honour in this place from the king, what are we to do? Come, let us go and live in the forest.”

The Bodhisatta, on hearing this, replied:

Gain and loss and praise and blame,

Pleasure, pain, dishonour, fame,

All as transient states conceive–

Why should Potthapada grieve?

On hearing this, Potthapada was unable to get rid of his grudge against the monkey and repeated:

Radha, wisest bird alive,

Sure thou know things to come,

This vile creature who shall drive

From the court to his old home?

The Bodhisatta, on hearing this, said:

Oft will his puckered face and moving ears

The royal children fill with foolish fears :

Soon Kalabahu through some impish freak,

Far far away his food will have to seek.

In a very short time the monkey by shaking his ears and the like tricks before the young princes terrified them. In their alarm they made an outcry. The king asked what it meant, and hearing the cause, said, “Drive him away.” So he had the monkey driven away, and the parrots were restored to their former condition of gain and honour.

The Master here ended his lesson and identified the Birth: – “At that time Devadatta was Kalabahu, Ananda was Potthapada, and I myself was Radha.”