Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
21. Bhikkhu Saṃyutta
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 2
Upatissa (Sāriputta) Suttaṃ
Upatisso[1]
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by F. L. Woodward
Originally Published by
The Pali Text Society
Public Domain
[1][than][bodh] Thus have I heard:
The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthi
at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
[2][than] There the venerable Sāriputta addressed the brethren: —
"Friends, brethren!"
"Yes, friend," responded the brethren.
[3][than] The venerable Sāriputta said this: —
"To me, friends, as I was meditating in seclusion, there arose this consideration: —
'Is there now anything in the whole world,
wherein a changing,
a becoming otherwise
would give rise in me
to grief,
lamenting,
suffering,
sorrow,
despair?'
And methought:
'No, there is no such thing.'
[4][than] Then the venerable Ānanda said this to the venerable Sāriputta:
"But the Master, friend Sāriputta —
would not a changing,
a becoming otherwise in him
give rise in you
to grief,
lamentaing,
suffering,
sorrow,
despair?"
[5][than] "Not even a changing,
a becoming otherwise in him,
friend Ānanda.[2]
Nevertheless I should [feel] thus: —
'O may not the mighty one,
O may not the Master
so gifted,
so wonderful
be taken from us!
Verily if the Exalted One
may abide yet a long while withus,
out of love to the world,
it would be for the weal,
the happiness
of many many folk,
the good,
the weal,
the happiness of devas and men!'"
[186] [6][than] "Surely long time
have notions of 'I'
and of 'mine'
and insidious conceits
been rooted out
from the venerable Sāriputta!
[7] On that account
is it that for the venerable Sāriputta
a changing,
a becoming otherwise
even in the Master
would not give rise to grief,
lamenting,
suffering,
sorrow,
despair."
[1] Sāriputta's personal name. See Pss. of the Brethren, loc. cit. This and the next four Suttas are all referred to Sāvatthī.
[2] I have ventured to place this sentence in Sāriputta's mouth, changing, in the Feer edition, 'Sāriputta' to Ānanda. It is unlikely S. would have kept silence; moreover, the wish expresed by S. is precisely that which Ā. was later on to utter too late. See Dialogues ii, 111.
