Jātaka Tales
Jāgara-Jātaka
Jāgara-Jātaka
The Bodhisatta, hearing the spirit’s voice, spoke this stanza:—I am he who wakes while others sleep, and sleeps while others wake. I am he can read your riddle, I to you can answer make.
The spirit put a question again in this stanza:—How is it you wake while others sleep, and sleep while others wake? How is it you read my riddle, how this answer do you make?
He explained the point:—Some men forget that virtue lies in stern sobriety, When such are sleeping I’m awake, O spirit of the tree. Passion and vice and ignorance in some have ceased to be: When such are waking then I sleep, O spirit of the tree. So it is I wake while others sleep, and sleep while others wake: So it is I read your riddle, so to you I answer make.
When the Great Being gave this answer, the spirit was pleased and spoke the last stanza in his praise:—Good it is you wake while others sleep, and sleep while others wake: Good your reading of my riddle, good the answer that you make.
And so making the Bodhisatta’s praises, the spirit entered its abode in the tree.
After the lesson, the Master identified the Birth: “At that time, the tree-spirit was Uppalavanna, the ascetic was myself.”