Jātaka 004: Cūḷasetthi Jātaka Carpe Diem (“Seize the Day”) Ashin Sarana: Two boys are born on a road, Mahāpanthaka and then Cūḷapanthaka, to a man and a woman who ran away from home, afraid their parents wouldn’t allow their marriage. Later, entrusted in the hands of their grandparents, one becomes a monk and becomes an Arahant, while the other becomes a monk later with the encouragement of his elder brother but cannot memorize a single verse as a result of mocking and disturbing a student in a past life, so he is expelled. Cūḷapanthaka is stopped on the way home by the Buddha, who instructs him to rub a cloth and watch impermanence, which then leads to the young man’s full Enlightenment and psychic powers, such as multiplying himself into a thousand copies. The Buddha then explains that in his past life Cūḷapanthaka, following the advice of the country’s treasurer, grabbed a dead mouse from the street, sold it for a penny, and then buying and selling things or supporting others he gradually became so rich that even the treasurer married him to his daughter and made him his heir.
Thiri Garris’s drawing Once a rich lady loved a slave but did not want her parents to know. The older brother was a monk. He thought the younger brother could not become a monk. The Buddha encouraged him and he went in meditation and achieved arahtship. The Buddha told him a story about the dead mouse.Kids’ drawing
