SN9:5 Ānanda
- DG BB TBW © Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi. (More copyright information)
1On one occasion the Venerable Ānanda was dwelling among the Kosalans in a certain woodland thicket. Now on that occasion the Venerable Ānanda was excessively involved instructing lay people. [n.541] Spk: This sutta takes place shortly after the Buddha’s parinibbāna. The Venerable Mahākassapa had enjoined Ānanda to attain arahantship before the first Buddhist council convened, scheduled to begin during the rains retreat. Ānanda had gone to the Kosala country and entered a forest abode to meditate, but when the people found out he was there they continually came to him lamenting over the demise of the Master. Thus Ānanda constantly had to instruct them in the law of impermanence. The devata, aware that the council could succeed only if Ānanda attended as an arahant, came to incite him to resume his meditation. Then the devata that inhabited that woodland thicket, having compassion for the Venerable Ānanda, desiring his good, desiring to stir up a sense of urgency in him, approached him and addressed him in verse:
2v.772 "Having entered the thicket at the foot of a tree,
Having placed Nibbāna in your heart, sn.i.200
Meditate, Gotama, and don’t be negligent!
What will this hullabaloo do for you?"
[n.542] At Th 119 the verse is ascribed to one Vajjiputtaka Thera but is not found among Ānanda's own verses in Th.
All four eds. read pāda b: Nibbānaṁ hadayasmiṁ opiya. At Th 119 the last word is read osiya, and we should adopt this reading here. I take it as absolutive of the verb oseti proposed by Norman at EV I, n. to 119. Spk supports this with its gloss pakkhipitva, "having placed." Spk explains that one deposits Nibbāna in one's heart by way of function (kiccato) and by way of object (arammaṇato): by way of function when one arouses energy with the thought, "I will attain Nibbāna"; by way of object when one sits absorbed in a meditative attainment having Nibbāna as its object (i.e., in phalasamāpatti, the attainment of fruition).
In pāda d, biḷibiḷika is explained by Spk-pṭ as purposeless activity (atthavirahita pavatta kiriya). The devata refers thus to Ānanda's talk with the lay people because it does not conduce to his attainment of the goal of the holy life.
3Then the Venerable Ānanda, stirred up by that deity, acquired a sense of urgency.
1Ekaṁ samayaṁ āyasmā ānando kosalesu vihārati aññatarasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe. Tena kho pana samayena āyasmā ānando ativelaṁ gihisaññattibahulo vihārati. Atha kho yā tasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe adhivatthā devatā āyasmato ānandassa anukampikā atthakāmā āyasmantaṁ Ānandaṁ saṁvejetukāmā yenāyasmā ānando tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā āyasmantaṁ Ānandaṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi:
2"Rukkhamūlagahanaṁ pasakkiya,
Nibbānaṁ hadayasmiṁ opiya;
Jhāya gotama mā pamādo,
Kiṁ te biḷibiḷikā karissatī"ti.
3Atha kho āyasmā ānando tāya devatāya saṁvejito saṁvegamāpādīti.