Once upon a time when Brahmadatta ruled in Benares there was a childless Brahmin, having wealth to the amount of eighty crores, who took upon him the vows of virtue, and prayed for a son; in the womb of this brahmin’s wife was conceived the Bodhisatta, and from his black colour they gave him the name of Kanha – kumara young Blackie. He was sent by his father to Takkasila, where he learnt all the liberal arts, and returned again. Then his father provided a wife meet for him. And by and bye he came in for all his parents’ property.

Now one day, after inspection of his treasure houses, as he sat on his gorgeous divan, he took in his hand a golden plate, and reading upon the golden plate these lines inscribed by his kinsmen of former days, “So much of the property gained by such an one, so much by another.” He thought, “Those who won this wealth are seen no more but the wealth is still seen; not one of them could take it where he is gone; we cannot tie our wealth in a bundle and take it with us to the world. Seeing that it is connected with the Five Sins, He got the king’s consent, and gave alms bounteously and he took the ascetic vow and decided to cultivate the Faculties and the Attainments in order to be destined for Brahma’s heaven. So he ordered to open all the doors of his house and asked everybody to take as much as they can. He forsook all desires and amid the lamentations and tears of a great multitude, went away from the city to the Himalaya region. There he embraced the solitary life; and seeking out for a pleasant place to dwell in, he found this place, and there he resolved to dwell; and choosing a gourd tree for his place of feeding, there he did abide, and lived at the root of that tree in the open air. He lived eating only things uncooked by the fire once in the day, and at one sitting. On the ground, as though he were one with the four elements, he lived, taking upon him the ascetic virtues.

Thus are long he attained the Faculties and the Attainments, and lived in that spot in the ecstatic meditation. For wild fruits he went no further afield; when fruit grew upon the tree, he ate the fruit; in time of flowers, he ate flowers; when the leaves grew, he ate leaves; when there were no leaves, he ate the bark of trees. Thus in the highest contentment he lived a long time in that place. As in the morning he used to pick up the fruits of that tree, never once even did he from greediness rise up and pick fruit in any other place. In the place where he sat, he stretched out his hand, and gathered all the fruit there was within his reach; these he would eat as they came making no distinction between nice and nasty. As he continued to take pleasure in this by the power of his virtue the Sakka grew hot. (This throne, they say, grows hot when Sakka’s life draws towards its end, or when his merit is exhausted and worked out, or when some mighty Being prays, or through the efficacy of virtue in priests or brahmins full of potency.)

Then Sakka thought, “Who is it would dislodge me now?” Surveying all around, he saw the sage Kanha. He thought, “I will go to him and make him to proclaim the Law in trumpet tones, and having heard the preaching that gives peace, I will satisfy him with a boon, and make his tree bear fruit unceasingly, and then I will return here.”

Sakka went to him and said, “You! Black sage! My spirit does not like you.” Kanha heard him. By his divine insight he perceived that it was Sakka; and without turning, replied:

“Though black of hue, a brahmin true at heart, O Sakka, see:

Not by the skin, but if he sin, then black a man must be.”

And then, after this, having explained in their several kinds and blamed the sins which make black such beings, and praised the goodness of virtue, he discoursed to Sakka, and it was as though he made the moon to rise in the sky. Sakka at the hearing of his discourse, charmed and delighted, offered the Great Being a boon, and said:

“Fair spoken, brahmin, nobly put, most excellently said:

Choose what you will – as bids your heart, so let your choice be made.”

Hearing this Great Being thought thus within himself. “I know how it must be. He wished to test me, and see should I be wroth at mention of my ugliness; therefore he abused the colour of my skin, my food, my place of dwelling; perceiving that I was not angry, he is pleased, and offers me a boon; no doubt he thinks that I practise this manner of life through a desire for the power of Sakka or of Brahma; and now, to make him certain, I must choose these four boons: that I may be calm, that I may have within me no hatred or malice against my neighbour, and that I may have no greed for my neighbour’s glory or lust towards my neighbour.” Thus pondering, to resolve the doubt of Sakka, the sage claimed these four boons.

Hereupon thought Sakka: “The sage Kanha, in choosing his boon, has chosen four most blameless blessings. Now I will ask him what is good or bad with these four things.” And he asked the question:

“In lust, in hatred, covetise, in malice, brahmin, say

What evil thing dost thou behold? This answer me, I pray.”

The Great Being replied:

“Because hatred, of ill – will bred, aye grows from small to great,

Is ever full of bitterness, therefore I want no hate.

It is ever thus with wicked men: first word, then touch we see,

Next fist, then staff, and last of all the swordstroke flashing free:

Where malice is, there follows hate – no malice then for me.

When men make speed egged on by greed, fraud and deceit arise,

And swift pursuit of savage loot – therefore, no covetise.

Firm are the fetters bound by lust, that thrives abundantly

Within the heart, for bitter smart – no lusting then for me.”

Sakka, his questions thus solved, replied, “Wise Kanha, by you sweetly are my questions answered, with a Buddha’s skill; well pleased with you am I; now choose another boon.”

Instantly the Bodhisatta replied:

“O Sakka, lord of all the world, a boon thou did me cry.

Where in the woods I ever dwell, where all alone dwell I,

Grant no disease may my peace, or break my ecstasy.”

On hearing this, thought Sakka, “Wise Kanha, in choosing a boon, chose nothing connected with food; all he chooses bears upon the ascetic life.” Delighted ever more and more, he added there to yet another boon.

And the Bodhisatta, in stating of his boon, declared the law:

“O Sakka, lord of all the world, a choice thou bidst declare:

No creature be aught harmed for me, O Sakka, anywhere,

Neither in body nor in mind: this, Sakka, is my prayer.

Thus the Great Being, on six occasions making choice of a boon, chose only that which pertained to the life of Renunciation, well knew he that the body is diseased, and not Sakka can do away the disease of it; not with Sakka lies it to cleanse living beings in the Three Gates; albeit so, he made his choice to the end that he might declare the law to him. And Sakka made that tree bear fruit perennially, and saluting him by touching his head with joined hands, he said, “Dwell here ever free from disease,” and went to his own place. But the Bodhisatta, never breaking his ecstasy, became destined for Brahma’s world.