SN9:8 Family Mistress
- DG BB TBW © Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi. (More copyright information)
1On one occasion a certain bhikkhu was dwelling among the Kosalans in a certain woodland thicket. Now on that occasion that bhikkhu had become excessively intimate with a certain family. Then the devata that inhabited that woodland thicket, having compassion for that bhikkhu, desiring his good, desiring to stir up a sense of urgency in him, manifested herself in the form of the mistress of that family. Having approached that bhikkhu, she addressed him in verse: [n.547] Spk: He had received a meditation subject from the Buddha and entered a woodland thicket. The next day a family gave him alms and offered to provide him with regular support. Thereby he attained arahantship and continued to dwell in the same place enjoying the bliss of fruition attainment. The devatā (a female) was not aware of the elder’s attainment and thought he had formed an intimate relationship with the mistress of the family. Therefore she came in order to reproach him. Neither Spk nor Spk-pṭ comments on the rare expression kulagharaṇī.
2v.780 "By the riverbanks and in the rest house,
In the meeting halls and along the roads,
People meet and gossip about this:
What's going on between you and me?"
The bhikkhu:
3v.781 "There are many disagreeable sounds
That an ascetic must patiently endure.
One should not be dismayed because of that,
For it is not by this one is defiled.
4v.782 "If one is frightened by random sounds
Like an antelope dwelling in the woods,
They call him ‘one with a fickle mind’:
His practice does not succeed."
The antelope (vatamiga, lit. "wind-deer") is the subject of Ja No. 14. Spk: As an antelope in the woods becomes frightened by the sound of the wind rustling the leaves, so is it with one frightened by sounds (i.e., by rumours). The practice (vata) of one who is fickle-minded (lahucitta, lit. "light-minded") does not succeed; but this elder, being an arahant, was one with a successful practice.
1Ekaṁ samayaṁ aññataro bhikkhu kosalesu vihārati aññatarasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe. Tena kho pana samayena so bhikkhu aññatarasmiṁ kule ativelaṁ ajjhogāḷhappatto vihārati. Atha kho yā tasmiṁ vanasaṇḍe adhivatthā devatā tassa bhikkhuno anukampikā atthakāmā taṁ bhikkhuṁ saṁvejetukāmā yā tasmiṁ kule kulagharaṇī, tassā vaṇṇaṁ abhinimminitvā yena so bhikkhu tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā taṁ bhikkhuṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi:
2"Nadītīresu saṇṭhāne,
sabhāsu rathiyāsu ca;
Janā saṅgamma mantenti,
mañca tañca kimantaran"ti.
3"Bahūhi saddā paccūhā,
khamitabbā tapassinā;
Na tena maṅku hotabbaṁ,
na hi tena kilissati.
4Yo ca saddaparittāsī,
vane vātamigo yathā;
Lahucittoti taṁ āhu,
nāssa sampajjate vatan"ti.