Buddhist shelf · Pali Canon · Jātaka 381 · Chakkanipāta · Avāriyavagga
MigālopajātakaJātaka 381 · Volume 3, translated by H. T. Francis and R. A. Neil (1897)
Public domain. H. T. Francis and R. A. Neil’s translation was published in 1897. The Pali is the Mahāsaṅgīti edition published by SuttaCentral under CC0. The canonical Pali Jātaka consists of the verses only (6 verses here); the prose story around them comes from the later commentary, which the English translates in full. So the verses are shown beside the whole English story, not verse by verse.
Pali verses
“Na me rucci migālopa,
yassa te tādisī gatī;
Atuccaṁ tāta patasi,
abhūmiṁ tāta sevasi.
Catukkaṇṇaṁva kedāraṁ,
yadā te pathavī siyā;
Tato tāta nivattassu,
māssu etto paraṁ gami”.
“Santi aññepi sakuṇā,
pattayānā vihaṅgamā;
Akkhittā vātavegena,
naṭṭhā te sassatīsamā.
Akatvā apanandassa,
pitu vuddhassa sāsanaṁ;
Kālavāte atikkamma,
verambhānaṁ vasaṁ agā.
Tassa puttā ca dārā ca,
ye caññe anujīvino;
Sabbe byasanamāpāduṁ,
anovādakare dije.
Evampi idha vuddhānaṁ,
yo vākyaṁ nāvabujjhati;
Atisīmacaro ditto,
gijjhovātītasāsano;
Sabbe byasanaṁ papponti,
akatvā vuddhasāsanan”ti.
English Francis and Neil 1897
[255] "Your ways, my son," etc.—The Master told this tale in Jetavana, of an unruly Brother. The Master asked the Brother, "Are you really unruly?" He said, "Yes, lord": and the Master saying, "You are not unruly for the first time; formerly too through unruliness you did not the bidding of the wise and met your death by the Verambha 2 winds," told an old-world tale.
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a vulture by name Aparaṇṇagijjha, and dwelt among a retinue of vultures in Gijjhapabbata (Vulture Mountain). His son, Migālopa by name, was exceedingly strong and mighty; he flew high above the reach of the other vultures. They told their king that his son flew very far. He called Migālopa, and saying, "Son, they say you fly too high: if you do, you will bring death on yourself," spoke three stanzas:
Your ways, my son, to me unsafe appear,
You soar too high, above our proper sphere. When earth is but a square field to your sight,
Turn back, my son, and dare no higher flight.
Other birds on soaring pinions lofty flight e’er now have tried,
Struck by furious wind and tempest they have perished in their pride.
[256] Migālopa through disobedience did not do his father's bidding, but rising and rising he passed the limit his father told him, clove even the Black Winds when he met them, and flew upwards till he met the Verambha winds in the face. They struck him, and at their mere stroke he fell into pieces and disappeared in the air.
His aged father's wise commands disdained,
Beyond the Black, Verambha Winds he gained. His wife, his children, all his household herd,
All came to ruin through that froward bird.
So they who heed not what their elders say,
Like this proud vulture beyond bounds astray,
Meet ruin, when right rules they disobey.
After the lesson the Master identified the Birth: "At that time Migālopa was the unruly Brother, Aparaṇṇa was myself."
Translator’s notes (2)
p. 164, n. 1 Cf. no. 427 infra.
p. 164, n. 2 A wind so called from a sea of the same name, see Divyāvadāna, p. 105.