Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c26.588

v2.c26.588

2. Nāga Sutta.—A certain novice was in the habit of spending too much time in clansmen's houses. When warned against this, he answered that he could not understand how he was to blame when he saw many senior monks acting in the same way. He was reported to the Buddha, who related the story of an elephant who dwelt by a great lake. He plunged into the lake, pulled up lotus-stalks, cleaned them and then, by eating them, gained strength and beauty. But when the baby elephants tried to follow his example, they could not clean the stalks, and eating them with mud and dirt, they grew sick, some of them even dying.¹