The Tale of the Untouchable’s Triumph and the Pride of Arrogance

Long ago, in a kingdom where caste and class divided people, the Bodhisatta was born as an untouchable, a member of the lowest and most despised class in society. One day, as fate would have it, the daughter of a wealthy merchant was on her way to the royal park, accompanied by an entourage of servants and attendants. As they approached the city gate, she saw the Bodhisatta standing aside, humbly allowing her procession to pass.

To her, the mere sight of an untouchable was considered bad luck. So, to cleanse herself of this ill omen, she washed her eyes with scented water and hurried back to her home. Her attendants, furious at having their leisure disrupted, lashed out in anger and beat the Bodhisatta until he fell unconscious. When he regained his senses, bruised and battered, the Bodhisatta made a bold resolution: He would make this woman his wife.

Determined to win her, the Bodhisatta laid down at the threshold of her father’s house, declaring he would not leave without her. For seven days, the merchant family endured the shame of having an untouchable man camped at their door, and in their disgust, the father reluctantly gave his daughter to the Bodhisatta, hoping to rid himself of the unwelcome guest. Though still weak from the beating, the Bodhisatta made his new wife carry him on her back to his home in the untouchable village.

The Bodhisatta, in his kindness, thought his wife deserved much more than the life of an untouchable. He decided to renounce the world and become an ascetic, seeking a path of true glory for her. So, he left her and entered the forest, devoting himself so intensely to spiritual practices that in just seven days, he achieved the eight attainments and five supernatural faculties.

Returning to his wife, the Bodhisatta shared his vision for her future. “I will make you even more glorious than you were before we were married,” he told her. “I will leave again, and while I am hidden deep in the Himalayas, you must tell everyone that your husband is not an untouchable, but the great god Brahma. When the full moon rises, I will return in my divine form.”

Seven days later, as the full moon reached its peak, the Bodhisatta appeared in the sky, radiating a brilliant light that illuminated the night across the kingdom. He circled the city three times before descending in a blaze of glory. The people, awestruck by his divine form, garlanded him and offered their praises. The Bodhisatta then went to his house, now adorned with white cloth and filled with flowers, and touched his wife’s navel, making her conceive a son. “From now on,” he told her, “you will be worshipped as a goddess.” With a final warning to remain vigilant, the Bodhisatta ascended into the sky and returned to his Himalayan home.

True to the Bodhisatta’s prophecy, the merchant’s daughter became a revered goddess. The people built her a magnificent seven-story palace in the city, and the water used to wash her feet became so sacred that kings across India used it for ceremonial purposes. Her son grew up to be a wealthy and virtuous man, providing alms to sixteen thousand brahmins daily.

Yet, as his son matured, the Bodhisatta began to notice a change. During a festival, the son adorned himself with jewels and golden slippers, arrogantly ordering his servants around. The Bodhisatta, sensing something amiss, used his supernatural powers to learn that his son had been giving alms to corrupt and greedy brahmins, rather than the poor and deserving. Distressed by his son’s behavior, the Bodhisatta went to the city to teach him the proper way to give.

When the Bodhisatta, disguised as a humble ascetic, entered his son’s chambers, the young man did not recognize him. He mocked the ascetic and ordered his servants to throw him out. But before the servants could carry out his command, the Bodhisatta flew away, landing on a street where he knew his footprints could be traced. There, he collected alms, sat down to eat, and waited.

Angered by the Bodhisatta’s interference, a band of goblins who revered him seized the arrogant son and twisted his neck, rendering him unconscious. They did the same to the sixteen thousand corrupt brahmins who had been feeding from the son’s alms. When the merchant’s daughter heard of her son’s fate, she immediately set out with her ladies-in-waiting to find the ascetic. She followed the footprints to where the Bodhisatta was eating, and there, she apologized for not raising their son in the path of virtue.

The Bodhisatta, upon hearing her apology, gave her a magical elixir mixed with some of his rice gruel. “Feed this to your son and the brahmins,” he instructed. “It will heal them.” He then returned to his retreat in the Himalayas.

When her son awoke, the Bodhisatta’s wife chastised him for his arrogance and ignorance of proper almsgiving. Remorseful, the son promised to give alms only to the worthy. Together, mother and son diluted the magical gruel with water and fed it to the wounded brahmins, who were revived. However, because they had eaten food touched by an untouchable, all sixteen thousand brahmins were expelled from their caste and left in shame for another kingdom.

The Bodhisatta, ever watchful, soon encountered an ascetic plagued by pride in his noble birth. This ascetic looked down on the Bodhisatta, dismissing him as an untouchable. To humble him, the Bodhisatta built a hut upstream from the ascetic’s dwelling. After cleaning his teeth with a stick, he let it float down the river, where it became entangled in the ascetic’s hair. The proud ascetic, furious at this, went in search of the Bodhisatta, and upon finding him, ordered him to leave.

The Bodhisatta moved downstream, but once again, his tooth stick was carried against the current and found its way into the ascetic’s hair. The ascetic, enraged, cursed the Bodhisatta, declaring, “If you do not leave in seven days, your head will explode!” The Bodhisatta, unfazed, stopped the sun from rising, demanding the ascetic bow at his feet and beg for mercy. The people, witnessing the Bodhisatta’s power, compelled the ascetic to obey. In the end, the Bodhisatta placed a clump of mud on the ascetic’s head and sent him into the river. When the sun rose, it was the mud that exploded, not the Bodhisatta’s head.

With the arrogant ascetic humbled, the Bodhisatta moved on to confront the sixteen thousand corrupt brahmins. In their new city, they mistook the Bodhisatta for a juggler and swindler and reported him to the king. The king ordered his arrest, and one of the royal messengers struck the Bodhisatta down with his sword, killing him. Enraged, the gods sent a torrent of hot ashes, destroying the entire kingdom in retribution for the injustice.

The Incomparable Gift of Humility and Virtue

In the time of the Buddha, the Bodhisatta’s son was reborn as a wicked king. One day, the king, drunk and surrounded by women, wandered into the royal park, where he saw Pindola Bharadvaja, one of the Buddha’s top disciples, meditating peacefully. When the king awoke to find his women missing, he grew angry and threw a basket of red ants over Pindola. The disciple, rising into the air, rebuked the king and then flew back to the Buddha’s monastery.

When the Buddha heard of the incident, he shared this story with his disciples, revealing that the king had once abused a religious figure in a previous life, just as he had done in the present.

Moral of the Tale: True virtue transcends the divisions of birth and status. It is not one’s social position but the purity of one’s heart and actions that determine true greatness. Humility, generosity, and righteousness are the true markers of a noble soul, while pride and arrogance lead only to downfall. The story reminds us that even in the face of hatred and scorn, virtue will ultimately prevail, and those who are just and humble will rise above their circumstances.