13. Buddha & The Lamb

Nor, spake he, shall one wash his spirit clean By blood; nor gladden gods, being good, with blood, Nor bribe them, being evil. -- Sir Edwin Arnold Bimbisara (558-491 BC) was a powerful king who ruled over the ancient kingdom of Magadha in Northern India. The king wanted to perform a great sacrifice to please the gods.     In olden days, many kings had the wrong notion that the sacrifice of animals would please the gods. So each king tried to offer as many animals as he could in sacrifice.     Bimbisara ordered the shepherds of his kingdom to bring in as many sheep as they could, all bearing the proper marks on their bodies, for according to the rules of sacrifice, the sheep to be killed at the sacrifice had to bear certain marks; otherwise they were not considered fit offerings.     In obedience to the order of the king, a shepherd was driving his flock of sheep along a road that led to the capital. Gautama Buddha (480-400 BC), the great world teacher, passed that way and saw the shepherd. He said, "Brother shepherd, where are you driving your flock to ?"     "Sir," answered the shepherd, "King Bimbisara, is performing a great sacrifice. To see this grand sacrifice, people from all parts of the world have come. The king has ordered me as well as the other shepherds to bring him sheep fit for the sacrifice".     Gautama Buddha, the great teacher who taught the world to give up all kinds of cruelty to living creatures, was shocked when he heard that King Bimbisara meant to kill a large number of animals as sacrificial offerings to please the gods. Ho noticed in the flock a little lame lamb. It was following the flock with great difficulty. Gautama thought that his first duty was to help the lame lamb. He said to the shepherd, "Good brother, I see you have a lame lamb in your flock. It walks with very great pain. It must not be allowed to walk. Therefore, I shall carry it and follow you to the king's yagashala (sacrificial place)".     "Sir," said the shepherd laughing, "nobody ever heard of pitying a lamb. Surely, people will laugh at you if you carry the lamb because it is lame and it cannot walk. If you want to carry it all the way, you can do so. But it is a funny thing to do".     Buddha did not mind the laughter of the shepherd. He took up the lamb in his arms with great tenderness, as if it was his own child. Soon they reached the place of sacrifice. People had come from all parts of India to see the ceremony. Everything was ready for the sacrifice to begin. A sheep tied to the sacrificial alter was about to be killed.     Then Buddha cried, "Hold, hold, let no one kill that poor animal". Such was the power of the gentle words of the great Buddha that the priest desisted from killing the sheep.     "Great King," went on Buddha, "never, never think that you can please the gods by sacrificing animals. For they are as much the beloved of God as human beings are. So do not any more commit the sin of sacrifice in the name of God. No one can escape from his sins or please God by such sacrifices".     Buddha spoke with such gentleness and earnestness that Bimbisara saw that it was wrong to think that the gods and goddesses could be pleased by the sacrifice of animals. So he ordered the whole ceremony to be stopped and sent away the animals brought to be sacrificed. He himself became a follower of Gautama Buddha. From that day, not a single animal sacrifice took place in his kingdom, nor was any animal treated with the least cruelty, because the teaching of Buddha took root in the hearts of the powerful king and all his subjects. ****  **** Additional Information of Interest Click here to find out more about the great King Bimbisara. Click here to know more about Magadha Empire. Click here to read more about Gautama Buddha. Click here to read more about Buddhist edicts on kindness to animals.