Dutiyaaparihānasutta — Devatāvagga — the fourth chapter of the Sixes
Setting
Sāvatthī, in Jeta's Grove — narrated by the Buddha as having occurred 'tonight', the night before this telling
Speakers
The Buddha, recounting a deity's visit to the mendicants
Form
The Buddha's own retelling of a deity's report, closed with a verse restating the six items
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
As with AN 6.32, deity-visit narratives on non-decline recur across the Saṁyutta and its Chinese counterparts; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief, but worth reading beside AN 6.32 rather than skimmed as a duplicate
Why this discourse
AN 6.33 looks, at a glance, like a repeat of AN 6.32: another glorious deity lighting up Jeta's Grove, another report of six things preventing a mendicant's decline, four of them identical — respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and the training. Checked directly against the Pāli, though, the final two items are genuinely different: not diligence and hospitality, as at AN 6.32, but hirimā and ottappī, conscience and prudence — the same pair already introduced at AN 5.1's reading guide earlier in this series.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and the training, together with conscience and prudence, keeps a mendicant from decline.
Four shared items, two genuinely different ones
This discourse and AN 6.32 share their first four items outright: satthugāravatā, dhammagāravatā, saṅghagāravatā, sikkhāgāravatā. Where AN 6.32 closed with appamādagārava and paṭisanthāragārava, respect for diligence and for hospitality, this discourse closes instead with hirimā and ottappī — not phrased as a form of gārava, respect, at all, but as directly possessing conscience and prudence themselves.
A pair already met in this series
Conscience and prudence, hiri and ottappa, were introduced in detail at AN 5.1's reading guide, which called them lokapāla, world-protectors, following AN 2.9's earlier treatment. Their appearance here, closing a list otherwise built from respect for the three refuges and the training, ties this discourse back to that established pair rather than introducing new vocabulary.
A narrated retelling, not a live report
AN 6.32 narrates the deity's visit as an event the compiler describes directly. AN 6.33 frames the same kind of scene differently: the Buddha himself tells the mendicants, in his own words, “tonight, a glorious deity… came to me,” making this discourse the Buddha's first-person account rather than a third-person narration. The content parallels AN 6.32's structure closely, but the narrative voice does not.
Why check rather than assume
Given how closely this discourse resembles AN 6.32 — same opening scene, same four shared items, same closing verse pattern — the risk of treating it as a pure repeat is real. This page follows the same discipline already applied at AN 6.25 and AN 6.29: verify the actual terms before concluding two similar passages say the same thing.
Key terms
hirimā — “having conscience” — the fifth item here, distinct from AN 6.32's diligence.
ottappī — “having prudence” — the sixth and closing item here, distinct from AN 6.32's hospitality.
lokapāla — “world-protector” — the epithet AN 2.9 gives to conscience and prudence together, as discussed at AN 5.1's reading guide.
gārava — “respect” — still governing this discourse's first four items, though not its final two, which are named as qualities directly possessed rather than objects of respect.
satthugāravatā — “respect for the Teacher” — the first item, shared word for word with AN 6.32.
The text
The discourse in full: the Buddha's own account of the deity's visit, and his closing verse. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The Buddha recounts a deity's visit
§1“Tonight, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, came to me, bowed, stood to one side, and said to me: ‘Sir, these six things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant. What six? Respect for the Teacher, for the teaching, for the Saṅgha, for the training, for conscience, and for prudence. These six things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant.’ That is what that deity said. Then he bowed and respectfully circled me, keeping me on his right side, before vanishing right there.
The closing verse
§2One respectful of the Teacher and the teaching, keenly respecting the Saṅgha; endowed with conscience and prudence, reverential and respectful—it is impossible for them to decline; they have drawn near to extinguishment.”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
How many of the six items in this discourse match AN 6.32's list word for word?
Correct: C. The first four items are shared; the final two are genuinely different.
Question 2 of 10
What are this discourse's final two items, checked directly against the Pāli?
Correct: B. A genuine difference from AN 6.32's closing pair, not a paraphrase.
Question 3 of 10
Where were conscience and prudence previously introduced in this series?
Correct: B. This discourse ties back to an already-established pair rather than introducing new vocabulary.
Question 4 of 10
How does this discourse's narrative framing differ from AN 6.32's?
Correct: B. The same kind of scene, told in a different narrative voice.
Question 5 of 10
What discipline does the guide say it applies in reading this discourse against AN 6.32?
Correct: B. A consistent practice across this reading-guide project when discourses closely resemble each other.
Question 6 of 10
What does hirimā mean?
Correct: B. The fifth item in this discourse's list.
Question 7 of 10
Are the final two items here phrased as forms of 'respect' (gārava), like the first four?
Correct: B. A grammatical shift alongside the content shift, noted directly from the source.
Question 8 of 10
Where is AN 6.33 set?
Correct: B. The same location as AN 6.32, though narrated differently.
Question 9 of 10
What is the risk the guide identifies in reading this discourse quickly?
Correct: B. A close but not identical companion, worth reading side by side rather than skimmed.
Question 10 of 10
What does ottappī mean?
Correct: B. The sixth and closing item of this discourse's list.
