Sañjīvajātaka

Life-bringer the Student

“Befriend a villain.”—This story was told by the Master when at the Bamboo-grove, about King Ajatasattu’s adherence to false teachers. For he believed in that rancorous foe of the Buddhas, the base and wicked Devadatta, and in his infatuation, wishing to do honour to Devadatta, expended a vast sum in erecting a monastery at Gayasisa. And following Devadatta’s wicked counsels, he slew the good and virtuous old King his father, who had entered on the Paths, thereby destroying his own chance of winning like goodness and virtue, and bringing great woe upon himself.