The Hare That Was Not Afraid to Die
There were a hare, a jackal, a monkey, and an otter living in a rainforest. They gathered food to redistribute to the poor people of the neighboring village. The jackal found some food in a hut with no one home and grabbed it. The otter grabbed fish that a fisherman had buried in the sand after the otter called out to the fisherman with no reply. The monkey grabbed mangoes. The hare realized that no one would want to eat grass if he offered it, so he thought to himself that he would offer himself up for food if someone was hungry. Sakra, another name for Indra, heard the hare's thoughts and put the hare to the test. Sakra came to the forest as an old brahmin that was looking for food. He asked the monkey, jackal, and otter for food, and they all offered but Sakra turned them down. Then, he asked the hare for food. The hare told the brahmin that he would offer up his body for food and that the brahmin only needed to make a fire and he would jump in. The brahmin made a fire, and the hare jumped in. However, the fire was cold and Sakra revealed his true identity to the hare. Sakra was so pleased that he used a mountain to carve the hare's image into the moon. In this story, the hare was a version of Buddha. The story is to show how virtuous/selfless Buddha was.
I did a little more research into Sakra as I was confused as to why the religion has so many names for the same character. I found that Sakra is actually a deity worshipped by people all across Asia - including Japan, China, Korea, India, and more. Sakra was viewed as the teacher of moral lessons to Buddha. He typically would appear in jatakas to teach Buddha some lessons on virtue and morality. In this jataka, he taught Buddha the virtue of selflessness.
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| Image of Sakra and Brahma, who are often times depicted together. I chose this image because I really liked the art. Image found on Wikimedia |
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