Introduction: The Trap of Samsara

We often view our habits, quirks, and psychological patterns as harmless idiosyncrasies. But what if there’s something deeper?

In Buddhist literature (Dhammapada verse 70), the story of Jambuka offers a fascinating, slightly bizarre look into the obsessive-compulsive behavior of a fake guru during the time of the Buddha, while serving as a stark illustration of the long arm of karma and the endless cycles of samsara.

The Public Toilet Ascetic

One day, the Buddha surveyed the world with his supernatural knowledge and observed that a famous, highly revered ascetic was finally ready for enlightenment.

This was Jambuka, an ascetic of 55 years. Rather than living in a peaceful forest grove, Jambuka chose to station himself right near a public toilet along a busy trade route. There, he stood night and day on one leg, leaning against a boulder, keeping his head upright and his mouth wide open.

When curious travelers asked why he stood with his mouth open, he boasted:

“I live on air alone; there is no food for me other than air.”

When asked why he only stood on one leg, he replied with grandiosity:

“When I stand with both feet touching the ground, the earth cannot withstand my glory and trembles violently. Earthquakes happen because of me!”

As is often human nature, the public readily bought into the spectacle. Impressed by his radical “austerities,” crowds flocked to him monthly with rich offerings of food and deep reverence. Meanwhile, Jambuka privately despised proper food. His secret preference was eating excrement. Pressured by donors, he would occasionally taste a tiny drop of butter or molasses off a blade of grass just to appease them before shooing them away.

The Secret Behind the Facade

Unbeknownst to his adoring followers, Jambuka had lived with severe obsessive-compulsive behaviors since birth:

• Dietary aversions: He had an intense compulsion for eating waste and an absolute aversion to normal food.
• Sensory sensitivities: Clothing felt like sandpaper against his skin, forcing him to live entirely naked.
• Compulsions: He suffered from hair-pulling habits and a complete inability to sleep on proper bedding.

Born into a noble family, his eccentricities had once alarmed his parents, who assumed he was destined for a holy life and dropped him off at a sramana (ascetic) monastery. Unfortunately, his fellow monks quickly discovered his secret habits and drove him out. Outcast and desperate for acceptance, Jambuka engineered a brilliant, albeit grotesque, public persona: the ultimate holy man living on air.

No one suspected that Jambuka was secretly eating excrement from the public toilet at night.

The Encounter with the Buddha

Knowing the time was right, the Buddha approached Jambuka and asked to share his space for a short time. In ancient India, ascetics were intensely territorial because their survival depended entirely on their followers—much like modern internet influencers guarding their niche. Therefore, it was out of social courtesy that Buddha sought Jambuva’s permission.

Reluctantly, the elderly Jambuka agreed. However, he wanted the Buddha to stay at a distance from him.

That night, devas (celestial beings) visited the Buddha to receive teachings, illuminating the dark forest with an intense, supernatural radiance. Confused and suspicious, Jambuka demanded to know what the strange light was. When the Buddha casually listed the names of the visiting devas, Jambuka tried to re-establish his dominance by boasting about his 55 years of strict fasting, living on air.

The Buddha stopped him dead in his tracks, calling his bluff and calmly exposing every intimate detail of Jambuka’s childhood, his true diet, and his psychological compulsions.

Shocked and stripped of his defenses, Jambuka broke down and asked, “Great recluse, what kind of unwholesome deeds have I committed to end up like this?”

Past Lives and the Heavy Price of Malice

The Buddha revealed a past life of Jambuka during the era of Buddha Kassapa. At that time, human life was immensely long, and Jambuka had spent 20,000 years as a monk.

Back then, Jambuka had been a resident monk at a prosperous monastery supported by a wealthy patron. When an enlightened Arhat (a fully awakened monk) visited the monastery and captured the patron’s deep reverence, Jambuka was consumed by burning jealousy.

Driven by malice, Jambuka verbally abused the visiting monk, hurling a bitter challenge:

• “It would be better for you to eat faeces than the food offered by my rich patron!”
• “It would be better to have your hair pulled out with rough seed shells than cut by a barber hired by my patron!”
• “It would be better that you go about naked than wear the robes offered by my patron!”
• “It would be better for you to sleep on the bare ground than on a proper bed in my monastery!”

Out of compassion, the Arahat left quietly to avoid causing further negative karma for the resident monk. But Jambuka’s malice didn’t stop there; he even threw away a delicious meal prepared by the patron specifically for the guest monk.

That single act of toxic jealousy outweighed 20,000 years of wearing monk robes. Upon death, Jambuka was plunged into the lowest realms of suffering (Avici hell) for aeons, ultimately reborn in Rajagaha with deeply ingrained mental afflictions that mirrored his harsh words to the Arhat.

Transformation and Liberation

Hearing the stark reality of his past life crushed Jambuka’s ego entirely. Overwhelmed by deep remorse, he finally shed his false pride, bowed before the Buddha, and earnestly requested the Dharma.

Listening with an open heart, Jambuka attained enlightenment on the spot. The spiritual discipline he had cultivated over millennia during Buddha Kassapa’s time finally bore fruit now that the obstruction of his ego and malice was removed. When his followers later discovered his transformation, they too embraced the Buddha’s teachings and found true liberation.

This was how it came to, that Buddha said Dhammapada Verse 70 – Jambukatthera Vatthu

Mase mase kusaggena
balo bhunjeyya bhojanam
na so sankhatadhammanam
kalam agghati solasim.

Even though, month after month, the fool (living in austerity) takes his food sparingly with the tip of a grass blade, he is not worth even one-sixteenth part of those who have comprehended the Truth (i.e., the ariyas).

Bodhi-Bowl Reflection: Beyond the Surface of Normality

So, the moral of the story is not to have malice or jealousy. And as the Buddha pointed out, don’t honor superficial acts that are actually nothing worthy of reverence.

But I want to reflect further.

Some people, like Jambuka, live with unexplainable obsessions, compulsive behaviors, strange preferences, and even severe aversions. Naturally, society tends to label them as freaks or mentally ill, ostracizing and marginalizing them.

In Jambuka’s case, he was abandoned first by his family, and then by the very religious institution entrusted with his care. According to the commentaries, he was likely only in his early teens when he found himself thrust out of society due to prejudice. Maintaining a false facade of holiness for over 50 years to survive wasn’t just deceitful—it was a grueling, agonizing survival mechanism for someone trying to navigate a world that mercilessly punishes non-conformity.

If we contemplate beyond the surface of this ancient story, it forces us to confront some deeply discomforting questions:

• Did Jambuka’s preference for eating waste, living naked, pulling out his hair, and avoiding beds actually hurt anyone?
• Why were his family and his religious guardians so quick to push him away rather than understand him?
• If the Buddha hadn’t intervened, what compounding negative karma was Jambuka accumulating simply by lying to fit into a society that gave him no other choice?
• What about those who mocked, bullied, and ostracized him for quirks he was born with? Do they incur negative karma for punishing those who don’t fit social molds?

Most importantly, it brings the dilemma right to our own doorsteps: What would you do if you had a child or a friend like Jambuka? Would you truly be able to accept their strangeness? And without the all-seeing wisdom of a Buddha, how can we realistically help such individuals today?

This teaching offers profound angles to explore. It reminds us that behind every bizarre behavior or guarded facade is often a human being simply trying to survive the harsh judgment of a rigid world.

May all be well and happy.