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Saṁyutta Nikāya — The Connected Discourses

SN9: Connected Discourses in the Woods

SN9:3 Kassapagotta

1On one occasion the Venerable Kassapagotta was dwelling among the Kosalans in a certain woodland thicket. Now on that occasion, when he had gone for his day's abiding, the Venerable Kassapagotta exhorted a certain hunter.[n.538] Spk glosses cheta with migaluddaka, a deer-hunter. He had gone out that morning to hunt and was pursuing a deer when he came upon the elder meditating in the woods. The elder set about teaching him the Dhamma, but though the hunter looked with his eyes and listened with his ears, his mind still ran in pursuit of the deer. Then the devata that inhabited that woodland thicket, having compassion for the Venerable Kassapagotta, desiring his good, desiring to stir up a sense of urgency in him, approached him and addressed him in verses:

1Ekaṁ samayaṁ āyasmā kassapagotto kosalesu vihārati aññatarasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe. Tena kho pana samayena āyasmā kassapagotto divāvihāragato aññataraṁ chetaṁ ovadati. Atha kho yā tasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe adhivatthā devatā āyasmantaṁ kassapagottaṁ saṁvejetukāmā yenāyasmā kassapagotto tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā āyasmantaṁ kassapagottaṁ gāthāhi ajjhabhāsi: 

2v.767 "The bhikkhu strikes me as a dolt
Who out of season exhorts a hunter
Roaming in the rugged mountains
With little wisdom, devoid of sense.

3v.768 "He listens but does not understand,
He looks but does not see;
Though the Dhamma is being spoken,
The fool does not grasp the meaning. sn.i.199

4v.769 "Even if you would bring ten lamps
Into his presence, Kassapa,
Still he would not see forms,
For he does not have eyes to see."

2"Giriduggacaraṁ chetaṁ,
appapaññaṁ acetasaṁ;
Akāle ovadaṁ bhikkhu,
mandova paṭibhāti maṁ.

3Suṇāti na vijānāti,
Āloketi na passati;
Dhammasmiṁ bhaññamānasmiṁ,
Atthaṁ bālo na bujjhati.

4Sacepi dasa pajjote,
dhārayissasi kassapa;
Neva dakkhati rūpāni,
cakkhu hissa na vijjatī"ti.

5Then the Venerable Kassapagotta, stirred up by that devata, acquired a sense of urgency.

5Atha kho āyasmā kassapagotto tāya devatāya saṁvejito saṁvegamāpādīti.