The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
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55 Spk: The four wheels are the four modes of deportment (walking, standing, sitting, lying down). The nine doors are the nine “wound openings” (eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, genitals, anus). It is filled up with impure body parts (head-hairs, etc.), and bound with greed, i.e., with craving. How does one escape from it?: How can there be emergence from such a body? How can there be freedom, release, a transcendence of it? Spk-pṭ adds: It is born from a bog (paṅkajāta) because it is produced in the foul bog of the mother’s womb. The Pāli expression could also have been rendered, “It is a bog,” but I follow Spk-pṭ. This stark perspective on the body is elaborated at Sn I, 11, pp. 34-35.
56 In pāda a (= Dhp 398a), Ee1 nandiṃ should be amended to naddhiṃ. Spk explains that in the Dhp verse varattā is craving (taṇhā), but as craving is mentioned separately in our verse, varattā is glossed differently here.Spk: The thong (naddhi) is hostility (upanāha), i.e., strong anger; the strap (varattā) is the remaining defilements. Desire and greed refer to the same mental state spoken of in two senses: desire (icchā) is the preliminary weak stage, or the desire for what has not been obtained; greed (lobha) is the subsequent strong stage, or the holding to an acquired object. Craving with its root: with its root of ignorance.
57 This verse of inquiry occurs at Sn 165-66, though with an additional couplet and with a variant line in place of the actual question. The inquirers there are the two yakkhas, Hemavata and Sātāgira. The question (or rather, string of questions) is posed only at Sn 168 and the reply given at Sn 169; they are identical with the question and reply at vv. 221-22. It is only after receiving this reply that the yakkhas pose the present question, kathaṃ dukkhā pamuccati? , and the answer given is identical. Having antelope calves (eṇijaṅgha) is one of the thirty-two marks of a great man (see DN III 156,5-12; MN II 136,14). On nāga, see below n. 84.
58 Spk: Here: in this name-and-form (nāmarūpa). By mentioning the five cords of sensual pleasure, form is indicated [Spk-pṭ: because they have the nature of form]. By mind (mano), name (nāma), i.e., the four mental aggregates, is indicated. Thus the basis (of desire) here can be interpreted by way of the five aggregates, etc.
59 Spk explains that these devas were called satullapakāyikā (“belonging to the extolling-of-the-good group”) because they had been reborn in heaven as a result of extolling the Dhamma of the good by way of undertaking it [Spk-pṭ: that is, the Dhamma of the good which consists of going for refuge, taking the precepts, etc.].The background story is as follows: Once a merchant ship with a crew of seven hundred men, while crossing the sea, was beset by a terrible storm. As the ship sank, the crew members, praying frantically to their gods, noticed one of their number sitting calmly, cross-legged “like a yogi,” free from fear. They asked him how he could remain so calm, and he explained that as he had undertaken the Three Refuges and Five Precepts he had no reason for fear. They requested the same from him, and after dividing them into seven groups of a hundred each he gave each group in turn the refuges and precepts, completing the procedure just as the ship was swallowed up by the sea. As the fruit of this final deed of merit, all the men were immediately reborn in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven in a single group with their leader at the head. Recognizing that they had attained such fortune through their leader’s kindness, they came to the Blessed One’s presence to speak praise of him.
60 Spk: Just as oil is not to be obtained from sand, so wisdom is not gained from another, from the blind fool; but just as oil is obtained from sesamum seeds, so one gains wisdom by learning the Dhamma of the good and by following a wise person.
61 I take sātataṃ to be an accusative adverb from the abstract noun of sāta. Spk, however, takes it as an adverb from satata, “continually,” which seems less satisfactory.
62 Pariyāyena. Spk glosses kāraṇena, “for a reason,” which does not help much. I understand the purport to be that their verses are only provisionally correct, acceptable from a mundane point of view. The Buddha’s verse is definitive (nippariyāyena) because it points to the ultimate goal. See the contrast of pariyāyena and nippariyāyena at AN IV 449-54.
63 The stain (mala) is stinginess itself; see the stock description of the generous lay follower as one who “dwells at home with a mind rid of the stain of stinginess” (vigatamalamaccherena cetasā agāraṃ ajjhāvasati).
64 Spk: Those do not die among the dead: They do not die among those who are “dead” by the death consisting in miserliness. The goods of the miser are just like those of the dead, for neither distribute their belongings.
65 Spk: If one practises the Dhamma: if one practises the Dhamma by way of the ten courses of wholesome kamma. Though getting on by gleaning (samuñjakaṃ care): one gets on “by gleaning” by cleaning up the threshing floor, etc., beating the straw, etc. Of those who sacrifice a thousand: Of those who sacrifice (offer alms) to a thousand bhikkhus or who offer alms purchased with a thousand pieces of money. This done a hundred thousand times is equivalent to alms given to ten koṭis of bhikkhus or worth ten koṭis of money (a koṭi = 10,000,000). Are not worth even a fraction: the word “fraction” (kala) can mean a sixteenth part, or a hundredth part, or a thousandth part; here a hundredth part is intended. If one divides into a hundred parts (the value of) a gift given by him, the gift of 10,000 koṭis given by the others is not worth one portion of that.Though Spk speaks of alms offerings to bhikkhus, v. 94 just below implies that the animal sacrifices of the brahmins are what is being rejected.
66 Spk: “Faith” here means faith in kamma and its fruit. Just as in war a few heroic men conquer even many cowards, so one endowed with faith, etc., in giving even a small gift, crushes much stinginess and achieves abundant fruit.
67 Spk explains dhammaladdhassa as either wealth righteously gained, or a person who has gained righteousness, i.e., a noble disciple. The former alternative makes better sense; see AN II 68,13-20. Yama is the god of the nether world; Vetaraṇı̄ is the Buddhist equivalent of the river Styx (see Sn 674 and Pj II 482,4-6). Spk says that Vetaraṇı̄ is mentioned only as “the heading of the teaching,” i.e., as an example; he has actually passed over all thirty-one great hells.
68 Viceyyadānaṃ The expression is an absolutive syntactical compound; see Norman, “Syntactical Compounds in Middle Indo-Aryan,” in Collected Papers, 4:218-19.Spk: A gift given after making discrimination. There are two kinds of discrimination: (i) regarding the offering, i.e., one puts aside inferior items and gives only superior items; and (ii) regarding the recipient, i.e., one leaves aside those defective in morality or the followers of the ninety-five heretical creeds (pāsaṇḍa, the non-Buddhist sects; see n. 355) and gives to those endowed with such qualities as virtue, etc., who have gone forth in the Buddha’s dispensation.
69 In pāda a, I read addhā hi with Ee2 and SS (also at Ja III 472,29), as against saddhā hi in Be and Ee1 and saddhābhi in Se . Spk glosses dhammapadaṃva in pāda b thus: nibbānasaṅkhātaṃ dhammapadam eva, “just the state of Dhamma known as Nibbāna.” Usually dhammapada is a stanza or saying of Dhamma (as at vv. 785-86, 826), which is also plausible in this context, but I prefer to take it as a metrical contraction of dhammapaṭipadā, the practice-path of Dhamma, a sense attested to at Sn 88, which explicitly equates dhammapada with magga. The point the Buddha is then making is that the practice of Dhamma (by the Noble Eightfold Path aimed at Nibbāna) is better than the practice of giving aimed at a heavenly rebirth.The fuller gloss on the verse at Ja III 474 supports the above interpretation: ʺAlthough giving is definitely (ekaṃen’ eva, apparently the gloss on addhā hi) praised in (ekamsenʹeva, apparently the gloss on addhāhi) praised in many ways, a dhammapada—a portion of Dhamma (dhammakoṭthāsa ) consisting in serenity and insight and in Nibbāna—is even better than giving. Why so? Because in the past (pubb’ eva)—that is, in this aeon, Kassapa Buddha and soon—and even earlier (pubbatar’eva) , that is, Vessabhū Buddha and so on (in earlier aeons), the good, the superior persons (sappurisa
̄), endowed with wisdom, developed serenity and insight and attained Nibbāna.”
70 In pāda d, we should adopt the reading of the agent noun āgantā in Be, Se, and Ee2, as against āgantvā in Ee1, which leaves the sentence with an unresolved absolutive clause. We find āgantā used in the sense of āgāmī, and anāgantā used synonymously with anāgāmī (in relation to itthattaṃ, “this state of being”) at AN I 63,30-64,18.Spk: They do not come from Death’s realm, that is, from the round of existence with its three planes, to Nibbāna, which is the state of no-more-coming-back (apunāgamana), so called because beings do not return from Nibbāna. One who is heedless and bound to sensual pleasures cannot attain that.
71 The identity of the speaker of this passage is difficult to determine from the text. I follow Ee2 in taking it to be another devatā. Though most editions break the lines up as if they were verse, there is no recognizable metre and it seems likely they are intended as prose. Ee2 does not number it as a verse.Spk says that misery (agha) in the first line is the suffering of the five aggregates, and suffering (dukkha) in the second line is synonymous with it. The fourth line is paraphrased: “By the removal of the five aggregates the suffering of the round is removed.”
72 In pāda b the unusual compound saṅkapparāga is glossed by Spk as saṅkappitarāga, “intended lust.” Mp III 407,5 glosses: saṅkappavasena uppannarāgo, “lust arisen by way of intention (or thought).” Spk-pṭ adds: subhādivasena saṅkappitavatthumhi rāgo, “lust in regard to an object thought about as beautiful, etc.” The key to the expression, however, is probably Dhp 339d (= Th 760d), where we find saṅkappā rāganissitā, “intentions based on lust.” Spk sums up the purport of the verse thus: “Here the identification of sensuality with the sensual object is rejected; it is the sensual defilement that is called sensuality.”Dhīra allows of two derivations, one meaning “wise,” the other “firm, steadfast”; see PED and MW, s.v. dhīra. I have usually translated it as “wise,” following the commentarial gloss paṇḍita, but elsewhere (e.g., at vv. 411e, 413e, 493a, 495a) I have taken advantage of the word’s ambivalence to render it “steadfast.” The word has elevated overtones and seems to be used solely in verse.
73 Akiñcana in pāda c is a common epithet of the arahant. Spk explains it as devoid of the “something” (or impediments) of lust, hatred, and delusion (see 41:7; IV 297,18-19 = MN I 298,14-15).
74 Spk: Mogharāja was an elder skilled in the sequential structure of discourses (anusandhikusala). [Spk-pṭ: He was one of the sixteen pupils of the brahmin Bāvarı̄;see Sn 1116-19.] Having observed that the meaning of the last verse had not gone in sequence, he spoke thus to connect it in sequence (perhaps by drawing out its implications?). Spk points out that although all arahants can be described as “the best of men, faring for the good of humans” (naruttamaṃ atthacaraṃ narānaṃ), the elder used this expression with specific reference to the Buddha (dasabalaṃ sandhāy’ eva). Spk paraphrases his statement as an interrogative (te kiṃ pasaṃsiyā udāhu apasaṃsiyā), which I follow, but it might also be read as a simple declaration which is first confirmed and then improved upon by the Buddha.
75 Spk explains bhikkhū in pāda a (and presumably in pāda d too) as a vocative addressed to Mogharāja; but as the latter is also addressed by name it seems preferable to take the word in both instances as a nominative plural. In both Be and Se the word is clearly plural. The Buddha thus confirms that those who venerate him are praiseworthy, but steers the inquirer beyond mere devotion by adding that those who understand the truth and abandon doubt (by attaining the path of stream-entry) are even more praiseworthy; for they will eventually become “surmounters of ties” (saṅgātigā), i.e., arahants.
76 Spk: There is no separate deva world named “the faultfinders” (ujjhānasaññino). This name was given to these devas by the redactors of the texts because they arrived in order to find fault with the Tathāgata for his “misuse” of the four requisites. They had thought: ʺThe ascetic Gotama praises contentment with simple requisites to the bhikkhus, but he himself lives luxuriously. Daily he teaches the Dhamma to the multitude. His speech goes in one direction, his deeds in another.” The fact that they address the Buddha while they are still hovering in the air is already indicative of disrespect.
77 Spk defines kitavā as a fowler (sākuṇika) and explains: “As a fowler conceals himself behind branches and foliage and kills the fowl that come near, thereby supporting his wife, so the swindler conceals himself behind a rag-robe and cheats the multitude with clever talk. All the use he makes of the four requisites (robes, food, lodging, and medicines) is use by theft. The deva utters this verse with reference to the Blessed One.” The same explanation of kitavā is given at Dhp-a III 375 (to Dhp 252). However, at Ja VI 228,19 the word occurs in a context that clearly shows it means a gambler; it is glossed by akkhadhutta, a dice-gambler, and I translate accordingly here. See Palihawadana, “From Gambler to Camouflage: The Strange Semantic Metamorphosis of Pāli Kitavā.”
78 Spk: Why did the Buddha display a smile? It is said that those devas did not apologize in a way that accorded with the Buddha’s true nature (sabhāvena); they acted as if there were no difference between the Tathāgata, the supreme person in the world, and ordinary worldly people. The Blessed One smiled with the intention: “When discussion arises from this, I will show the power of a Buddha and thereafter I will pardon them.”
79 In pāda d, I follow Se in reading tenādha, as against kenīdha in Be and Ee1 and ko nīdha in Ee2. Neither Spk nor Spk-pṭ offers any help with the meaning of the verse. I translate kusala here in accordance with Spk-pṭ’s gloss, anavajja. At KS 1:35 this verse has been overlooked.
80 This line is missing only in Ee1, which gives the impression that the following verses are spoken by the same deva (and so C.Rh.D has translated them).
81 This verse is identical with v. 104 except that in pāda d saṅgā replaces dukkhā. On the five ties, see n. 12.
82 This sutta reproduces the opening of the Mahāsamaya Sutta (DN No. 20). The background story, related in detail in Spk (as well as in Sv II 672-77 on DN No. 20), begins when the Buddha intervened to prevent a war between the Sakyans and Koliyans, his paternal and maternal kins-men, over the waters of the river Rohiṇı̄. After he mediated a peaceful resolution of their conflict, 250 youths from each community went forth under him as monks. After a period of exertion, they all attained arahantship on the same day, the full-moon day of the month of Jeṭṭhamūla (May-June). When the sutta opens, on the same night, they have all assembled in the Master’s presence in order to announce their attainments. The word samaya in the title means, not “occasion,” but meeting or “concourse”; Spk glosses mahāsamaya in v. 121 as mahāsamūha, “great assembly.”
83 The Pure Abodes (suddhāvāsā) are five planes in the form realm into which only nonreturners can be reborn: Aviha, Atappa, Sudassa, Sudassı̄, and Akaniṭṭha. Here they attain final deliverance without ever returning from that realm. All the inhabitants are thus either nonreturners or arahants.
84 In pāda a, I read khilaṃ with Se and Ee1 & 2, as against khīlaṃ in Be. As indakhīlaṃ appears in pāda b, khīlaṃ would be redundant in pāda a. The two words are unrelated: khila is a wasteland, both literally and figuratively; khīla, a stake or pillar, of which a particular kind, the indakhīla , is planted in front of a city gate or at the entrance to a house as an auspicious symbol. Spk defines all three terms—khila, paligha, and indakhīla—in the same way, as lust, hatred, and delusion. At 45:166 these three are called khila, but at MN I 139,19-22 paligha is identified with ignorance (avijjā). A set of five cetokhila is mentioned at MN I 101,9-27.These bhikkhus are unstirred (anejā) by the stirring (or commotion, ejā) of craving (see 35:90). Nāga is a word used to designate various types of powerful beings, particularly a class of semi-divine dragons, but it also can denote cobras and bull elephants and is used as a metaphor for the arahant; see MN I 145,5-7. In
relation to the arahant the dominant sense is that of the bull elephant (see Dhp chap. 23), but because the latter expression would, in English, seem demeaning rather than complimentary I have left nāga untranslated. Spk explains the word by way of “edifying etymology” thus: chandādīhi na gacchantī ti nāgā; tena tena maggena pahīne kilese na āgacchantī ti nāgā; nānappakāraṃ āguṃ na karontī ti nāgā; “nāgas, because they do not go along by way of desire and so forth; nāgas, because they do not return to the defilements abandoned by the successive paths; nāgas, because they do not commit the various kinds of crime.” Spk calls this a brief account and refers the reader to Nidd I 201-2 for a full explanation. See too Sn 522, which offers a similar etymology.