Reading guide
A near-total repetition, not a variation
Unlike this collection's more common pattern of single-word substitutions within an otherwise identical verse, this discourse repeats SN 11.1's entire structure — prose framing, threefold failure, full verse exchange, and closing moral — changing only the name of the godling addressed.
A lesson that doesn't depend on individual character
Because the substitution changes nothing about the content or outcome, the discourse implicitly suggests that Sakka's point isn't really about Suvīra or Susīma specifically; the same wish for effortless happiness, and the same revealing response to it, could apply to any godling placed in the same position.
Elision in the source, not full restatement
The Pali source itself doesn't fully spell out the second and third repetitions of Sakka's command; it uses an elision marker, trusting the reader to recall the pattern already established in the discourse immediately before it.
A structural device found elsewhere in this collection
Twin discourses differing only by a substituted name or single word appear at various points across this site's coverage of the Saṃyutta Nikāya; this pairing continues that pattern rather than introducing something new to it.
Best read as a pair, not read twice for new content
This reading guide recommends approaching SN 11.1 and SN 11.2 together as a single teaching told twice, rather than expecting this discourse to offer content genuinely distinct from its companion.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
§2“Once upon a time, mendicants, the titans marched against the gods. Then Sakka, lord of gods, addressed the godling Susīma, ‘Dear Susīma, the titans march against the gods! Go, and march against the titans!’ ‘Yes, lord,’ replied Susīma. But he fell into negligence. For a second time … For a third time … Then Sakka addressed the godling Susīma in verse:
§3‘Susīma, go to that place where you can achieve happiness without working for it or trying hard—and take me with you!’
§4‘That a lazy man who does no work, and doesn’t do his duty, should fulfill all his desires: Sakka, render me this boon!’
§5‘Susīma, go to that place where a lazy man who does no work prospers in unending happiness—and take me with you!’
§6‘O Sakka, first among gods, that we might find the happiness that’s sorrowless, unstressed: Sakka, render me this boon!’
§7‘If there exists anywhere a place where one can live happily without working, that surely would be extinguishment’s path! Susīma, go to that place and take me with you!’
§8Since, mendicants, even that Sakka, lord of gods—while living off of the fruit of his good deeds, and ruling as sovereign lord over these gods of the thirty-three—will speak in praise of initiative and energy, you can excel at this, for you who have gone forth in such a well explained teaching and training can try hard, strive, and make an effort to attain the unattained, achieve the unachieved, and realize the unrealized.”
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