Sacred Sites: Knight of Chalices

Knight of Chalices
Sacred Site – Sarnath, India.

Also known as Deer Park.

From the accompanying “Little White Book”: A sacred destination for Buddhists, it was here that the young Gautama Siddhartha gave his first sermon. 

There are two stories for this card, one is the coming of the newly enlightened Buddha to Sarnath from the Bodhi Tree, but being as this tale can be told in the Six of Pentacles, I thought I’d share this story about the Deer Park at Sarnath. It is told about Buddha that he spent many lives as various animals of the forest before being born into human form as the Prince Siddhartha Gautama. This story is about his life as a Deer, are you sitting comfortably?

Once upon a time, in the woodlands around Varanasi, a beautiful golden deer was born. His eyes were as bright as jewels, his hoofs were as black as coal, his little horns like silver, and… well, you get the picture, he was beautiful and perfect and he became known as King Banyan Deer. At the same time, not so far away another golden deer was born, just as beautiful, he was known as Branch Deer. As they both grew to maturity, each gathered a herd of five hundred deer and became kings of their bunch.

The King Brahmadatta of Varanasi was a big fan of deer; only trouble is he liked them in the form of venison and on his dinner plate. He hunted regularly, each time going to a different village in the area and ordering the people to work in the hunting party. The King probably thought he was doing them a favour by stopping them from working to join the hunt, but this wasn’t the case, work got affected by these interruptions, crops were left untended and businesses suffered. All the people from the villages came together and decided to build the King a deer park where he could hunt alone and have no need to disturb them from their work. This wasn’t just a fenced off area type of park, the villagers added ponds and trees and grasses, they included everything the growing deer needs… Once the park was finished, the villagers rounded up two nearby herds of deer, King Banyan and Branch Deer’s bunch and drove them into the park and locked the gate.

King Brahmadatta was very pleased, he did have a thousand deer in a captive environment after all. While inspecting his new park the King noticed the two golden bucks with their impressive antlers and, because of their unusual beauty or because royalty recognises royalty he granted them immunity, no one could harm or kill them.

The King enjoyed his daily hunt, though I think it fair to say that the deer did not. With his bow and arrow Brahmadatta rode through the park scattering the deer hither and thither, some fell in their panic to get away, some were crippled or died from their injuries and generally life was made miserable for the deer. After a while, the two deer kings got together and Banyan King said, “Although there is no escaping death, this needless suffering due to injuries and wounds can be prevented. Since King Brahmadatta only wishes the meat of one deer per day, we shall draw lots, one day a deer from your herd, one day one from mine, one deer at a time. That way the King will have his meat“. By this time King Brahmadatta was getting on in years and hunting was proving difficult, he favoured this proposal but reminded his staff that Banyan King and Branch Deer were exempt from the chopping block. From that day on, the deer whose turn it was would surrender them self and lay their neck onto the block, whereupon the cook would kill the deer and prepare the King’s venison.

One day, a pregnant doe from Branch Deer’s mob was drawn. She went to her king and requested that she be given a temporary pardon until her fawn was born, she said that afterwards, she would take her turn. The Branch King denied her, he said that changing the rules would upset things and he sent her on her way. The doe then went to Banyan King, she bowed before him and told him of her pregnancy. Banyan King realised that the lot was for one life, not two and said that he would take her turn; he then went to the chopping block and calmly laid his head upon it. When the cook arrived for the day’s meat and found one of the splendid golden deer that were ordered to be spared, he was undecided and ran off to tell King Brahmadatta. The King was astonished and went to the park to talk to the deer. “Banyan King, I have ordered your life spared? What is the reason you come here like this?” King Banyan replied, “Oh King of men, a pregnant doe was unlucky enough to be drawn to die. She asked me to spare her and her unborn baby. I could not help but weep to think the fawn would never see the dawn and I could not force another to take her place. So I offer my life for the sake of the doe and her unborn baby.” King Brahmadatta’s heart melted and he wiped a tear from his eye. He said, “Banyan King, even amongst humans I have not seen such compassion, such generosity to give your life for another, such great kindness and love for your fellow deer.“

From then on King Brahmadatta commanded that there would be no more killing of the deer in his park. 

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A great many people believe that only humans know right from wrong, that only we rescue and defend others, and give their places and even their lives. Buddhists (and others including myself) believe that animals sometimes do too, this is shown in such stories of the past lives of the Buddha.

Keywords: Zeal, enlightenment, fervour.

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