Palak Shah
RES 106
October 18, 2012
Vessantara Jataka Essay
The Journey to Enlightenment
Enlightenment; a complex idea in Buddhist thought, it is commonly thought of as a state to which one attains, where one ceases to feel desire or aversion, and thus is prepared to be liberated from karma and reincarnation after one’s life. To reach enlightenment is often considered the highest virtue imaginable (Reading Guide). As a Buddhist, the main focus in life is to take the actions necessary in order to make the desire for the fruits of action fade away into almost nothing so that enlightenment can be reached. In the Vessantara Jataka, we learn about the final human life lived by the Buddha in which is he takes on the form of Prince Vessantara.
As we begin to read the text, we see through his generous actions that Vessantara looks at the wants and needs of others before his own but as the story goes on; our views on the prince begin to change. Getting rid of the desire that a person has is the way to enlightenment but when the prince goes as far as giving away his own family, it makes us think about if he is actually generous from the bottom of his heart. I believe that the prince desires enlightenment and that he will go to great lengths to make himself look as though he is genuinely a giving person. He goes as far as giving away his own wife and children which brings up the question of if he really values his family or if he is just doing these actions to benefit himself.
In the section of the text where Prince Vessantara agrees to give away his own children to the Brahmin (pages 59-63), we begin to see how he values his family but only to a certain point. When giving his children away, the prince says to the Brahmin, “Omniscience is a hundred times, a thousand times, a hundred thousand times more precious to me than my son.” (Vessantara Jataka, page 59) He believed that giving the gift of children was the best gift that could be given to a Brahmin so he handed over his children full of joy without even thinking about what could happen to them. Even though every Buddhist’s main goal in life is to reach enlightenment, saying that it is more important to you than your own children shows that you are not generously giving these gifts to people. It is obvious that Vessantara desires enlightenment and that it is the reasoning behind giving such ridiculous gifts, such as family members, to the Brahmins. He wants to make himself look as though he has no desire for anything in when in reality; he is only tricking the people around him with his actions.
When becoming a parent, the most important people in your life are usually your children and the only thing that matters is their happiness and well-being. When the prince gives away his children and they leave with the Brahmin, Vessantara is so happy with himself and the actions he has just taken that he doesn’t even care about what is happening to his children. “Then that cruel Brahmin bit off a creeper. With the creeper he bound their hands; with the creeper he thrashed them. Then, holding a rope and a stick, the Brahmin led them away, beating them while the Sivi prince looked on.” (Vessantara Jataka, page 60) A normal father who cared about his children would have reacted to this situation by getting them back into a safe environment but instead, the prince just watched his children get beat by a stranger for no reason. His generous actions seem to lose all their meaning because of the fact that he actually only cares about himself and reaching enlightenment when giving these gifts; he is not doing these good deeds for the right purpose.