Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
7. Brāhmana Saṃyutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
7. The Brāhmana Suttas
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Thera
Public Domain
I: Arahants
Sutta 3
Asurindaka Suttaṃ
Asurinda[1]
[3.1] THUS HAVE I HEARD:
The Exalted One was once staying near Rājagaha,
in the Bamboo Grove,
at the Squirrels' Feeding-ground.
Now Asurinda Bhāradvaja
heard that the Bhāradvaja had
'left the world to enter the Order of Gotama the Recluse.'
Vexed and displeased,
he sought the presence of the Exalted One,
and there reviled and abused the Exalted One
with rude and harsh words.
When he had thus spoken,
the Exalted One remained silent.
Then said the Asurinda:
"Thou art conquered, recluse,
thou art conquered!"
[The Exalted One: —]
"The fool forsooth doth deem the victory his
In that he plays the bully with rude speech.
To him who knoweth how he may forbear,[2]
This in itself doth make him conqueror.
Worse of the two is he who, when reviled,
Reviles again. Who doth not, when reviled,
Revile again, a two-fold victory wins.
Both of the other and himself he seeks
The good; for he the other's angry mood
Doth understand and groweth calm and still.
He who of both is a physician, since
Himself he healeth and the other too,—
Folk deem him fool, they knowing not the Norm."
When he had so said,
Asurinda of the Bhāradvājas spake thus:
"Most excellent, lord,
most excellent!
Just as if a man were to set up
that which had been thrown down,
or were to reveal
that which was hidden away,
or were to point out the right road
to him who had gone astray,
or were to bring a lamp into the darkness
so that those who had eyes
could see external objects
— even so, lord, has the lord Gotama
shown me his doctrine in various ways.
I even I, lord,
betake myself to the Exalted One
as my refuge,
to the Norm
and to the Order.
I would leave the world
under [the Rule of] Gotama;
I would take orders."
So the Bhāradvāja brahmin left the world
under the Exalted One,
and was ordained.
And not long after his ordination
the venerable Bhāradvāja, remaining alone and separate,
earnest,
ardent and strenuous,
attained to that supreme goal
of the higher life,
for the sake of which
the clansmen rightly go forth from home
into the homeless;
yea, that supreme goal did he
by himself,
even in this present life,
come to understand and realize.
He came to understand
that rebirth was destroyed,
that the holy life was being lived,
that his task was done,
that for life as we conceive it
there was no hereafter.
And the venerable Bhāradvāja
became one of the Arahants.
[1] 'Lord of Asura(demon)s.' This was the youngest of the brothers Bhāradvaja. Comy. In the Sutta he is called by the adjectival form: Asurindaka, 'demon-chiefer.' The name is so 'pagan' for a brahmin, and the Buddha's reply so suggestive of Sakka's (XI, 1, § 4), that a bifurcated or transferred legend here seems fairly plausible. Cf. Dialogues, ii, 73, also 297.
[2] Lit. 'that which is forbearance.'
