Reading guide
A schism marked by absence, not narration
The discourse's only reference to what has happened is a single phrase — ‘not long after Devadatta had left’ — assuming the audience already knows the larger story rather than recounting it, much as SN 6.7's brief verse assumed prior knowledge of Kokālika.
Three plants sharing one fate
The verse's opening image stacks three specific plants — banana, bamboo, reed — each one killed by producing its own fruit, a botanical fact used as the vehicle for the verse's real subject before that subject is even named.
Honor as the destructive agent, not condemnation
The verse's turn is precise: it isn't wrongdoing itself that destroys a person of bad character, but honor received — sakkāro kāpurisaṁ hanti — suggesting the danger lay specifically in status and acclaim outpacing character, not in ambition alone.
A closing image drawn from outside plant life entirely
The verse's final line shifts registers from botany to animal husbandry — a mule destroyed by its own pregnancy, referencing the ancient understanding that mules cannot safely bear offspring — broadening the pattern from plants to a mammal, generalizing the principle rather than repeating the same kind of image a fourth time.
No verdict on Devadatta stated directly
The discourse never names Devadatta as the reprobate in question, nor does the Buddha respond with any recorded verse of his own here; the application is left implicit, trusting the timing and the verse's content together to make the connection without requiring it to be spelled out.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, on the Vulture’s Peak Mountain, not long after Devadatta had left. Then, late at night, the glorious divinity Sahampati, lighting up the entire Vulture’s Peak, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and spoke this verse in the Buddha’s presence:
§2“The banana plant is destroyed by its own fruit, as are the bamboo and the reed. Honor destroys a reprobate, as pregnancy destroys a mule.”
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