Jataveda Goes Around!
They followed the Buddha to a place in the forest where the terrible wild fire stopped and went around them. He said it had happened in this place before- to him in a past life! He had been born a gentle baby quail that hatched in this jungle thicket. He was barely a hatchling when a great fire burned through! As the flames approached, his quail parents began to distress - and hotter it got, the harder they looked at their baby quail. Finally, they relented to the heat and the gentle calm of their baby’s innocence became a still-birth to them!
‘Oh no!’ thought the father quail, ‘this little one is too careful to soar, I give up on him!’ and then took off.
‘Oh no!’ thought the mother quail, ‘this little one is too light-footed to get anywhere, I give up on him!’ and then ran off.
Alone the tiny quail stared into the heart of the roaring inferno - the same fire his parents felt wasn’t passed on to him and chirped his truth!
‘With tender wings that’ve never failed,
And tender legs that’ve never tripped;
Parents both abandon,
When the Fire (Jataveda) goes around!’
The Fire (Jataveda) obeyed. It came no closer and went around. He survived and grew up to be a king of the quails.
It was this memory that lead the Buddha to the pocket of safety from the fire. A spot of refuge for himself and his mendicants- among the fire-resistant Euphorbia bushes where the Rain Quail make their nests!