61. Asātamanta Jātaka: The Old Woman’s Axe, Desire, and Jung’s Shadow

A Buddhist tale told by the Buddha to a love-struck monk, illustrated in 11 animated scenes with Jungian psychology commentary 

 

 

History

Place and time: Benares, kingdom of Brahmadatta; Takkasilā, in the country of Gandhara.

Main characters:

- The Bodhisatta: a famous Brahmin master of Takkasilā, an expert in the Three Vedas and all the arts.

- The young Brahmin disciple: son of a family from Benares. At birth, the parents light a sacred fire that they keep lit for sixteen years. He must choose between the ascetic life (worship of Fire in the forest) and the secular life (managing the patrimony). He chose the secular life and went to study in Takkasilā.

- The young man's mother: she wants her son to abandon the world and devote himself to the cult of fire. To convince him, she induces him to return to the master to learn the so-called "Texts of Pain" (Dolor Texts), which do not actually exist. His aim is for his son to discover the wickedness of women.

- The Bodhisatta's mother: a hundred and twenty year old woman, whom the Bodhisatta takes care of personally. Despite her age, she is easily overwhelmed by lust when the young disciple, following the master's instructions, begins to praise her beauty. She comes to want to kill her own son to satisfy passion.

The young man returns to the master, who understands the intention of the boy's mother. She instructs him to take care of his elderly mother, praising her incessantly ("Ah, madam, if you are so beautiful now that you are old, how beautiful you must have been in the flower of youth!"). The old woman, despite her blindness and decrepitude, is inflamed with desire and asks the young man to kill the master. When he refuses, she herself offers to carry out the murder.

The young man reports everything to the Bodhisatta. The latter, knowing by supernatural powers that his mother will die that same day, prepares a test: he carves a wooden figure of his own size, wraps it in a robe and puts it on the bed, with a rope attached. He gives the young man an axe and rope, telling him to guide the old woman. The woman, believing she is hitting her son, knocks down the axe on the wooden figure. Discovering the deception, she falls dead to the ground (it was her destiny to die at that moment).

The Bodhisatta burns the body, honors the ashes and explains to the young man: the "Texts of Pain" do not exist; It is women themselves who are the embodiment of depravity. The young man saw with his own eyes the wickedness of a woman (the same mother of the master). With this lesson he sends him home.

Final stanza (recited by the young Brahmin):

“In lust unbridled, like devouring fire,

Are women,—frantic in their rage.

The sex renouncing, fain would I retire

To find peace in a hermitage.”

 

The young man renounces family life, becomes a hermit and obtains rebirth in the kingdom of Brahmā.

 

There is a moment in every life when desire turns into madness. When a 120-year-old blind, decrepit mother raises an axe to kill the son who has always cared for her. All for a young stranger who dared to praise her lost beauty.

 

This is the central scene of the Asātamanta Jātaka (No. 61) – a story the Buddha told to a monk burning with passion. But it is not just a moral fable. It is a mirror of the unconscious.

 

What you’ll find in this post

 

I have progressively animated the 11 key scenes of the Jātaka, following original prompts in the Ajanta style. Each scene is accompanied by two audio tracks: the first follows the narrative rhythm, the second is a symphonic composition covering the entire arc – from the young brahmin’s departure to his final enlightenment.

 

For the first time, each scene is paired with an insight inspired by Carl Gustav Jung:

 

1. Leaving home – The inherited fire of family mandates

2. Sent back for the “Dolor Texts” – Unconscious scripts that make us retreat

3. Arriving at the teacher’s hut – The archetype of the Wise Old Man

4. Praising the old woman – Anima projection and the awakening of libido

5. The murder plot – The Shadow taking control

6. The wooden figure – The ritual simulacrum, the illusion

7. The axe strike – The sound of disillusionment

8. The old woman falls dead – Synchronicity and ego death

9. The teacher explains – No texts, only lived suffering

10. Renunciation – Individuation as leaving the false self

11. The Buddha teaches – Myth as therapy

 

Why read (and watch) this

 

This Jātaka is not against women. It is against projection – that mechanism by which we attribute to others what we refuse to see in ourselves. The old woman is not “the evil woman”: she is our own Shadow, which, when unrecognized, destroys what it loves.

 

 

 

If you have ever experienced compulsive desire, a toxic relationship, or an attraction that made you lose your mind, you will find in this story an ancient and therapeutic echo.

 

Artistic credits

Images generated with prompts inspired by Ajanta paintings (ancient India), digitally animated. Original Jungian commentary.

 

Share this post if you believe ancient stories can heal the modern soul.

 

Watch the video above, and let me know in the comments: which scene struck you the most?

 

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