DiscoverPersonsKing Ajātasattu

King Ajātasattuperson

3 discourses
Ajātasattu carried the heaviest story in the canon: a king who had his own father killed. He sent the brahmin Vassakāra to size up the Buddha before an invasion of the Vajjīs, and got back the report that concord cannot be beaten (AN 7.22); his wars with his uncle Pasenadi won him Kāsi and bred only hatred: victory breeds hatred, the Buddha said, and the defeated live in pain (SN 3.14, SN 3.15). What keeps such a man awake? On a moonlit night he rode out to the Buddha to ask what fruit the spiritual life bears here and now, confessed his filicide, 'transgression overcame me,' and was told that seeing it as such and making amends in the training is amends (DN 2).

Discourses

SN 3.14 Paṭhama saṅgāma sutta - Battle (First)

When King Ajātasattu defeats King Pasenadi in battle over Kāsi, the Buddha contrasts Ajātasattu’s bad companions with Pasenadi’s good friends, explaining that victory breeds hatred while the peaceful sleep at ease.

PTS 1.82

DN 2 Sāmaññaphala sutta - The Fruits of the Spiritual Life

King Ajātasattu of Magadha visits the Buddha on a moonlit night to ask about the visible fruits of the spiritual life in the present world. The Buddha systematically outlines the progressive fruits of the spiritual journey: from basic social freedom and ethical purity, through sense restraint, mindfulness, and contentment, to the abandonment of the five hindrances, the four jhānas, and the eight higher knowledges culminating in complete liberation.

PTS 1.47–1.86

DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna sutta - The Greater Discourse on Final Nibbāna

The Buddha’s final journey from Rājagaha to Kusinārā, detailing the conditions for non-decline, his illness and relinquishment of the life force, his last instructions to the Saṅgha, his final Nibbāna between the twin sāla trees, the cremation, and the distribution of the relics.

PTS 2.72–2.168