Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
7. Brāhmana Saṃyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
7. The Brāhmana Suttas
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Thera
Public Domain
I: Arahants
Sutta 6
Jaṭā Suttaṃ
Tangles[1]
[6.1][than][olds] THUS HAVE I HEARD:
When The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthī,
the Bhāradvāja [known as] Tangles,
went to visit the Exalted One and,
exchanging with him the compliments of amity and courtesy,
took his seat at one side.
So seated, he addressed the Exalted One in a verse: —
"Tangle within, without, lo! in the toils
Entangled is the race of sentient things.
Hence would I ask thee, Gotama, of this:
Who is't can from this tangle disembroil?"
[The Exalted One: —]
"The man discreet, on virtue planted firm,
In intellect and intuition trained;
The brother ardent and discriminant:
'Tis he may from this tangle disembroil.
They that have lust and hate and nescience spurned,
The Arahants immune from deadly Drugs,
For them the tangle all unravelled lies.
Where mind and body wholly cease to be,
And earthly sense and sense celestial: —
Here is the tangle riven utterly."
When he had thus spoken, Tangles, said:
"Most excellent, lord, most excellent!
Just as if a man were to set up
that which had been thrown down,
or were to reveal
that which was hidden away,
or were to point out the right road
to him who had gone astray,
or were to bring a lamp into the darkness
so that those who had eyes could see external objects
— even so, lord, has the lord Gotama shown me his doctrine in various ways.
I even I, lord, betake myself
to the Exalted One as my refuge,
to the Norm
and to the Order.
I would leave the world under [the Rule of] Gotama;
I would take orders."
So the Bhāradvāja brahmin left the world under the Exalted One, and was ordained.
And not long after his ordination
the venerable Bhāradvāja, remaining alone and separate,
earnest,
ardent and strenuous,
attained [ere long] to that supreme goal of the higher life,
for the sake of which the clansmen
rightly go forth from home into the homeless;
yea, that supreme goal did he by himself,
even in this present life,
come to understand and realize.
He came to understand that
rebirth was destroyed,
that the holy life was being lived,
that his task was done,
that for life as we conceive it
there was no hereafter.
And the venerable Bhāradvāja became one of the Arahants.
[1] Comy.: 'He was so called by the Recensionists because of his question. With the rest we have dealt in the Devatā-Saṃyutta.' See I, 3, § 3. [SN 1.1.23]
