The Buddha, addressing the mendicants; within the story, Sakka addressing the gods of the Thirty-Three in the Sudhamma assembly hall
Form
A single closing verse, sealed by two nested colophons
Length
~1.5 minutes to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief in content, but closing two levels of structure at once
Why this discourse
This is the final discourse of Sakkasaṃyutta — and, with it, of all eleven saṃyuttas making up Sagāthāvagga, the Saṃyutta Nikāya's first book. Its content is modest: one more verse from Sakka on refusing to let anger take command, closing on the same image of anger crushing bad people like a mountain already given in SN 11.24. But the discourse carries two colophons where most carry one — "The Linked Discourses with Sakka are complete" and, immediately after, "The Book With Verses is finished" — marking the end of a chapter and the end of an entire book in the same breath.
Reading guide
A brief verse doing the work of a capstone
Nothing about the verse itself announces that anything is ending; its content is a modest, familiar teaching on anger, and only the colophons that follow reveal how much structural weight this short discourse actually carries.
A deliberate echo of the discourse just before it
The verse's closing image — anger crushing bad people like a mountain — repeats SN 11.24's own closing line nearly word for word, a reprise rather than a coincidence, tying the chapter's last two discourses together explicitly.
An anger theme completing its own arc across this chapter
Tatiyavagga opened with SN 11.21's direct instruction to kill anger and SN 11.22's fable of an anger-eating spirit starved by calm humility; this closing verse returns to the same theme one final time, bringing the chapter's own thread full circle.
Two colophons, not one
Most discourses closing a saṃyutta in this collection carry a single translated closing line; this one carries two in sequence — first sealing Sakkasaṃyutta itself, then immediately sealing the entire Sagāthāvagga that Sakkasaṃyutta completes.
A summary verse naming all eleven saṃyuttas by name
The source text's closing uddāna doesn't only list Tatiyavagga's five discourse titles; a second summary verse names all eleven saṃyuttas of this entire book in order — deities, godlings, the king, Māra, nuns, Brahmā, brahmins, Vaṅgīsa, the forest, native spirits, and Vāsava — a structural index this reading guide describes rather than reproduces verbatim, matching this site's established practice for untranslated peyyāla passages.
Key terms
mā vo kodho ajjhabhavi — “don't let anger be your master” — the closing verse's opening instruction.
mā ca kujjhittha kujjhataṁ — “don't get angry at angry people” — directly addressing the temptation of reciprocal anger.
akkodho avihiṁsā ca, ariyesu ca paṭipadā — “kindness and harmlessness are always present in the noble ones” — the positive counterpart, naming what actually characterizes the noble.
atha pāpajanaṁ kodho, pabbatovābhimaddati — “anger crushes bad people like a mountain” — the same closing image already given in SN 11.24, deliberately echoed here.
sakkasaṁyuttaṁ samattaṁ… sagāthāvaggasaṁyuttapāḷi niṭṭhitā — “the Linked Discourses with Sakka are complete… the Book With Verses is finished” — two nested colophons, closing a chapter and a book in the same breath.
The text
The discourse in full, closing Sakkasaṃyutta and all of Sagāthāvagga. Both closing colophons are quoted verbatim, as this site does whenever the translation itself renders them; the closing uddāna verses (Tatiyavagga's five titles, and the full eleven-saṃyutta summary) are structural indexes and are described in the guide rather than reproduced here. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Once upon a time, mendicants, Sakka, lord of gods, guiding the gods of the thirty-three, spoke this verse:
§2‘Don’t let anger be your master, don’t get angry at angry people. Kindness and harmlessness are always present in the noble ones. For anger crushes bad people like a mountain.’”
§3The Linked Discourses with Sakka are complete.
§4The Book With Verses is finished.
· · ·
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
What does this discourse's content actually consist of?
Correct: A. A modest teaching whose structural weight comes from what follows it.
Question 2 of 10
What closing image does this verse share with SN 11.24?
Correct: A. A deliberate echo rather than a coincidence.
Question 3 of 10
How many colophons does this discourse carry, and why?
Correct: A. Sealing a chapter and an entire book in the same breath.
Question 4 of 10
What does the first colophon state?
Correct: A. Sealing Sakkasaṃyutta specifically, the twenty-five discourses just completed.
Question 5 of 10
What does the second colophon state?
Correct: A. Marking the completion of Sagāthāvagga, this collection's entire first book.
Question 6 of 10
What theme does this closing discourse bring full circle across Tatiyavagga?
Correct: A. Returning to the chapter's opening subject one final time.
Question 7 of 10
What does the verse instruct regarding anger directed at oneself by others?
Correct: A. Addressing the specific temptation of reciprocal anger.
Question 8 of 10
What qualities does the verse say are always present in the noble ones?
Correct: A. The positive counterpart to the instruction against anger.
Question 9 of 10
Besides Tatiyavagga's five titles, what does the source text's closing uddāna also list?
Correct: A. A structural index summarizing the entire book by chapter name.
Question 10 of 10
Where does the Buddha narrate this closing story to the monks?
Correct: A. The same setting used to open this entire saṃyutta in SN 11.1.
