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 4
Hatth'Āroha Suttaɱ
Elephant
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
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[1] Thus have I heard:
Once the Exalted One was staying near Rājagaha,
at the Squirrels' Feeding-ground.
Then Mahout,[1] the head keeper, came to see the Exalted One
saluted him
and sat down at one side.
As he sat at one side, Mahout, the head keeper,
said to the Exalted One: -
"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were mahouts:
'A mahout who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
thus exerting himself
and putting forth effort
is tortured
and put an end to by others.
Then, when body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the company of the Devas of Passionate Delight.'
What says the Exalted One of this?"
"Enough, head keeper!
Let be.
Ask me not this question."
■
Then a second time Mahout, the head keeper,
said to the Exalted One: -
"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were mahouts:
'A mahout who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
thus exerting himself
and putting forth effort
is tortured
and put an end to by others.
Then, when body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the company of the Devas of Passionate Delight.'
What says the Exalted One of this?"
"Enough, head keeper!
Let be.
Ask me not this question."
■
Then a third time Mahout, the head keeper,
said to the Exalted One: -
"I have heard, lord, this traditional saying
of teachers of old
who were mahouts:
'A mahout who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
thus exerting himself
and putting forth effort
is tortured
and put an end to by others.
Then, when body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the company of the Devas of Passionate Delight.'
What says the Exalted One of this?"
"True it is, head keeper, that I do not admit your question, and said:
'Enough, head keeper!
Let be.
Ask me not this question.'
Nevertheless I will expound it to you.
In the case of a mahout
who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
he must previously have had this low,
mean,
perverse idea:
'Let those beings be tortured,
be bound,
be destroyed,
be exterminated,
so that they may be thought never to have existed.'
Then, so exerting himself,
so putting forth effort,
other men torture him
and make an end of him.
When body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the Purgatory of Quarrels.
Now if his view was this:
'A mahout who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
thus exerting himself
and putting forth effort
is tortured
and put an end to by others.
Then, when body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the company of the Devas of Passionate Delight,'
- then I say that view of his is perverted.
Now, head keeper, I declare
that for one who is guilty of perverted view
one of two paths is open,
either purgatory
or rebirth as an animal."
At these words Mahout, the head keeper,
cried aloud
and burst into tears.
[Then said the Exalted One: -]
"That was why I disallowed your question,
head keeper,
saying:
'Enough, head keeper!
Let be.
Ask me not this question.'
"But, lord, I am not lamenting for that,
but at the thought that
for many a long day
I have been cheated,
deceived
and led astray
in the past by teacher after teacher,
mahouts,
in the belief that any mahout who in battle exerts himself,
puts forth effort,
thus exerting himself
and putting forth effort
is tortured
and put an end to by others.
Then, when body breaks up,
after death he is reborn
in the company of the Devas of Passionate Delight.'
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, lord, I go for refuge, to the Norm and to the Order of Brethren.
May the Exalted One accept me
as a lay disciple,
as one who hath gone to him for refuge,
from this day forth
so long as life doth last."
[1] Hatth'āroha, here the nickname for the head-keeper.
