Sivi Jataka

The Bodhisatta was once a king. He was a righteous, wise, and generous ruler. He built six alms halls around the city and gave out goods worth six hundred thousand coins every day. But he felt this charity was not enough and vowed to give a part of himself to anybody who asked for it. “If he asks for my heart, I will cut open my chest with a spear and rip it out and give it to him dripping with blood clots. If he names my flesh, I will slice it off my body. If he wants my blood, I will pour it into his mouth or fill a bowl. If he needs his house cleaned, I will take off my robes and do a slave’s work. If he demands my eyes, I will tear them out like the pith of a palm tree.”

Indra, king of the gods, divined the Bodhisatta’s vow and wondered if he would really go through with it. To test him, Indra went to earth in the form of a blind old brahmin and stood at one of the alms halls. When the Bodhisatta arrived, Indra praised and flattered him, and then asked for one of his eyes. Thrilled that his heart’s desire would be filled that day, the Bodhisatta said he would give both eyes, not just one. Ignoring his advisors’ pleas to reconsider, he called for a doctor. The pain of the extraction was extreme and left the Bodhisatta’s clothes stained with blood, but he never hesitated. Indra put both eyes into his empty sockets and walked out of the city, returning to his heavenly home.

After a few days of blindness, the Bodhisatta put his advisors in charge of the kingdom and moved to the royal park to live as an ascetic. As he sat beside the lake, the Bodhisatta thought about the gift he had given, and Indra’s throne grew warm. He decided it was time to return to earth and restore the Bodhisatta’s sight. Indra told the Bodhisatta to make a wish, and he answered that, because he was blind, all he wanted was death. Indra told the Bodhisatta that because he had made such a great gift, he could speak an act of truth (a solemn declaration of one’s supreme virtue followed by a request for some miraculous result) and his eyes would be restored. The Bodhisatta spoke about his perfect generosity, and new eyes grew in his sockets.

Indra praised the Bodhisatta and returned to heaven, while the Bodhisatta and his entourage marched to the palace in a grand procession. For the rest of his life, the Bodhisatta urged his subjects to be generous and do good deeds; and because they followed his advice, they swelled the heavens when they died.S