Ja 77 The Story about the Great Dreams
(Mahāsupinajātaka)
In the present king Pasenadi had 16 dreams which leave him fearful. He asks his brahminical advisors and they suggest the dreams are inauspicious, and he should perform a great sacrifice to ward off the danger. The Buddha, however, assures him these are prophetic dreams about the bad times to come, and will not affect the good king himself. He then tells how these dreams were dreamt in a past life, and interpreted in a similar way (full story).
1. Usabhā rukkhā gāviyo gavā ca,
Asso kaṁso siṅgālī ca kumbho,
Pokkharaṇī ca apākacandanaṁ,
Lābūni sīdanti, silā plavanti.
Maṇḍūkiyo kaṇhasappe gilanti,
Kākaṁ Supaṇṇā parivārayanti,
Tasā vakā eḷakānaṁ bhayā hī ti.
Bulls, trees, cows, oxen and a horse, a golden bowl, jackal and pot, a lake, uncooked rice, sandalwood, pumpkins sinking, and stones floating. Frogs swallowing black cobra snakes, crows, surrounded by Supaṇṇas, PTS reads suvaṇṇā, which is taken as indicating golden mallards by the translators. these wolves that are afraid of goats. At the end of this Jātaka there is this note by the commentator, explaining the unexpected length of the verse: But after the passing of the Fortunate One, those who made the Recital placed the three lines beginning with usabhā in the commentary, and having made the four lines beginning with lābūni into one verse, they placed it into the canonical section with one verse. This however is rather unsatisfactory, as the verse would then be incomplete, listing only seven out of sixteen of the dreams, and having the new verse begin with the Vetālīya metre for one line only, where the others are Tuṭṭhubha. On the other hand, it does seem to confirm that there is no fifth line following the four commented on above, and that vipariyāso vattati na-y-idha-m-atthī ti below is in fact in prose, not in verse, as laid out in Cst.
Now the Bodhisatta spoke with the teacher about the correct method concerning them in detail, and after explaining the consequences, at the end he said this himself: there is nothing existing here that is perverse for me. This line is printed as verse in Cst, but it has no recognisable verse structure.
In this connection, this is the meaning: this, great king, is the consequence of these dreams. But this is said in order to ward off their performing the sacrificial deed, the contrary is suitable, the reverse is suitable, through doing the inverse it is suitable, this is what is said.
What is the reason? Because this is what is known as a consequence for the world, during the declining period, at that time the caused will be Translating bhavissati at the end of this sentence below. taken as the uncaused, at that time the uncaused will be taken as the caused, at that time the true will be taken as the false, at that time the false will be taken as the true, at that time the shameless will be abundant, and at that time those with shame will be deficient.
There is nothing here for me means It is probably the quotation here that has led the Burmese editors to identify the line above as verse. but now for you or me at this time here, for this pair of persons in the present, these do not have a consequence. Therefore by warding these off at the present time he reversed the sacrifice that was being performed.