Jeevakas test/Buddhist. (Healing issue)

·期刊原文

Jeevaka's test/Buddhist. (Healing issue)

by D.K.M. Kartha

Parabola

Vol.18.No.1 Spring 1993 Pp.82-83

Copyright by Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition

A legendary physician in the Jataka tales, Jeevaka, was taking his
final examination after a protracted period of discipleship under
his guru Aatreya.

For the practicals, Aatreya gave his students the following task:
Bring all those plants and animal products and minerals that have no
medicinal value at all from the heavily wooded Sarlaka hills in the
medical school's vicinity. They had a week to fulfill the task and
to present the answer for the guru's scrutiny.

Aatreya's students left for the hills carrying the tools necessary
for digging, uprooting, de-barking, cutting, peeling, de-husking,
cleaning, drying, etc., and disappeared into the vastness of the
woods.

After a week, one by one they all returned to the medical school. A
couple of the students had collected cartloads of leaves, roots,
flowers, pollen, barks, seeds, resins, animal secretions, and raw
mineral masses which they had found to be totally devoid of
medicinal value.

A few had basketfuls of such material. All the class except Jeevaka
brought at least a handful. Jeevaka alone came back from the Sarlaka
hills empty-handed.

Jeevaka's classmates were curious: Had Jeevaka dropped out of the
examination? They all turned to Aatreya who had risen to question
Jeevaka.

The teacher asked, "Jeevaka, how come your hands are empty? Did you
decide not to take the examination or did you not find anything that
wasn't medicinal?"

Jeevaka replied, "Revered Aatreya, I did go around and perform the
task at hand. I have done similar searching and experimenting
throughout my long studies with you. I found out today as I have
done before that everything in Sarlaka and in fact elsewhere as well
- everything in nature - is filled with medicinal power. Not only
the plants and animals and minerals, but also the wind and the
sunlight and the birdsong and flower smells and river sounds and
cloud shadows heal. Some heal humans, some heal animals. Some cure
physical sicknesses and others cure mental sicknesses. The
omnipresence of healing is what I discovered today as I have done
before. Please evaluate my work on the basis of this answer."
The rest of the story can easily be guessed. Aatreya had of course
known the answer always, but he wanted to test his students
practically and individually, and Jeevaka gloriously passed the
test. In later life, Jeevaka went on to become a most illustrious
and compassionate healer of everyone from King Bindusara, father of
the Indian Emperor Ashoka, on down to ailing animals in the Buddhist
kingdom of Magadha.

It is perhaps this story that led to the creation of the following
Sanskrit aphorism well-known in the healing circles of India:
Amantram aksharam naasti, naasti moolam anaushadham; Ayogyah purusho
naasti, yojakah tatra durlabhah.

(There is no syllable without mantric power; there is no person
without good qualities; similarly there is no root [herb] without
medicinal power. Rare is the one who can discover these powers and
put them to good use.)