Ja 196 The Story about the Cloud-Horse
(Valāhassajātaka)
In the present one monk is tempted to go back to the lay life by the sight of a woman in her finery. The Buddha tells a story of how Yakkhinis used to capture lost merchants, take them to husband and then devour them when they were finished with them. The Bodhisatta in the guise of a flying horse managed to save half of those in captivity, who later become his disciples.
1. Ye na kāhanti ovādaṁ narā Buddhena desitaṁ,
Byasanaṁ te gamissanti, Rakkhasīhi va vāṇijā.
Those people who won’t follow the advice given by the Buddha, will go on to destruction, like the merchants with the Rakkhasis.
2. Ye ca kāhanti ovādaṁ narā Buddhena desitaṁ,
Sotthiṁ pāraṁ gamissanti, valāheneva vāṇijā ti.
Those people who do follow the advice given by the Buddha, will cross over unto safety, like the merchants with the cloud-horse.
In this connection, those people who won’t means those people who will not.
Will go to destruction means they will reach complete ruin.
Like the merchants with the Rakkhasis means like the seduced merchants with the Rakkhasis.
Will cross over unto safety means they will reach the Nibbāna without obstruction.
Like the merchants with the cloud-horse, like the merchants who followed the word spoken by the cloud-horse: “You must come.” Whence, having gone to the ocean’s shore, they came to their own place, so those who follow the advice of the Buddhas go to the farther shore of transmigration, Nibbāna. With the deathless and great Nibbāna the Dhamma teaching reached a crescendo.