Saɱyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
42. Gāmani Saɱyutta

The Book of the Kindred Sayings
4. The Book Called the Saḷāyatana-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the 'Six-Fold Sphere' of Sense and Other Subjects
42. Kindred Sayings about Headmen

Sutta 2

Tālapuṭa Suttaɱ

Leaf-basket^[1]

Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids

Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved

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[214]

[1][than] Thus have I heard:

Once the Exalted One was staying near Rājagaha,
at the Squirrels' Feeding-ground.^[ed1]

Then Tālaputa, the stage-manager,
came to the Exalted One,
saluted him
and sat down at one side.

So seated, Tālapuṭa, the stage-manager,
said to the Exalted One: -

"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were actors,
to wit:

Speaking of stage-players they said:

'A player who on the stage
or in the arena
makes people laugh
and delights them
by his counterfeiting of the truth,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the [215] company of the Laughing Devas.'

What says the Exalted One in this matter?"

"Enough, manager!

Let be.

Ask me not this question."

■

Then a second time did Tālapuṭa, the stage-manager,
say to the Exalted One: -

"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were actors,
to wit:

Speaking of stage-players they said:

'A player who on the stage
or in the arena
makes people laugh
and delights them
by his counterfeiting of the truth,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the company of the Laughing Devas.'

What says the Exalted One in this matter?"

Then a second time did the Exalted One respond:

"Enough, manager!

Let be.

Ask me not this question."

■

Then a third time didTālapuṭa, the stage-manager,
say to the Exalted One: -

"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were actors,
to wit:

Speaking of stage-players they said:

'A player who on the stage
or in the arena
makes people laugh
and delights them
by his counterfeiting of the truth,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the company of the Laughing Devas.'

What says the Exalted One in this matter?"

"True it is
I did not permit your question,
saying:

'Enough, manager!

Let be.

Ask me not this question.'

Nevertheless I will expound this thing to you.

In the case of those beings, manager,
who aforetime were not free from lusts,
but were bound with the bond of lust -
in such cases,
a player
who on the stage
or in the arena
brings about lustful states of mind,
so that such beings become still more lustful;

In the case of those beings, manager,
who aforetime were not free from resentment,
but were bound with the bond of resentment -
in such cases,
a player
who on the stage
or in the arena
brings about resentful states of mind,
so that such beings become still more resentful;

In the case of those beings, manager,
who aforetime were not free from illusion,
but were bound with the bond of illusion -
in such cases,
a player
who on the stage
or in the arena
brings about illusory states of mind,
so that such beings become still more deluded;

being himself drugged and slothful,
he drugs and makes others slothful, -
such an one,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the Purgatory of Laughter.^[2]

Now if his view of the matter is as you say:

'Whatsoever player on the stage
or in the arena
makes people laugh
and delights them
by his counterfeiting of the truth,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the company of the Laughing Devas,'

then I declare his view is perverted.

Now, manager, I declare
that for one who is guilty of perverted view
there are two paths open,
one is Purgatory
and the other is rebirth as an animal."^[3]

At these words, Tālapuṭa, the stage-manager,
cried aloud
and burst into tears.

[Then said the Exalted One: -]

"That was why I disallowed your question, saying:

'Enough, manager!

Let be.

Ask me not this question.'

[216] "But, lord, I am not lamenting for that.

I lament at the thought
that for many a long day
I have been cheated,
deceived
and led astray
by teacher after teacher,
actors,
in the belief that a player on the stage
or in the arena
makes people laugh
and delights them
by his counterfeiting of the truth,
when body breaks up,
after death is reborn in the company of the Laughing Devas.

Excellent, lord!

Excellent it is, lord!

Just as if one should raise what is overthrown,
or show forth what is hidden,
or point out the way
to him that wanders astray,
or hold up a light in the darkness
so that they who have eyes may behold objects, -
even so in divers ways
hath the Norm been set forth by the Exalted One.

To the Exalted One I go for refuge,
to the Norm
and to the Order.

O that I might gain ordination from the Exalted One,
that I might gain full ordination."

So Tālapuṭa, the stage-manager,
got ordination from the Exalted One,
got full ordination.

And not long after doing so
the venerable Tālapuṭa,
dwelling solitary,
secluded,
zealous,
ardent
and aspiring,
in no long time
attained that goal supreme of the righteous life,
to win which
the clansmen rightly go forth from home
to the homeless.

So that in that very life,
of himself,
he fully understood it,
realized it
and abode therein,
and knew:

'Destroyed is rebirth,
lived is the righteous life,
done is the task,
for life in these conditions
there is no hereafter.'

And the venerable Tālapuṭa, was yet another of the Arahants.

 

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^[1] Puṭa. Those sectional headings are really mnemonic abbreviations of the full names of the characters. The name tāla-puṭa (a basket of woven palm-leaves so commonly used in the East. Cf. Brethren, p. 418) was given to him, says Comy. because his complexion was bright and cheerful, like the colour of a cluster of ripe palm-fruit, probably referring to the beautiful colour of a bunch of wild dates. But the connexion is not clear. Our text and some MSS. of text and Comy. have tala. After hts ordination, this brother describes his experiences in striking verses, well rendered at Brethren, 369 ff.

^[2] Pahāsa niraya. Not a distinctive purgatory, says Comy., but a section of Avīci, where actors in imagination play their parts again, and are 'cooked.'

^[3] Cf. M. i, 388; Pts. of Contr., 290.

 

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^[ed1] Woodward has here "in Jeta Grove" which he must have just picked up from the previous sutta.