PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
LXXIV
Suyāmana
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Sālī, as the son of a certain brahmin, he grew up expert in the Three Vedas.[1] Feeling repelled by domestic life, and inclined to jhāna, he met the Exalted One at Sālī, believed, was ordained, and attained arahantship as soon as his head was shaved.
Thereupon he signalized his putting away the hindrances, and confessed aññā in this verse:
[74] With sensuous desires, with enmity,
With sloth of mind and torpor of the flesh
A brother hath no truck, and in his heart
Turmoil of any kind and doubt are dead.
[1] It is noteworthy that whereas there were in Dhammapāla's day Four Vedas (including the later Atharva-veda), the Buddhist schools of Eastern India - e.g., Conjevaram - either did not know of this increment in brahmin literature, or observed sufficient historical accuracy to associate these original Theras with three Vedas only (see Dialogues, i. 109, n. 2). Sāla, or Sālaɱ, a brahmin village in Kosala, is twice mentioned as visited by the Buddha in the Majjhima (Suttas 41, 62; cf. Saɱy., v. 144); but Sālī has, so far, not been met with elsewhere.
