1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.

Now at that time a certain brahmin lady of the Bhāradvāja clan named Dhanañjānī was devoted to the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha. Once, while she was bringing her husband his meal she tripped and was inspired to exclaim three times:

2“Homage to that Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha!

3Homage to that Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha!

4Homage to that Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha!”

5When she said this, the brahmin said to Dhanañjānī:

“That’d be right. For the slightest thing this wretched lady spouts out praise for that bald ascetic. Right now, wretched woman, I’m going to refute your teacher’s doctrine!”

“Brahmin, I don’t see anyone in this world — with its gods, Māras, and Brahmās, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its gods and humans — who can refute the doctrine of the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha. But anyway, you should go. When you’ve gone you’ll understand.”

6Then the brahmin of the Bhāradvāja clan, angry and upset, went to the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side, and addressed the Buddha in verse:

7“When what is incinerated do you sleep at ease?
When what is incinerated is there no sorrow?
What is the one thing
whose killing you approve?”

8“When anger’s incinerated you sleep at ease.
When anger’s incinerated there is no sorrow.
O brahmin, anger has a poisoned root
and a honey tip.
The noble ones praise its killing,
for when it’s incinerated there is no sorrow.”

9When he said this, the brahmin said to the Buddha: “Excellent, Master Gotama! Excellent! As if he were righting the overturned, or revealing the hidden, or pointing out the path to the lost, or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with good eyes can see what’s there, Master Gotama has made the teaching clear in many ways. I go for refuge to Master Gotama, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Saṅgha. Sir, may I receive the going forth, the ordination in the Buddha’s presence?”

10And the brahmin received the going forth, the ordination in the Buddha’s presence. Not long after his ordination, Venerable Bhāradvāja, living alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute, soon realized the supreme end of the spiritual path in this very life. He lived having achieved with his own insight the goal for which gentlemen rightly go forth from the lay life to homelessness.

He understood: “Rebirth is ended; the spiritual journey has been completed; what had to be done has been done; there is no return to any state of existence.” And Venerable Bhāradvāja became one of the perfected.

1Evaṁ me sutaṁ — ekaṁ samayaṁ bhagavā rājagahe vihārati veḷuvane kalandakanivāpe.

Tena kho pana samayena aññatarassa bhāradvājagottassa brāhmaṇassa dhanañjānī nāma brāhmaṇī abhippasannā hoti buddhe ca dhamme ca saṅghe ca. Atha kho dhanañjānī brāhmaṇī bhāradvājagottassa brāhmaṇassa bhattaṁ upasaṁharantī upakkhalitvā tikkhattuṁ udānaṁ udānesi: 

2"Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa.

3Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa.

4Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassā"ti.

5Evaṁ vutte, bhāradvājagotto brāhmaṇo dhanañjāniṁ brāhmaṇiṁ etadavoca:

"evamevaṁ panāyaṁ vasalī yasmiṁ vā tasmiṁ vā tassa muṇḍakassa samaṇassa vaṇṇaṁ bhāsati. Idāni tyāhaṁ, vasali, tassa satthuno vādaṁ āropessāmī"ti.

"Na khvāhaṁ taṁ, brāhmaṇa, passāmi sadevake loke samārake sabrahmake sassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya, yo tassa bhagavato vādaṁ āropeyya arahato sammāsambuddhassa. Api ca tvaṁ, brāhmaṇa, gaccha, gantvā vijānissasī"ti.

6Atha kho bhāradvājagotto brāhmaṇo kupito anattamano yena bhagavā tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā bhagavatā saddhiṁ sammodi. Sammodanīyaṁ kathaṁ sāraṇīyaṁ vītisāretvā ekamantaṁ nisīdi. Ekamantaṁ nisinno kho bhāradvājagotto brāhmaṇo bhagavantaṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi: 

7"Kiṁsu chetvā sukhaṁ seti,
kiṁsu chetvā na socati;
Kissassu ekadhammassa,
vadhaṁ rocesi gotamā"ti.

8"Kodhaṁ chetvā sukhaṁ seti,
kodhaṁ chetvā na socati;
Kodhassa visamūlassa,
madhuraggassa brāhmaṇa;
Vadhaṁ ariyā pasaṁsanti,
tañhi chetvā na socatī"ti.

9Evaṁ vutte, bhāradvājagotto brāhmaṇo bhagavantaṁ etadavoca: "Abhikkantaṁ, bho gotama, abhikkantaṁ, bho gotama. Seyyathāpi, bho gotama, nikkujjitaṁ vā ukkujjeyya, paṭicchannaṁ vā vivareyya, mūḷhassa vā maggaṁ ācikkheyya, andhakāre vā telapajjotaṁ dhāreyya: ‘cakkhumanto rūpāni dakkhantī’ti; evamevaṁ bhotā gotamena anekapariyāyena dhammo pakāsito. Esāhaṁ, bhante, bhagavantaṁ gotamaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi dhammañca bhikkhusaṅghañca. Labheyyāhaṁ bhoto gotamassa santike pabbajjaṁ, labheyyaṁ upasampadan"ti.

10Alattha kho bhāradvājagotto brāhmaṇo bhagavato santike pabbajjaṁ, alattha upasampadaṁ. Acirūpasampanno kho panāyasmā bhāradvājo eko vūpakaṭṭho appamatto ātāpī pahitatto vihāranto nacirasseva – yassatthāya kulaputtā sammadeva agārasmā anagāriyaṁ pabbajanti tadanuttaraṁ – brahmacariyapariyosānaṁ diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja vihāsi.

"Khīṇā jāti, vusitaṁ brahmacariyaṁ, kataṁ karaṇīyaṁ, nāparaṁ itthattāyā"ti abbhaññāsi. Aññataro ca panāyasmā bhāradvājo arahataṁ ahosīti.