經律異相 34.37

34.37

A king had a daughter named Dog-Head (Śunīmukha). There was a fisherman named Śubhaka. Walking along the road, he caught sight of the princess from afar in a high tower. Seeing her face in the window, his imagination became enflamed with desire. His mind could not abandon her for a moment; as days and months passed, he was unable to eat or drink. His mother asked him the cause, and he answered his mother with the truth: "Having seen the king's daughter, my mind cannot forget her." His mother restrained him, explaining: "You are a lowly person, and the king's daughter is noble; she cannot be attained." The son said: "My heart's desire cannot forget her for a moment. If I cannot have my wish, I cannot live." For the sake of her son, the mother entered the royal palace and constantly brought fat fish and fat meat to give to the princess without taking payment. The princess wondered and asked: "What do you seek?" The mother addressed the princess: "I pray that you dismiss your attendants, and I will speak the truth. I have only one son, who reveres and longs for the princess; his feeling has formed an illness, and his life is not far from ending. I pray that you will show pity and grant him his life." The princess said: "On the fifteenth day of the month, have him stay behind the deity's statue in such-and-such a temple." The mother returned and told her son: "Your wish has been granted," telling him as above. Having bathed and put on new clothes, he stayed behind the deity's statue. When the time came, the princess addressed her father the king: "I have an inauspicious sign and must go to the temple to seek good fortune." The king said: "Very well." He then prepared five hundred chariots to go out to the temple. Having arrived, she ordered her attendants to stop at the gate and entered the temple alone. The god thought: "This should not be. The king is a donor; this lowly person must not be permitted to defile and disgrace the king's daughter." He then cast a spell on the man, causing him to fall into a deep sleep without waking. When the princess entered, she saw him sleeping heavily; she pushed him, but he did not awaken. She then left him a necklace worth one hundred thousand ounces of gold and departed. After she left, the man woke up. Seeing the necklace and asking the crowd, he learned that the princess had come. His desire unfulfilled, he was consumed with sorrow, resentment, and anguish; the fire of lust broke out within him, and he burned himself to death. From this evidence it is known that a woman's mind makes no distinction between noble and lowly, following only lust. Furthermore, in the past a king's daughter followed a caṇḍāla to engage in impurity together; there was also a sage's daughter who followed a lion. (Extracted from the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa, Fascicle 14)