Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 123. Naṅgalīsa-Jātaka
No. 123.
NAṄGALĪSA-JĀTAKA.
"For universal application."--This story was told by the Master while at
Jetavana, about the Elder Lāḷudāyi who is said to have had a knack of always
saying the wrong thing. He never knew the proper occasion for the several
teachings. For instance, if it was a festival, he would croak out the gloomy
text 1, "Without the walls they lurk, and where four cross-roads meet." If it
was a funeral, he would burst out with "Joy filled the hearts of gods and men,"
or with "Oh may you see [447] a hundred, nay a thousand such glad days!"
Now one day the Brethren in the Hall of Truth commented on his singular
infelicity of subject and his knack of always saying the wrong thing. As they
sat talking, the Master entered, and, in answer to his question, was told the
subject of their talk. "Brethren," said he, "this is not the first time that
Lāḷudāyi's folly has made him say the wrong thing. He has always been as inept
as now." So saying he told this story of the past.
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p. 272
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born
into a rich brahmin's family, and when he grew up, was versed in all knowledge
and was a world-renowned professor with five hundred young brahmins to instruct.
At the time of our story there was among the young brahmins one who always had
foolish notions in his head and always said the wrong thing; he was engaged with
the rest in learning the scriptures as a pupil, but because of his folly could
not master them. He was the devoted attendant of the Bodhisatta and ministered
to him like a slave.
Now one day after supper the Bodhisatta laid himself on his bed and there was
washed and perfumed by the young brahmin on hands, feet and back. And as the
youth turned to go away, the Bodhisatta said to him, "Prop up the feet of my bed
before you go." And the young brahmin propped up the feet of the bed on one side
all right, but could not find anything to prop it up with on the other side.
Accordingly he used his leg as a prop and passed the night so. When the
Bodhisatta got up in the morning and saw the young brahmin, he asked why he was
sitting there. "Master," said the young man, "I could not find one of the bed
supports; so I've got my leg under to prop it up instead."
Moved at these words, the Bodhisatta thought, "What devotion! And to think it
should come from the veriest dullard of all my pupils. Yet how can I impart
learning to him?" And the thought came to him that the best way was to question
the young brahmin on his return from gathering firewood and leaves, as to
something he had seen or done that day; and then to ask what it was like. [448]
"For," thought the master, "this will lead him on to making comparisons and
giving reasons, and the continuous practice of comparing and reasoning on his
part will enable me to impart learning to him."
Accordingly he sent for the young man and told him always on his return from
picking up firewood and leaves to say what he had seen or eaten or drunk. And
the young man promised he would. So one day having seen a snake when out with
the other pupils picking up wood in the forest, he said, "Master, I saw a
snake." "What did it look like?" "Oh, like the shaft of a plough." "That is a
very good comparison. Snakes are like the shafts of ploughs," said the
Bodhisatta, who began to have hopes that he might at last succeed with his
pupil.
Another day the young brahmin saw an elephant in the forest and told his master.
"And what is an elephant like?" "Oh, like the shaft of a plough." His master
said nothing, for he thought that, as the elephant's trunk and tusks bore a
certain resemblance to the shaft of a plough, perhaps his pupil's stupidity made
him speak thus generally (though he was thinking of the trunk in particular),
because of his inability to go into accurate detail,
p. 273
A third day he was invited to eat sugar-cane, and duly told his master. "And
what is a sugar-cane like?" "Oh, like the shaft of a plough." .,That is scarcely
a good comparison," thought his master, but said nothing. Another day, again,
the pupils were invited to eat molasses with curds and milk, and this too was
duly reported. "And what are curds and milk like?" "Oh, like the shaft of a
plough." Then the master thought to himself, "This young man was perfectly right
in saying a snake was like the shaft of a plough, and was more or less right,
though not accurate, in saying an elephant and a sugar-cane had the same
similitude. But milk and curds (which are always white in colour) take the shape
of whatever vessel they are placed in; [449] and here he missed the comparison
entirely. This dullard will never learn." So saying he uttered this stanza:--
For universal application he
Employs a term of limited import.
Plough-shaft and curds to him alike unknown,
--The fool asserts the two things are the same.
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His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "Lāḷudāyi was the
dullard of those days, and I the professor of world-wide renown."
Footnotes
271:1 For this quotation see the Khuddaka Pātha edited by Childers (J. R. A. S.
1870, p. 319).
Next: No. 124. Amba-Jātaka
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