འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མཆག་ཏ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའ་མད་སྡའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 9.24

9.24

Go to the elephant pen yourself, choose the twenty elephants that you want, and take them and bring benefit to beings so that they will gain happiness.’

“Then Jalavāhana, with his two sons, took away twenty elephants, borrowed many bags¹¹⁴⁸ from a tavern,¹¹⁴⁹ went to where the river was interrupted, filled the bags with water, loaded them onto the elephants, brought them to the lake, and emptied them into the lake, so that it became full and vast as before.

“Noble goddess, at that time, the head merchant’s son walked around the four sides of the lake, looking at it, and many fish followed him, milling around at the shore. Then the head merchant’s son thought, ‘Why are these fish following me? No doubt it is because they are tormented by the fire of hunger and are begging me for food, so I shall give it to them.’

“Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, then said to his sons,¹¹⁵⁰ ‘Take the strongest elephant and quickly go home and tell my father, the head merchant, to gather together everything there is to eat in the house—that which is intended for my parents and that which is intended for my wife, children, male servants, and female servants—and bring it to me.’

“Then the two sons, obeying their father, rode the strongest elephant, hurried home, went before their grandfather, and said in detail what they had been told to say, obtained everything that was edible in the house, quickly loaded it onto the elephant, and hurriedly went back to their father beside the lake.

“When Jalavāhana saw them coming, his body and mind were filled with happiness, delight, and joy. He took the food and scattered it throughout the lake. The fish obtained the food, and they were all filled and satiated.

“Then he thought, ‘I have given the fish food and saved their lives. In the future, may I give the food of the Dharma and satisfy an infinite number of beings!’