SBE 20: Seventh Khandhaka: Chapter 1

SEVENTH KHANDHAKA.

DISSENSIONS IN THE ORDER.

1 1.

1. Now at that time the Blessed One was staying at Anupiyâ 2. Anupiyâ is a town belonging to the Mallas 3. Now at that time the most distinguished of the young men of the Sâkya clan had renounced the world in imitation of the Blessed One.

Now there were two brothers, Mahânâma the Sâkyan, and Anuruddha the Sâkyan. Anuruddha the Sâkyan was delicately nurtured; and he had three storeyed residences, one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the season of the rains 4. During the four months spent in the

1, and came not down from the upper storey of his residence.

Then Mahânâma the Sâkyan thought: 'Now the most distinguished of the young men of the Sâkya clan have already renounced the world in imitation of the Blessed One, but from our own family no one has gone forth from the household life into the houseless state. Let therefore either I, or Anuruddha, renounce the world.' And he went to Anuruddha the Sâkyan, and said [so to him, adding], 'Either therefore do you go forth, or I will do so.'

'I am delicate. It is impossible for me to go forth from the household life into the houseless state. Do you do so.'

2. 'But come now, O beloved Anuruddha, I will tell you what is incident to the household life. First, you have to get your fields ploughed. When that is done, you have to get them sown. When that is done, you have to get the water led down over them. When that is done, you have to get the water led off again. When that is done, you have to get the weeds pulled up 2. When that is done, you have to get the crop reaped. When that is done, you have to get the crop carried away. When that is done, you have to get it arranged

1. When that is done, you have to get the straw picked out. When that is done, you have to get all the chaff removed. When that is done, you have to get it winnowed. When that is done, you have to get the harvest garnered 2. When that is done, you have to do just the same the next year, and the same all over again the year after that.

'The work is never over: one sees not the end of one's labours. O! when shall our work be over? When shall we see the end of our labours? When shall we, still possessing and retaining the pleasures of our five senses, yet dwell at rest? Yes! the work, beloved Anuruddha, is never over; no end appears to our labours. Even when our fathers and forefathers had completed their time 3, even then was their work unfinished.'

'Then do you take thought for the household duties. I will go forth from the household life into the houseless state.'

And Anuruddha the Sâkyan went to his mother, and said to her: 'I want, mother, to go forth from the household life into the houseless state. Grant me thy permission to do so.'

And when he had thus spoken, his mother replied

1--renounce thou the world according to thy wish.'

'Come, dear friend, let us both renounce the world together!'

1. Do you go forth (alone).'

'My mother, dear friend, has told me that if thou dost so, I may. And thou hast even now declared "If thy renunciation be obstructed by me, then let that obstruction be removed. Even with thee will I--renounce thou the world, according to thy wish." Come, then, dear friend, let us both renounce the world.'

Now at that time men were speakers of truth, and keepers of their word which they had pledged. And Bhaddiya the Sâkya Râga said to Anuruddha the Sâkyan: 'Wait, my friend, for seven years. At the end of seven years we will renounce the world together.'

'Seven years are too long, dear friend. I am not able to wait for seven years.'

[And the same offer was made successively of six years and so on down to one year, of seven months and so on down to one month, and even of a fortnight, and still there was ever the same reply. At last the Râga said,]

'Wait, my friend, for seven days, whilst I hand over the kingdom to my sons and my brothers.'

'Seven days is not too long. I will wait thus far' (was the reply).

4. So Bhaddiya the Sâkya Râga, and Anuruddha, and Ânanda, and Bhagu, and Kimbila, and Devadatta--just as they had so often previously gone

1.'

Then the Blessed One received first Upâli the barber, and afterwards those young men of the Sâkya clan, into the ranks of the Order. And the venerable Bhaddiya, before that rainy season was over, became master of the Threefold Wisdom 2, and the venerable Anuruddha acquired the Heavenly Vision 3, and the venerable Ânanda realised the effect of having entered upon the Stream 4, and Devadatta attained to that kind of Iddhi which is attainable even by those who have not entered upon the Excellent Way 5.

1. Now at that time the venerable Bhaddiya, who had retired into the forest to the foot of a tree, into solitude, gave utterance over and over again to this ecstatic exclamation: 'O happiness! O happiness!' And a number of Bhikkhus went up to the place where the Blessed One was, and bowed down before him, and took their seats on one side. And, so seated, they [told the Blessed One of this], and added, 'For a certainty, Lord, the venerable Bhaddiya is not contented as he lives the life of purity; but rather it is when calling to mind the happiness of his former sovranty that he gives vent to this saying.'

Then the Blessed One addressed a certain Bhikkhu; and said: 'Do you go, O Bhikkhu, and in my name call Bhaddiya the Bhikkhu, saying, The Teacher, venerable Bhaddiya, is calling for you."'

'Even so, Lord,' said that Bhikkhu, in assent to the Blessed One. And he went to Bhaddiya, and called him [in those words].

6. 'Very, well,' said the venerable Bhaddiya, in

'Formerly, Lord, when I was a king, I had a guard completely provided both within and without my private apartments, both within and without the town, and within the (borders of my) country. Yet though, Lord, I was thus guarded and protected, I was fearful, anxious, distrustful, and alarmed. But now, Lord, even when in the forest, at the foot of a tree, in solitude, I am without fear or anxiety, trustful and not alarmed; I dwell at ease, subdued 1, secure 2, with mind as peaceful as an antelope's 3. It was when calling this fact to mind, Lord, that I gave utterance over and over again to that cry, "O happiness! O happiness!"'

Then the Blessed One, on hearing that, gave utterance at that time to this song:

Footnotes

224:1 With the whole of the following story compare the, in many respects, fuller account given by the commentator on the Dhammapada (Fausböll, pp. 139 and following).

224:2 This was the spot where Gotama spent the first week after his renunciation of the world, before he went on to Râgagaha (Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' I, 87). Professor Fausböll there (Gâtaka I, 65) reads Anûpiyam, but all his MSS. have the ŭ short. It is noteworthy that in our text the locative is formed as if the word were feminine, though the neuter form is used for the nominative.

224:3 The more usual mode of adding this description in similar passages at the commencement of all the Suttas would lead us to expect here Mallânam nigame.

224:4 Compare Mahâvagga I, 7, I, where the same thing is said of Yasa.

225:1 Nippurisehi turiyehi. That Childers's rendering, 'without men, without people,' is inadequate is clear from the context at the passage which he quotes from Gâtaka I, 53.

225:2 Niddâpeti. Buddhaghosa says, 'Pull up the weeds' (tinâni). The word occurs also at Gâtaka I, 215, where there is a similar list of farming operations, which, though smaller, contains one or two items not given here.

226:1 Maddâpeti. There is mention of threshing (prati-han) already in the Vedas. See the passages collected by Zimmer, 'Altindisches Leben,' p. 238. But treading out is even still a very common, if not the more usual, process throughout India and Ceylon.

226:2 Atiharâpeti. See Milinda Pañha, p. 66. The simple verb occurs also in a similar connection in the Bhikkhunî-vibhaṅga in the introductory story to Pâkittiya VII.

226:3 That is, had died.

227:1 Aham tayâ. Buddhaghosa explains that the Râga is beginning to say that he will go with his friend. But a desire for the glory of sovereignty comes over his heart, and he leaves the sentence unfinished. (The Pâli is given in the notes on the text, p. 323.)

228:1 Tyâham. See Dr. Morris's remarks on this elision in his introduction to the Kariyâ Pitaka (Pâli Text Society, 1882), where he makes it equal to tad aham. This seems to us open to question, at least in this passage, where it may possibly stand for te aham.

230:1 This reputation of the Sâkya family for pride is referred to in Gâtaka I, 88, 89.

230:2 Tisso viggâ, see Rh. D.'s remarks at pp. 161, 162 of 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pâli' (S.B.E., vol. xi). They are probably here the three viggas referred to in the Sutta-vibhaṅga, Pârâgika I, 1, 6-8, as the second of those is the Heavenly Vision, here mentioned in the next clause.

230:3 Dibbakakkhu, a full description of the details of which will be found in the stock paragraph translated by Rh. D. in 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pâli' (S.B.E., vol. xi, pp. 216-218).

230:4 Sotâpattiphala; that is, he became free from the delusion of self (sakkâyaditthi), from doubt (vikikikkhâ), and from dependence upon ceremonies or works (sîlabbata-pârâmâsa). See Rh. D.'s manual, 'Buddhism,' pp. 108-110.

230:5 Pothugganikâ iddhi. What this may be is unknown to us. A fourfold Iddhi is described in detail in the stock passage 231:1 The following incident, with a summary of the preceding sections, forms the introductory story to the 10th Gâtaka (Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' i. pp. 190-193). The legend may have first arisen as an explanation of the name Bhaddiya, which means 'the fortunate one.'

232:1 Pannalomo. See our note 2 on Kullavagga I, 6, 1 (above, vol. ii, p. 339).

232:2 Paradavutto. This is the reading of the Sinhalese MS., and is the correct one. See Oldenberg's note at p. 363 of the edition of the text. Our translation is conjectural.

232:3 Migabhûtena ketasâ. The meaning of miga in this phrase is not certain; and the figure may be drawn from the careless mind of any animal in its natural state. We have not noticed the idiom elsewhere; but compare the converse figure, bhantamiga-sappatibhâgo sâsane anabhirato, at Gâtaka I, 303, 6.