23.6 The Story about the Elephant Baddheraka
Baddherakahatthivatthu
Dhp 327
CST4: Pāveyyakahatthivatthu, the Story about the Elephant Pāveyyaka
Burlingame: An Elephant Sticks Fast in the Mud
An old elephant waded into a lake one day and didn’t have the strength to extricate himself until his former trainer dressed in battle array and beat the drum; the pride of the elephant was such that he immediately pulled himself from the water; on hearing of the incident the Buddha urged the monastics also to draw themselves out of the quagmire of the pollutants with a verse.
Keywords: Animals, Kings, Similes
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This Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to an elephant named Baddheraka, which belonged to the king of Kosala.
It seems that this elephant possessed great strength in his younger days, but in the course of time, worn out by old age and buffeted by the wind, he waded one day into a great lake, stuck fast in the mire, and was unable to get out. The populace saw him and began to talk about him, saying: “To think that an elephant once so powerful should become so weak!”
The king heard the news and immediately gave orders to his elephant-trainer as follows: “Trainer, go extricate this elephant from the mire.” So the elephant-trainer went to the lake, showed himself to the elephant with his head arrayed as for battle, and caused the battle-drum to be beaten. The pride of the elephant was immediately aroused. He rose quickly, walked up out of the lake, and stood on dry land.
The bhikkhus saw the occurrence and told the Teacher. The Teacher said: “Bhikkhus, this elephant has just extricated himself from what was but a quagmire of ordinary mud.
327. Appamādaratā hotha, sacittam-anurakkhatha,
duggā uddharathattānaṁ paṅke sanno va kuñjaro.
You should delight in heedfulness,
you should always protect your mind,
raise yourself up from this quagmire,
like the tusker sunk in the mud.
At the end of the teaching those bhikkhus were established in Arahatship.