Dhamma Principles › The Sattigumba Jātaka: Two Parrot Brothers Raised in Different Homes
The Sattigumba Jātaka: Two Parrot Brothers Raised in Different Homes
Everyday life

The Sattigumba Jātaka: Two Parrot Brothers Raised in Different Homes

Yādisaṃ kurute mittaṃ

Two parrots are brothers from the same mother. One grows up among robbers, the other in a hermitage. When a lost king arrives, the first cries out to seize and kill him; the second offers him fruit and water. You become like those you keep company with, just as grass wrapped around rotten fish stinks and leaves wrapped around incense are fragrant.

6 points

In the Sattigumba Jātaka of the Book of Twenties, Jātaka, Khuddaka Nikāya, the verses tell how the king of Pañcāla, out hunting, is separated from his army and comes to a robbers' village in the forest. A parrot named Sattigumba calls to the robbers to hurry and seize the king's goods and kill him while he sleeps. The king quickly leaves for a hermitage, where a parrot named Pupphaka welcomes him and invites him to eat fruit and drink cool water from a mountain cleft.

The king wonders why these two birds are so different. Pupphaka explains that they are brothers from the same mother, raised in the same tree, but carried off to different places: one grew up with robbers, the other on the laps of the sages, so they differ in character. He then speaks verses saying that you become like those you keep company with, using the similes of a poisoned arrow, grass wrapped around rotten fish, and leaves wrapped around incense.

The story above is in the verses themselves. The commentary adds that Pupphaka was the Bodhisatta, that the king, inspired, invited the sages to live in his royal park, and that he granted protection to all parrots. According to the commentary, the Buddha told this story with reference to Devadatta.

  1. 1

    Born in one place, raised in another Ekarukkhasmi saṃvaḍḍhā nānākhettagatā ubho

    Pupphaka says he and Sattigumba are brothers from the same womb, raised in the same tree, but carried off to different places: one lived among bad people, the other among good people, so they differ in character.

    Applying it in daily life

    When you see someone with a background like yours take a very different path, notice whom they spend most of their time with, then ask yourself the same question.

  2. 2

    Speech shows how you were raised Svāgatante mahārāja

    Faced with the same stranger, Sattigumba sees prey and cries out to rob and kill him. Pupphaka says, "Welcome, great king," invites him to choose fruit and drink cool water, and asks him to help himself since a bird has no hands to offer them.

    Applying it in daily life

    Notice the first words you say when you meet someone you don't know — suspicion, taking advantage, or welcome — and practise the last one more often.

  3. 3

    You learn whatever is around you Tāni so tattha sikkhati

    Where there is killing, binding, cheating with fakes, open deceit and plunder, Sattigumba learns those things there. No one has to teach him directly; living there is enough for it to sink in.

    Applying it in daily life

    If your workplace praises small-scale cheating as cleverness, realise you are being taught every day, and draw your own line clearly.

  4. 4

    What Pupphaka gained from the hermitage Idha saccañca dhammo ca ahiṃsā saṃyamo damo

    In the sages' hermitage there is only truth, Dhamma, harmlessness, restraint and self-taming. Pupphaka grew up on the laps of sages who always offered a seat and water to visitors, so hospitality became his nature.

    Applying it in daily life

    A home needn't teach virtue with many words. Let children see adults speak truthfully, harm no one and welcome visitors warmly; they will learn by themselves.

  5. 5

    Whomever you associate with, you fall under their sway Vasaṃ tasseva gacchati

    Whomever one associates with, good or bad, virtuous or not, one comes under that person's sway. Whatever kind of friend one makes, one becomes like that, for living together works that way — like a poisoned arrow that taints the other arrows in the quiver.

    Applying it in daily life

    Think of the five people you've talked with most this month, and see whose words, worries and spending habits yours are coming to resemble.

  6. 6

    The wrapping takes the smell of what it wraps Pūtimacchaṃ kusaggena

    If someone wraps rotten fish in kusa grass, the grass stinks too; so it is with keeping company with fools. If someone wraps incense in leaves, the leaves become fragrant too; so it is with keeping company with the wise. Knowing that one will change like the wrapping leaf, the wise should associate with good people.

    Applying it in daily life

    Before joining a new group, an investment scheme or an online community, ask yourself what scent you want to be carrying a year from now.

Try it in daily life

We tend to think character is inborn, but this jātaka shows brothers from the same mother growing up in different places and turning out completely different. What we are near every day — friends, workplace, what we scroll through on our phones — quietly shapes us.

So the lesson has two sides. One is to choose surroundings for ourselves and our children deliberately. The other is not to judge people by their behaviour alone, since many people are the way they are because of where they grew up.

The jātaka's advice not to associate with fools doesn't mean despising anyone. It means not soaking up ways of thinking and acting that harm others until they become our own.

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