Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(246):Anna-Kondanna
Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'.
Chapter XV.
Sixteen Verses[]
246. Añña-Koṇḍañña[]
Reborn before our Exalted One(Buddha), in the village of Dona-vatthu, not far from Kapilavatthu, in a very wealthy brahmin(priest) family, he came to be called by his family name, Koṇḍañña. When grown up he knew the three Vedas, and excelled in knowledge concerning marks.[1] Now when our Bodhisat was born, he was among the eight brahmins(priests) sent for to prognosticate. And though he was quite a novice, he saw the marks of the Great Man on the infant, and said: 'Verily this one will be a Buddha!' So he lived, awaiting the Great Being's renunciation. When this happened in the Bodhisat's twenty-ninth year, Koṇḍañña heard of it, and left the world(for monkhood) with four other sons of mark-interpreting brahmins(priests) , Vappa[2] and others, and for six years lived at Uruvelā, near the Bodhisat, during the latter's great struggle. Then when the Bodhisat ceased to fast, they were disgusted, and went to Isipatana. There the Buddha followed them, and preached his Wheel sermon, by which Koṇḍañña and myriads of Brahma(ArchAngel) won the fruition of the first path(of nirvanic trance). And on the fifth day, through the sermon on 'No Sign of any Self,' Koṇḍañña realized arahantship(enlightenment). Him the Lord(Buddha), later on, in conclave at the great Jeta Grove Vihara(monastery), ranked chief among those bhikkhus(monks) who were of long standing in the Monk’s order.[3] And on one occasion Koṇḍañña's sermon on the Four Truths - a discourse carrying the impress of the three signs, dealing with non-substantiality, varied by many methods, based on Nibbāna, and delivered with the Buddha's own fluency - so impressed Sakka the god(king of gods) that he uttered this verse:
[673] Esa [69] bhiyyo pasīdāmi sutvā dhammaɱ mahārasaɱ,||
Virāgo desito dhammo anupādāya sabbaso.|| ||
[673] Hearing your doctrine's mighty properties,
Lo! I by that am more than satisfied.
Most passionless and pure the Path(Dhamma) thus taught,
From every form of grasping wholly free.[4]
On another occasion the Thera, seeing how the minds of certain worldly people were mastered by wrong ideas, delivered himself on this wise:
[674] Bahūni loke citrāni asamiɱ paṭhavimaṇḍale,||
Mathenti maññe saŋkappaɱ subhaɱ rāgūpasaɱhitaɱ.|| ||
[675] Rajamuhataɱ ca vātena yathā meghopasammaye,||
Evaɱ sammanti saŋkappā yadā paññāya passati, || ||
[676] Sabbe saŋkhārā aniccāti yadā paññāya passati,||
Atha nibbindati dukkhe esa maggo visuddhiyā.|| ||
[677] Sabbe saŋkhārā dukkhāti yadā paññāya passati,||
Atha nibbindati dukkhe esa maggo visuddhiyā.|| ||
[678] Sabbe dhammā anattā' ti yadā paññāya passati,||
Atha nibbindati dukkhe esa maggo visuddhiyā.|| ||
[674] Many the motley pictures in the world,
Enjoyed within this earth's circumference,
Inciting, I do note, man's purposes,
Fair-seeming hopes, and linked with fierce desire.
[675] As dust by wind upchurned the rain-cloud lays,
So are those purposes composed and quenched,
When he by wisdom did discern and see.
[676] When he by wisdom did discern and see:
'Impermanent is everything in life,'
Then he at all this suffering feels disgust.
Lo! in this lies the way to purity.
[286][677] When he by wisdom did discern and see,
That 'Everything in life is bound to get sorrow'[5]
Then he at all this suffering feels disgust.
Lo! in this lies the way to purity.
[678] That 'Everything in life is Void of Self,'
Then he at all this suffering feels disgust.
Lo! in this lies the way to purity.
Upon that he showed that he had himself attained this insight, confessing aññā(supreme attainment), and saying:
[679] Buddhānubuddho yo thero koṇḍañño tibbanikkamo,||
Pahīnajātimaraṇo brahmacariyassa kevalī.|| ||
[680] Oghapāso daḷhakhilo pabbato duppadāliyo,||
Chetvā khilaɱ ca pāsaɱ ca selaɱ bhetvāna dubbhidaɱ,||
Tiṇṇo pāraŋgato jhāyī mutto so mārabandhanā.|| ||
[679] Monk Koṇḍañña., awakened by the Awakened One(Lord Buddha): -
Lo! he has passed with vigour out and on;
Removed off has he the dyings and the births,
Wholly accomplishing the life sublime.
[680] And be it 'flood' or 'trap' or 'stumbling-stone,'
Or be it 'mountain' hard to split in two,[6]
The net, the stumbling-stone I have hacked away,
And split is the rock so hard to break,
And crossed the flood. Rapt in ecstatic thought
I live, from bondage unto evil freed.
Now one day the Thera rebuked a bhikkhu, who had fallen into bad habits through unworthy friendships, and addressed him, saying:
[681] Uddhato capalo bhakkhu mitte āgamma pāpake,||
Saɱsīdati mahoghasmiɱ ūmiyā paṭikujjito.|| ||
[682] Anuddhato acapalo nipako saɱvutindriyo,||
Kalyāṇamitto medhāvī dukkhassantakaro siyā.|| ||
[683] Kālapabbaŋgasaŋkāso kiso dhamanisanthato,||
Mattaññū annapānasmiɱ adīnamānaso naro.|| ||
[684] Phuṭṭho ḍaɱsehi makasehi araññasmiɱ brahāvane,||
Nāgo saŋgāmasīse'va sato tatrādhivāsaye.|| ||
[685] Nābhinandāmi maraṇaɱ nābhinandāmi jīvitaɱ,||
Kālaɱ ca patikaŋkhāmi nibbisaɱ bhatako yathā.|| ||
[686] Nābhinandāmi maraṇaɱ nābhinandāmi jīvitaɱ,||
Kālaɱ ca patikaŋkhāmi sampajāno patissato.|| ||
[687] Pariciṇṇo mayā satthā kataɱ buddhassa sāsanaɱ,||
Ohito garuko bhāro bhavanetti samūhatā.|| ||
[688] Yassatthāya pabbajito agārasmānagāriyaɱ,||
So me attho anuppatto kiɱ me saddhivihārinā'ti. || ||
[681] A bhikkhu(monk) of distraught, unsteady mind,
Who did associate with vicious friends,
In the great flood [of constant living] falls
Headlong and drowning sinks beneath its waves.
[682] But who, with concentrated, steady mind,
Discreet and self-restrained in heart and sense,
Did wisely join himself to virtuous friends,
His it may be to put an end to sorrow.
[287][683] Lo! here1 a man with worn and pallid frame;
Like knotted stems of cane his joints, and sharp
emaciated network of his veins;
In food and drink austerely temperate,
His spirit neither crushed nor desolate.
[684] In the great forest, in the mighty woods,
Touched though I be by gadfly and by gnat,
I yet would roam, like warrior-elephant,
In van of battle, mindful, vigilant.
[685] With thought[7] of death I become easy not, nor yet
Delight in living. I await the hour
Like any hireling who has done his task.
[686] With thought of death I become easy not, nor yet
Delight in living. I await the hour
With mind discerning and with full meditative attentiveness.
[687] The Lord(Buddha) has my loyalty and love,
And all the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Low have I laid the heavy load I was having,
Cause for rebirth is found in me no more.
[688] The Good[8] for which I gave the world farewell,
And left the home to lead the homeless life,
That highest Good have I accomplished.
What need have I as monk to live?
[1] Dialogues, i. 17, n. 2. On the prophecy, see a fuller version in Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 72 f.
[2] See above, LXI.
[3] Ang., i. 26. For the Buddha's sermon, see Vinaya Texts, i. 100 f. [Ed.: see also the various translations of SN 3.22.59, and for Warren's translation of the Vinaya version: Buddhism in Translations, page 146]
[4] Anupādāya, paraphrased by agahetvā vimuttisādhanavaeena pavattattā.
[5] Here repeat the two preceding lines. Cf. Dhammapada, verses 277-279.
[6] All metaphors from the Suttas - e.g., Dīgha Nik., iii. 230; Saŋy. Nik., i. 105 f.; i. 27; Majjh. Nik., iii. 130.
[7] = CLXXVIII. This to enjoin the hermit-life on the erring one (Commentary).
[8] = verses 606 f., 654 f.; 604 and 655.