79. BOAR AND LION
108 Buddhist Parables
Once an elder monk got annoyed by a younger monk and pelted him with dung. On hearing this, the Buddha told this story.
In the old times, there was a lion who made his home in a mountain cave in the Himalayan country. Not far off, near a certain lake, lived many boars. One day the lion killed a buffalo and ate its flesh. Then he descended into that lake, drank water, and started to come out again. At that moment a fat boar was feeding near that lake. The lion, seeing the boar, reflected, ‘Some other day I’ll eat him. But if he sees me, he may not come back again.’
So fearing that the boar might not come back again, the lion, on coming out of the water, started to steal around by one side. The boar watched him and thought, ‘That lion, when he saw me, dared not come up to me. He is fleeing in fear. Now is the time for me to measure strength with that lion!’ And with his head lifted the boar challenged the lion to battle with him.
The lion heard this and replied, “O boar, today there will be no battle between me and you; but in seven days the battle shall take place at this very spot.” So saying, he went his way.
The boar, delighted at the thought of battling with a lion, went and told the news to his kinsfolk. Frightened and terrified they said, “Now you will cause the destruction of every one of us. Not knowing how slight is your strength, you desire to battle with a lion. The lion will come and kill every one of us.”
The boar, now also frightened, asked, “What shall I do now?”
Said the other boars, “Go to the dunghill, wallow in the muck for seven days, and let your body dry off. On the seventh day, having moistened your body with drops of dew, go to the battleground ahead of the lion, and noting the direction of the wind, stand to the windward. The lion, smelling the odor of your body, will give you the victory and depart.”
The boar did so. On the seventh day, there he stood! The lion, smelling the odor of his body, and knowing that he was covered with dung, said, “O boar, that was a beautiful strategy you have devised. Had you not covered yourself with dung, I should have killed you on the spot. But as it is, it is quite impossible for me either to crush you with my jaws or to strike you with my paws. I give you the victory.” Thus saying, he recited this verse:
You are filthy, you bristle with muck,
With bad smells you reek, boar.
If you wish to fight,
I give you the victory.
Then the lion turned around, drank water in the lake and went back to his mountain cave. The boar returned to his kinsfolk and said, “I conquered the lion!”
On hearing this, the other boars exclaimed, “One of these days the lion will come back again and kill every one of us.” So they scampered off to another place.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
All parables in printed book format: 108 Buddhist Parables and Stories
