Naṅgalakula Thera

This story is not a numbered Jataka. It comes from the Dhammapada commentary (on verses 379-380, Chapter XXV (25), The Bhikkhu), where it is told of the elder Naṅgalakula. It has no Bodhisatta and no past-life frame; it is an account of the Buddha's own day at Jetavana, and the page keeps its old Jataka-style slug only for continuity.

Naṅgalakula was a poor man who worked for hire. He wore nothing but a ragged loincloth and carried his plough on his shoulder as he went about his labor. A monk who saw him asked why he should not become a monk instead. The ploughman doubted that anyone would ordain a man of his station, but he agreed, on the condition that this monk himself would do it.

The monk took him to Jetavana, bathed him, and ordained him within the monastery grounds. He then had the new monk hang his loincloth and his plough on a branch of a tree near the monastery boundary. The new monk took the name Naṅgalakula Thera, the Venerable Ploughman.

Living on the gifts of the faithful, he grew discontented and did not want to wear the yellow robes any longer. He went to the tree and scolded himself for wanting to throw away the robes, go back to the world, and work again for hire. Each time his resolve weakened, he went back to the monastery, only to grow discontented again, and each time he returned to the tree and admonished himself once more.

The other monks noticed how often he went away and asked where he was going. He told them he was visiting his teacher. Soon afterward he attained arahatship, and the monks teased him that he no longer made the trip to see his teacher. He answered that he used to go back and forth while he was in the world, but having cut his ties with the world, he no longer did.

The monks reported to the Buddha that Naṅgalakula was lying. The Buddha replied that he had spoken the truth: the monk had admonished himself by himself, and so had reached the end of the religious life.

The verses teach that one must urge and examine oneself, guard oneself, and live mindfully. Oneself is one's own refuge and guide, so one should discipline oneself as a merchant trains a fine horse. The commentary adds that liberation depends on one's own practice, much as a patient must follow his own treatment rather than merely praising or honoring the doctor.

Dhammapada 379 says that one should censure oneself by oneself and examine oneself by oneself; the monk who guards himself and is mindful lives happily. Verse 380 adds that oneself is one's own protector and one's own refuge, therefore one should restrain oneself as a merchant restrains a fine horse. The elder's tree is a vivid picture of the first line, because a man who scolded himself at a hanging plough was doing exactly this.

Naṅgalakula did not need a teacher to tell him where he had come from. The plough and loincloth he hung on the branch were the plain record of his hired labor, and standing before them he could see for himself what returning to the world would mean. The story does not say that the tree or the plough spoke; it says that he spoke to himself, and that this self-examination, repeated each time discontent returned, carried him to arahatship.

Almost everyone who takes up a discipline meets a season of discontent, and this account treats it without shame: the new monk wavered, walked away, came back, and wavered again. What changed him was not the absence of discontent but his habit of facing it honestly and returning to his practice each time.