Saɱyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
21. Bhikkhu Saɱyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
II. The Book Called the Nidāna-Vagga
Containing Kindred sayings on Cause
and Other Subjects
21. Kindred Sayings about Brethren
Sutta 3
Ghaṭo or Mahā-Nāga Suttaɱ
The Jar
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by F. L. Woodward
Originally Published by
The Pali Text Society
Public Domain
[1][bodh][than] Thus have I heard:
The Exalted One was once staying near Savatthī
at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
[2] At this time both the venerable ones
Sāriputta and Mahā-Moggallāna
were staying at Rājagaha
in the Bamboo Grove
at the Suirrels' Feeding-ground
in the same cell.[1]
[3] Now the venerable Sāriputta
rising at eventide from meditation
went to the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna
and exchanged kind and friendly greetings with him.
[4] Seated by his side
the venerable Sāriputta said thus: —
"Very serene, friend, Moggallāna,
are you looking,
very pure and clear
is your complexion.
Has the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna
spent to-day in peace?"[2]
"I spent to-day, friend,
in the exercise of sense,[3]
moreover I had pious converse."
[5] "With whom did the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna
hold pious converse?"
"With the Exalted One, friend."
[6] "Far away, friend,
the Exalted One now stays at Savatthī,
at Jeta Grove
in the Anāthapiṇḍika Park.
What then?
Did the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna
go by will-power to the Exalted one,
or was it the other way about?"
[7] "I neither went by will-power
to the Exalted One, friend,
nor did the Exalted One
come by will-power to me.
Nevertheless
even as with him,
so also with me
the deva-sight
and the deva-hearing
are made clear."[4]
[187] [8] "What kind of pious converse
did the Exalted One hold
with the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna?"
[9] "As to that, friend,
I asked the Exalted One:
'We say, lord,
[this one] is of consummate energy,[5]
[that one] is of consummate energy;
in wht way is a man so?"
[10] And the Exalted One said to me this: —
"It is herein, Moggallāna,
that a brother practises consummate energy: —
'Verily let skin and sinews and bones
wilt in my body,
let flesh and blood dry up,
or ever there be halting of energy
till I have won
that which by a man's strength,
by man's energy,
by man's progress
may be won!'[6] —
— thus Moggallāna, does one become of consummate energy.'
[11] It was just thus that I had pious converse with the Exalted One."
[12] "As if a little mound of gravel
were set up alongside of Himālaya,
lord of the hills, friend,
even so are we
when set up alongside of the venerable Mahā-Moggallāna.
Verily may he,
so gifted,
so wonderful
abide here for an aeon
if he so desire!"
[13] "As if a little pinch of salt
were set up alongside of a big jar of salt, friend,
even so are we
when set up alongside of the venerable Sāriputta.
[14] Verily hath the Exalted One praised,
commended,
extolled the venerable Sāriputta in divers ways.
'Even as Sāriputta was supreme
In insight, morals, and self-mastery,
So may the brother who hath won the goal
Rank even with the highest of them all.'"[7]
[15] Thus verily did these two great souls
give cheer one to the other
in that they spoke well,
in that they talked well.
[1] Eka-vihāre.
[2] Santena vihārena.
[3] Oḷārikena vihārena: lit. in a material or gross sense, as compared, presumably, with purely mental exercise. He was exercising clairvoyance and clairaudience, and the objects thereof are 'gross.' Comy.
[4] The thera wondering where the Master was just then, developed the light and saw him, with deva-sight, seated in his 'Fragrant Chamber,' and heard him. Comy.
[5] Āraddha-viriyo.
[6] Cf. above, p.24.
[7] Above, i, 80. The verses are there ascribed to Anāthapiṇḍika, on his revisiting his park, his gift to the Order, as a deva after his passing over.
