18.4 The Story about the Elder Lāḷudāyi
Lāḷudāyittheravatthu

This Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to Elder Lāḷudāyi. {3.344}

At Sāvatthī, we are told, 50 million of noble disciples {3.345} gave alms before breakfast, and after breakfast, taking ghee, oil, honey, molasses, garments, and other requisites, went to the monastery and listened to the Dhamma. When they departed, after listening to the Dhamma, they praised the virtues of elders Sāriputta and Moggallāna. The Elder Udāyī overheard their talk and said to them: “It is because you have heard only these elders teach the Dhamma that you talk as you do; I wonder what you would say if you were to hear me teach the Dhamma.” Those who heard his remark thought to themselves: “This must be some teacher of the Dhamma; we ought without fail to hear this elder also teach the Dhamma.” So one day they made the following request of the elder: “Venerable Sir, today is the day when we are wont to go and listen to the Dhamma. After we have presented alms to the Saṅgha of bhikkhus, be good enough, venerable Sir, to teach the Dhamma to us by day.” The elder accepted the invitation.

When it was time for them to listen to the Dhamma, they went to the elder and said: “Venerable Sir, teach the Dhamma to us.” So Elder Udāyī sat down in the seat, took a painted fan in his hand, waved it back and forth, but not knowing a single word of the Dhamma, said: “I will intone the sacred word; let some one else teach the Dhamma.” So saying, he descended from the seat. The disciples caused someone else to teach the Dhamma, and again assisted him to mount the seat to intone the sacred word. But again the second time, the elder, who knew no more about intoning than he did about teaching, said: “I will recite the sacred word at night; let some one else intone the sacred word now.” The disciples therefore caused another to intone the sacred word and at night brought the elder in again. [30.123]

But at night also he knew as little how to intone, and said: “I will recite at dawn; let someone else recite at night.” So saying, he descended from the seat. {3.346} The disciples caused another to recite the sacred word at night and at dawn brought the elder in again. But once more he failed. Thereupon the multitude took up clods of earth, sticks, and other missiles, and threatened him, saying: “Blind fool, while we were talking about the virtues of elders Sāriputta and Moggallāna, you said this and that. Why don’t you say something now?” The elder took to flight, and the multitude ran after him. As he ran, he fell into a certain cesspool.

The multitude talked over the incidents of the day, saying: “As Lāḷudāyi listened to our praise of the virtues of elders Sāriputta and Moggallāna, he became jealous, declared himself to be a teacher of the Dhamma, and when people rendered him honor and said to him: ‘We would hear the Dhamma,’ he sat down in the Dhamma seat four times, although he knew not a single word suitable to recite. Then, when we said to him: ‘Yet you put yourself on an level with our noble elders Sāriputta and Moggallāna,’ and took up clods of earth, sticks, and other missiles, and threatened him, he ran away and fell into a cesspool.”

The Teacher drew near and asked them: “Bhikkhus, what are you talking about now, as you sit here all gathered together?” When they told him, he said: “Bhikkhus, this is not the first time he has wallowed in a cesspool; he did the same thing in a previous state of existence also.” So saying, he told the following:

Story of the Past: The Birth Story about the Boar AJ: Ja 153, the commentary gives only the verses, I include the whole story here.

In the past, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was a lion who dwelt in a mountain cave in the Himālayas. Hard by were a multitude of boars, living by a lakeside; and beside the same lake lived a company of ascetics in huts made of leaves and the branches of trees.

One day it so happened that the lion had brought down a buffalo or elephant or some such game; and, after eating what he wished, he went down to drink at this lake. Just as he came out, a sturdy boar happened to be feeding by the side of the water. “He’ll make a meal for me some other day,” thought the lion. But fearing that if the boar saw him, he might never come there again, the lion, as he came up out of the water, slunk away to the side. This the boar saw; and at once the thought came into his mind: “This is because he has seen me, and is afraid! He dare not come nigh me, and off he runs for fear! This day shall see a fight between me and a lion!” So he raised his head, and made challenge against the lion in the first verse:

“I am four-footed, friend,
you are four-footed, friend,
come, friend, turn back,
why do you run away in fear?”

The lion gave ear. “Friend boar,” he said, “today there will be no fight between you and me. But this day next week let us fight it out in this very spot.” And with these words, he departed.

The boar was highly delighted in thinking how he was to fight a lion; and he told all his kith and kin about it. But the tale only terrified them. “You will be the bane of us all,” they said, “and yourself to boot. You know not what you can do, or you would not be so eager to do battle with a lion. When the lion comes, he’ll be the death of you and all of us as well; do not be so violent!” These words made the boar fear on his part. “What am I to do, then?” he asked. Then the other boars advised him to roll about in the ascetics’ dunghill for the next seven days, and let the muck dry on his body; then on the seventh day he should moisten himself with dewdrops, and be first at the trysting place; he must find how the wind should lie, and get to the windward; and the lion, being a cleanly creature, would spare his life when he had a whiff of him.

So accordingly he did; and on the day appointed, there he was. No sooner had the lion scented him, and smelt the filth, he says: “Friend boar, a pretty trick this! Were you not all besmeared with filth, I should have had your life this very day. But as it is, I cannot bite you, nor so much as touch you with my foot. Therefore I spare your life.” And then he repeated the second verse:

“Your coat is foul, unclean,
you truly smell bad, boar,
if you desire to fight,
I give you victory, friend.” {3.347}

Then the lion turned away, and procured his day’s food; and anon, after a drink at the lake, he went back again to his cave on the mountain. And the boar told his kindred how he had beaten the lion! But they were terrified for fear the lion should come again another day and be the death of them all. So they ran away and took themselves to some other place.

After relating this Birth Story about the Boar in detail, the Teacher said: “At that time the lion was the Elder Sāriputta and the boar was Lāḷudāyi.”

Having finished the lesson, the Teacher said: “Bhikkhus, Udāyī had learned only the merest fragment of the Dhamma, but he never repeated the texts. No matter how much or how little one may learn of the sacred word, not to repeat it is a grievous fault.” So saying, he pronounced the following verse:

241. Asajjhāyamalā mantā, anuṭṭhānamalā gharā,
malaṁ vaṇṇassa kosajjaṁ, pamādo rakkhato malaṁ.

Lack of repetition is the ruin of chants,
a lack of maintenance is the ruin of homes,
indolence is the ruin of one’s appearance,
heedlessness is the ruin of the one on guard. {3.348}

At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.