One day, while the Buddha was staying in Jetavana, some bhikkhus
asked him if there was any benefit in sacrificing goats, sheep, and
other animals as offerings for departed relatives.
"No, bhikkhus," replied the Buddha. "No good ever comes from
taking life, not even when it is for the purpose of providing a
Feast for the Dead." Then he told this story of the past.
"Yes, sir," they replied and led the goat to the river.
While they were grooming it, the goat started to laugh with a
sound like a pot smashing. Then, just as strangely, it started to
weep loudly.
The young students were amazed at this behavior. "Why did you
suddenly laugh," they asked the goat, "and why do you now cry so
loudly?"
"Repeat your question when we get back to your teacher," the
goat answered.
The students hurriedly took the goat back to their master and
told him what had happened at the river. Hearing the story, the
master himself asked the goat why it had laughed and why it had
wept.
"In times past, brahman," the goat began, "I was a brahman who
taught the Vedas like you. I, too, sacrificed a goat as an offering
for a Feast for the Dead. Because of killing that single goat, I
have had my head cut off 499 times. I laughed aloud when I realized
that this is my last birth as an animal to be sacrificed. Today I
will be freed from my misery. On the other hand, I cried when I
realized that, because of killing me, you, too, may be doomed to
lose your head five hundred times. It was out of pity for you that
I cried."
"Well, goat," said the brahman, "in that case, I am not going to
kill you."
"Brahman!" exclaimed the goat. "Whether or not you kill me, I
cannot escape death today."
"Don't worry," the brahman assured the goat. "I will guard
you."
"You don't understand," the goat told him. "Your protection is
weak. The force of my evil deed is very strong."
The brahman untied the goat and said to his students, "Don't
allow anyone to harm this goat." They obediently followed the
animal to protect it.
After the goat was freed, it began to graze. It stretched out
its neck to reach the leaves on a bush growing near the top of a
large rock. At that very instant a lightning bolt hit the rock,
breaking off a sharp piece of stone which flew through the air and
neatly cut off the goat's head. A crowd of people gathered around
the dead goat and began to talk excitedly about the amazing
accident.
A tree deva5 had observed everything from the goat's
purchase to its dramatic death, and drawing a lesson from the
incident, admonished the crowd: "If people only knew that the
penalty would be rebirth into sorrow, they would cease from taking
life. A horrible doom awaits one who slays." With this explanation
of the law of kamma the deva instilled in his listeners the fear of
hell. The people were so frightened that they completely gave up
the practice of animal sacrifices. The deva further instructed the
people in the Precepts and urged them to do good.
Eventually, that deva passed away to fare according to his
deserts. For several generations after that, people remained
faithful to the Precepts and spent their lives in charity and
meritorious works, so that many were reborn in the heavens.
The Buddha ended his lesson and identified the Birth by saying,
"In those days I was that deva."