Saɱyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
9. Vana-Saɱyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
9. The Forest Suttas
Sutta 3
Kassapa-Gotta (or Cheta) Suttaɱ
Kassapa of the Kassapas (or The Trapper)
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Thera
Copyright The Pali Text Society. Public Domain.
[3.1] THUS HAVE I HEARD: —
The venerable Kassapa of the Kassapas[1]
was once staying among the Kosalese
in a certain forest tract.
Now at that time,
while taking siesta,
the venerable Kassapa admonished a certain trapper.[2]
Then a deva who haunted that forest tract,
moved with compassion for the Brother,
desiring his welfare
and wishing to agitate him,
drew near and addressed the venerable Kassapa of the Kassapas in the verses: —
"Come stalking in the fastness of the hills,
A silly trapper dull of intellect: —
[253] 'T is loss of time to admonish him. Methinks
A brother doing so is slow of wit.
He hears but does not understand; he looks
But seeth not. Thou mayst recite the Norm,
Yet will the fool not waken to his good.
Nay, if thou wert to bring of torches ten,[31]
0 Kassapa, yet would he never see
The things he should; 't is eyesight he doth lack."
Then the venerable Kassapa of the Kassapas,
disturbed by that deva,
was greatly moved.
[1] Kassapa-gotta: possibly not the bhikkhu so named who lived at Vāsabhagāma, in Kasi: Vin. Texts, ii, 256; A. i, 236.
[2] Cheto. The trapper was pursuing a 'red deer,' when Kassapa intervened, protesting against earning a living by such cruel means. So B., describing in detail the very natural preoccupation of the hunter with his quarry and the domestic larder. Cf. Aṅguttara, iii, 182. § 7.
[3] The legend runs that to test his attention the bhikkhu held up a luminous finger (cf. Dabba of the Mallas: Vin. Texts, iii, 4-18: Pss. of the Brethren, 10), hence the context.
