One of the merchants at the kingdom of Sravasti has a beautiful daughter. The strange thing about her was that, as soon as she learnt to speak, the very first words she said were, "I had done something wrong, I had been unfair to others, I had done evil things, I am ashamed of myself." Then came a long silence, and nobody knew what she meant.
As she grew up, she was really a very nice girl, so her parent named her Chula-subhudha, meaning "nice".
Another strange thing about her was that as she grew up, she preferred nun's robes rather than fashionable dresses, and, without any teachers, she began to practice the Dharma, chanting, meditating and following the precepts. One day, she traveled to Deer Park by herself to see the Buddha and apologized to him.
As soon as the Buddha saw her, he said, "You had apologized to me before."
Buddha's disciples scratched their heads and asked, "this girl had never met you before. Why did she apologize to you?"
Then the Buddha told them a story:
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Once upon a time, there lived a six-tusked white elephant with two female matriarch elephants, Chula-subhudha (literally, nice) and Maha-subhudha (literally, very nice). One day, while they were walking by the pond, the six-tusked white elephant saw a beautiful lotus flower. He picked it up and gave it to Chula-subhudha, but before she accepted it, the other female elephant took the flower from his trunk.
Chula-subhudha became jealous. She thought, "he loves Maha-subhudha more than me! If I am reborn as a human being in my next life, I will pay it back!" Having said that, she jumped down a cliff and killed herself.
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Chula-subhudha was reborn as a very beautiful girl and became the Queen of Varanasi, with the enjoyment of all the luxuries of the Royal Palace. But she still remembered what had happened in the lotus flower incident and vowed to take revenge. She pretended to be ill and told her husband, "You must make a bed from ivory for me to sleep on, preferably with the tusks of a white elephant. Otherwise I will become so sick that I will die."
The King of Varanasi granted her the wish, and announced that anyone who would brought them ivories from a six-tusked white elephant would be rewarded 100 ounces of gold.
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A hunter named Sonuttar who lived in the forest heard of the Royal Announcement and declared, "I will become a millionaire this time." Being very familiar with the habitants of the six-tusked white elephant, he prepared himself for the hunt. He disguised himself as a monk, and took a bow and some poisonous arrow with him.
As he advanced towards the elephant, Maha-subhudha spotted him from a far away distance. She immediately reported it to her husband.
"What do you see, my dear?" asked the white elephant.
"I see a hunter dressed in a monk's robe coming toward us with a bow and arrow, " said Maha-Subhudha.
"Don't worry," said the white elephant. "Monks are vegetarians. They do not kill."
But, as soon as he finished his words, quite unexpectedly, an arrow was fired at them, narrowly missed the target.
The matriarch elephant became furious, "See. Monks are good people!? They are shooting at us. How do you explain that?"
"This is because he has some troublesome thoughts in his heart. It has nothing to do with his robe." said the six-tusked elephant.
But the matriarch elephant was so angry that she lead 500 other elephants in the herd to attack the hunter, trying to trample him to death. But, the six-tusked white elephant disagreed and ordered the attack to stop. He came over to the hunter and asked," What do you want. Why do you want to kill me?"
Surrounded by 500 angry elephants from the herd, this time, the hunter became scared. He said in a shaking voice, "I really have no intention to kill you. But there is an order from the King to get some ivory from you."
"Is that all?" asked the six-tusked white elephant. "No big deal. You can have my tusks." Then, using his own trunk, he pulled out his own teeth and gave them to the hunter.
Back at the Palace, as King Varanasi handed over the ivory to the Queen, suddenly, she began to feel sorry for what she had done. "What an evil thing that I have done? Do I really need to sleep in a bed made with ivory?" From then on, she began to study the Dharma and became an arhat.
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The Buddha smiled, "In one of our previous lives, I was that six-tusked white elephant. That hunter was Devadatta (note 1). That nun who had just came to see me was Chula-subhudha. Nun Yasodhara (note 2) was Maha-Subhudha the matriarch elephant."
"Oh! Now we understand" said his disciples
note 1: Devadatta always wanted to betray the Buddha
note 2: Buddha's wife..
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