The Dung Beetle and the Elephant: A Lesson in Arrogance

In a past life, the Bodhisatta was a tree fairy, watching over the events that unfolded in the forest and beyond. One day, a dung beetle passed by a caravan way station in a border region. There, he discovered some liquor that had spilled onto the ground. In his inebriated state, he drank the liquor and became quite drunk. Afterward, the beetle returned to his lump of dung to sleep.

However, the dung was still moist, and when he lay down on it, the dung gave way under his weight. The beetle, confused by the collapse, wrongly believed that his great strength was the reason the dung gave way. Just then, an elephant came by and smelled the dung. In disgust, the elephant turned and walked away. But the drunken beetle, interpreting the elephant’s retreat as fear of his power, became emboldened and challenged the elephant to a fight.

The elephant, unperturbed, returned and spoke to the beetle, saying, “I will not fight you with my feet, my hands, or my tusks. I will use what is appropriate for you—dung.” The elephant then dropped a large dung ball on the beetle and urinated on him, killing the beetle in the process.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha:

The dung beetle in this story was an earlier birth of a man who harassed the Buddha’s disciples when they went collecting alms in his village. The villagers had grown so tired of his obnoxious behavior that they stopped visiting his area. One day, a new disciple of the Buddha, who had been an elephant in a past life, heard about the trouble this man was causing and decided to put an end to it.

When the troublesome man saw the disciple, he rushed up and began asking questions. The disciple, however, told him that he would not answer until after he finished his alms rounds. The man waited, and once the disciple was done, he led the man out of the village. When the man asked his first question, the disciple responded by striking him on the head, knocking him to the ground, and beating him. He threw dirt in the man’s face and told him that if he ever harassed another disciple again, he would come back and do the same.

From that point onward, the man fled whenever he saw one of the Buddha’s disciples coming, no longer daring to bother them.

When the Buddha heard his disciples discussing this incident, he told them this Jataka story to show them that the obnoxious man was the same dung beetle from his past life, and that in both lives, he had been met with a fitting consequence for his arrogance and harassment.

Moral:

1. Arrogance Leads to Humiliation: Just as the drunken dung beetle mistakenly believed that his strength caused the dung to collapse, the troublesome man in the Buddha’s time had an inflated sense of importance. Both were humbled by the rightful response to their arrogance.
2. Consequences of Misplaced Pride: The beetle’s belief that the elephant fled in fear of him, and the man’s harassment of the Buddha’s disciples, both led to their eventual downfall. Pride that is not based on true strength or wisdom brings only humiliation.
3. Justice and Proportional Response: The elephant responded to the beetle’s challenge with an appropriate action—using dung to fight the beetle, fitting his size and nature. Similarly, the disciple responded to the obnoxious man’s behavior with a proportional and just reaction, teaching him the consequences of his actions.
4. Transformation and Redemption: Both the dung beetle and the man who harassed the Buddha’s disciples were given lessons in humility and respect. In the cycle of life, misdeeds lead to just retribution, and through such experiences, beings are shown the path to transformation.

Lesson: The story highlights how arrogance, when not based on true power, leads to one’s undoing. Both the beetle and the man were met with fitting responses to their behaviors, teaching that pride comes before a fall, and justice will always find a way to restore balance.