Saṁyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
9. Vana-Saṁyutta
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
9. The Forest Suttas
Sutta 1
Viveka Suttaṁ
Detachment1
[250]
THUS HAVE I HEARD: —
A certain brother was once staying among the Kosalese,
in a certain forest tract.
Now on that occasion,
while taking siesta,
he indulged in wrong and evil thoughts
connected with worldly matters.2
Then a deva who haunted that forest,
moved with compassion for that brother,
desiring his welfare,
and wishing to agitate him,
drew nigh to him and addressed him in the verses: —
"Into the wood fain for detachment come,
Lo! how thy vagrant mind wanders without.
As man for men, suppress all purposes3;
Thereby shalt thou be happy, rid of lusts.
Thrust out4 thy disaffection! heedful thou!
Become5 one of the good! that we approve.6
For hard is it to outstrip the reek of hell.7
[251] Be not swept down with reek of sense-desires.
Just as a bird sand-flecked, shaking itself
Throws off the dust adhering [to its plumes],
So the good brother, heedful, strenuous,
Shaking himself, throws off the adhering dust."
Then that brother agitated by the deva, was greatly moved.
1 The school-men distinguish three forms of viveka: (1) of the body, or physical solitude, (2) of the mind, (3) of Nibbāna, or severance from all aims connected with worldly, or any other form of life.
2 Geha-: lit. domestic life, and life in the world generally (geha = house).
3 Chanda, desire-to-do. Unparticularized, the term often implies irreligious, worldly desire or intention, and dhamma- is sometimes prefixed in the opposite connection.
4 Pajahāsi.
5 Bhavāsi.
6 A very obscure line. The Comy. reads saddāyamāmase, and has: 'him who is mindful, wise, we too are pleased. Or the meaning is "the norm of the good, that we approve."' The text has sarāyamdmase — 'we bear in mind.'
7 On pāṭāla see I, 5, § 4; IV, 3, § 5. 'Reek' and 'dust' are in the Pali rajo, on which see p. 5, n. 2. I have not anywhere else met either the compound pāṭāla-rajo, or dur-uttamaṁ, here rendered 'hard to outstrip'.