Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in a brahmin family, in Kasi. And when he was of mature years, renouncing the pleasures of sense and embracing the ascetic life he developed the supernatural powers of mystic meditation, and enjoying the delights of Contemplation took up his abode in a pleasant grove in the Himalayas.

The king of Benares at this time was fearfully alarmed by hearing those four sounds uttered by four beings who lived in Hell. The brahmins warned that one of three dangers must befall him, he agreed to their proposal to put a stop to it by the fourfold sacrifice.

The family priest with the help of the Brahmins provided a sacrificial pit, and a great crowd of victims was brought up and fastened to the stakes. Then the Bodhisatta, guided by a feeling of charity, regarding the world with his divine eye, when he saw what was going on, said, “I must go at once and see to the well-being of all these creatures.” And then by his magic power flying up into the air, he landed in the garden of the king of Benares, and sat down on the royal slab of stone. The chief  disciple of the family priest approached his teacher and asked, “Master! Is it not written, in our Vedas that there is no happiness for those who take the life of any creature?” The priest replied, “Your duty is to bring here the king’s property; we shall have abundant money and dainties to eat.” And with these words he drove his pupil away. But he thought, “I will have no part in this matter,” and went and found the Bodhisatta in the king’s garden. The Bodhisatta asked him, “Young man! does the king rule his kingdom righteously?”

The youth answered, “Reverend Sir! Yes! he does; but he has heard four cries in the night, and on inquiring of the brahmins, he has been assured by them that they would restore his peace of mind, by offering up the fourfold sacrifice. So the king, being anxious to recover his happiness, is preparing a sacrifice of animals, and a vast number of victims has been brought up and fastened to the sacrificial stakes. Now is it not right for holy men like yourself to explain the cause of death?”

The Bodhisatta replied, “Young man! the king does not know us, nor do we know the king, but we do know the origin of these cries, and if the king were to come and ask us the cause, we would resolve his doubts.” The youth said, “Reverend Sir! Then just stay here a moment and I will bring the king to you.”

The Bodhisatta agreed, and the youth went and told the king all about it, and brought him back with him. The king saluted the Bodhisatta and sitting on one side asked him if it were true that he knew the origin of these noises. The Bodhisatta said, “Yes, You Majesty!” The king asked, “Then tell me, Reverend Sir!” The Bodhisatta answered, “these men in a former existence were guilty of gross misconduct with the wives of their neighbors near Benares, and therefore were re-born in Four Iron Cauldrons. Where after being tortured for thirty thousand years in a thick corrosive liquid heated to boiling point, they would at one time sink till they struck the bottom of the cauldron, and at another time rise to the top like a foam bubble, but after those years they found the mouth of the cauldron, and looking over the edge they all four desired to give utterance to four complete stanzas, but failed to do so. And after getting out just one syllable each, they sank again in the iron cauldrons. Now the one of them that sank after uttering the syllable ‘du’ was anxious to speak as Follows:-

Due share of wealth we gave not ; an evil life we led :

We found no sure salvation in joys that now are fled.

And when he failed to utter it, the Bodhisatta of his own knowledge repeated the complete stanza. And similarly with the rest. The one that uttered merely the syllable ‘sa’ wanted to repeat the following stanza:-

Sad fate of those that suffer when shall come release?

Still after countless sons, Hell’s tortures never cease.

And again in the case of the one that uttered the syllable ‘na’, this was the stanza he wished to repeat:-

Nay endless are the sufferings to which we’re doomed by fate;

The ills we wrought upon the earth it is ours to expiate.

And the one that uttered the syllable ‘so’ was anxious to repeat the following:-

Soon shall I passing forth from hence, attain to human birth?

And richly dowered with virtue rise to many a deed of worth.

The Bodhisatta, after reciting these verse one by one, said, “The dweller in Hell, Sir, when he wanted to utter a complete stanza, through the greatness of his sin, was unable to do it. And when he thus experienced the result of his wrong-doing he cried aloud. But fear not; no danger shall come to you, in consequence of hearing this cry.” Thus did he reassure the king? And the king proclaimed by beat of his golden drum that the vast host of victims was to be released, and the sacrificial pit destroyed. And the Bodhisatta, after thus providing for the safety of the numerous victims, stayed there a few days, and then returning to the same place, without any break in his ecstasy, was born in the world of Brahma.

The Master, having ended his lesson, identified the Birth: “Sariputta at that time was the young priest, I myself was the ascetic.”