Armidale Community Buddhist Centre

...we find Agastya, born to a family of Brahmans so illustrious as to be called "an ornament of the earth," living as an ascetic on the island of Kara in the Indian Ocean.... "On what accomplishment have you set your hopes?" Indra asked Agastya the Bodhisattva. "What is the object of your wishes that has led you to leave your sorrowful friends and relatives, desert a household and possessions that had been your happiness, and enter this way of life that destroys all pleasures?"

The Bodhisattva replied according to the Dharma, in a way that immediately laid Indra's anxiety to rest. "Repeated births tend to great sorrow," he said. "So do the calamities of old age, sickness and death. All are just a disturbance to the mind. My vow is to save all sentient beings from these evils."

Relieved, Indra immediately offered, in return for such candid truth, the fulfillment of any desire Agastya might name. "May the fire of covetousness that burns insatiably even after obtaining a beloved wife, children, power and riches never enter my heart," Agastya said. "Excellent, excellent," applauded Indra and urged Agastya to request the fulfillment of still another desire.

"May the fire of hatred burn far from me," Agastya said. Pleased by this game, in which Agastya so ingeniously taught the Dharma while appearing to request the fulfillment of his desires, Indra urged him to go on. But this time he was startled to hear Agastya's words. "May I never hear, see, speak to, nor endure the annoyance and pain of staying with a fool," Agastya said. "What do you mean?" Indra asked. "Those in distress deserve sympathy; the root of distress is foolishness. How can you claim to be compassionate when you abhor the very presence of those most due sympathy?"

Then Agastya reasoned in this way, to prove to Indra that one should associate not with the foolish but with men of wisdom. "A fool cannot be cured even by medical treatment," he said. "Habituated to wrong conduct because of a deficiency in moral education, he urges his neighbors to follow his impetuous way, inflamed by self-conceit and the affectation of wisdom. When reprimanded, he becomes angry. There is no help for him." "How true," Indra said. "Let me hear more jewellike, well spoken sentences."

"May I see, hear, live with and converse with a wise man," Agastya said, "for these reasons: because the wise man, walking the path of virtue, draws others along with him, and is never roused to impatience by harsh words spoken for his own good." Again Indra was delighted.