Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
6. Brahmā Saṃyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
6. The Brahmā Suttas
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Thera
Public Domain
II: The Quintuplet
Sutta 13
Andhakavinda Suttaṃ
Andhakavinda
[13.1][olen] THUS HAVE I HEARD:
The Exalted One was once staying among the Magadhese,
at Andhakavinda[1]
And on that occasion he was seated under the open sky
in the darkness of night,
while the god was raining drop by drop.[2]
Then Brahmā Sahampati,
who by his effulgent beauty
had been irradiating all Andhakavinda
till night was far spent,
came into the presence of the Exalted One,
and saluting and standing at one side,
spoke these verses before him: —
"Seek ye the lonely haunts remote from men.
Practise the life of liberty from Bonds.
If there ye come not by your heart's desire,
Dwell with the Brethren mindful and controlled.[3]
Seeking your alms 'mong clansmen, house to house,
Prudent and heedful, guarded as to sense.
Seek ye the lonely haunts remote from men,
From fear released, in fearlessness set free.[4]
Where dreadful serpents [glide] and lightnings roam
On high and god doth thunder in the night,
The blinding blackness of the night, there sits
The brother rid of all flesh-creeping fear.
Yea, by my troth this have I seen, no hearsay this:[5]
In one communion bound of holy life[6]
A thousand [saints who had] abandoned death;[7]
Disciples too of these, five hundred, yea,
And more, ten hundred, yea, and ten times that,
Who all had reached the stream, the holy Way,
[194] Nor could again as animals be born.[8]
And for the rest, the sons of men endowed
With merit due[9]: — my mind sufficeth not
To count, fearful lest men should say I lie.
[1] Cf. Vin. Texts, i, 254, n. 2.
[2] See IV, i, § 2, n. 1.
[3] Pss. of the Brethren, ver. 142, ascribed to Cunda the Great. (Cf. xxxix f.). To scan, read satīmā.
[4] From fear and peril of saṇsāra, the round of rebirth, ... freed in Nibbāna (A-bhaya, the peril-less, or fearless). Comy.
[5] i.e. 'not by dialectic, nor basket-achievement' (handing on as tradition). Comy.
[6] Eka-dhamma-desanā. Comy.
[7] Comy.: = mārana-pariccāgīnaṃ.
[8] 'Symbolical for rebirth in misery.' Comy.
[9] I.e. all who, without themselves entering the Path, at least acquire merit through intercourse with those that have entered.
