Reading guide
A direct continuation, not a fresh scene
This discourse opens exactly where SN 4.24 left off — Māra still sitting dejected after his own admission of seven years' failure — making this saṃyutta's final two discourses effectively a single extended episode split across two entries.
Daughters offering to succeed where the father failed
Craving, Malignancy, and Lust propose capturing the Buddha ‘with the snare of lust, like an elephant in the wild’, a confident offer their own father immediately dismisses — he already knows, from long experience, that the Buddha has slipped entirely free of his dominion.
Every stage of feminine form, exhaustively attempted
The daughters' campaign is systematic rather than a single attempt: young maidens, women who have never given birth, women who have given birth once, twice, middle-aged women, old women — an exhaustive catalogue of feminine form across an entire lifespan, each one met with the identical, unwavering result.
Ignored, not merely refused
The refrain repeated after each failed manifestation — the Buddha ‘ignored them, since he was freed with the supreme ending of attachments’ — is notably different from active rejection or argument; there is nothing in him for the offer to engage with at all.
Three individual questions, three precise answers
Having exhausted seduction, each daughter shifts register entirely, questioning the Buddha directly in verse: Craving asks about his solitude, Malignancy asks how a mendicant who has crossed five floods meditates while crossing the sixth, and Lust warns that he will lead many men away from Māra's grip — each met with a doctrinally precise answer rather than dismissal, the Buddha engaging seriously with questions asked seriously.
A father's mockery, and the collection's own final line
Māra's closing similes for his daughters' failure — drilling a mountain with a lotus stalk, chewing iron, digging a hill with fingernails — escalate the futility imagery already established at SN 4.24's crab and crow, before the narrative's own summary line and this collection's single translated closing colophon bring the entire Mārasaṃyutta to its formal close.
Key terms
The text
§1And then Māra the Wicked, after reciting these verses of disillusionment in the Buddha’s presence, left that place. He sat cross-legged on the ground not far from the Buddha, silent, dismayed, shoulders drooping, downcast, depressed, with nothing to say, scratching the ground with a stick. Then Māra’s daughters Craving, Malignancy, and Lust went up to Māra the Wicked, and addressed him in verse:
§2“Why so downhearted, dad? What man are you upset about? We’ll catch him with the snare of lust, like an elephant in the wild. We’ll tie him up and bring him back—he’ll fall under your sway!”
§3“In this world he is the perfected one, the Holy One. He’s not easily seduced by lust. He has slipped free of Māra’s dominion; that’s why I’m so upset.”
§4Then Māra’s daughters Craving, Malignancy, and Lust went up to the Buddha, and said to him, “We serve at your feet, ascetic.” But the Buddha ignored them, since he was freed with the supreme ending of attachments.
§5Then Craving, Malignancy, and Lust withdrew to one side to think up a plan. “Men have a diverse spectrum of tastes. Why don’t we each manifest in the form of a hundred young maidens?” So that’s what they did. Then they went up to the Buddha and said to him, “We serve at your feet, ascetic.” But the Buddha still ignored them, since he was freed with the supreme ending of attachments.
§6Then Craving, Malignancy, and Lust withdrew to one side to think up a plan. “Men have a diverse spectrum of tastes. Why don’t we each manifest in the form of a hundred women who have never given birth?” So that’s what they did. Then they went up to the Buddha and said to him, “We serve at your feet, ascetic.” But the Buddha still ignored them, since he was freed with the supreme ending of attachments.
§7But the Buddha still ignored them, since he was freed with the supreme ending of attachments. Then Craving, Malignancy, and Lust withdrew to one side and said, “What our father said is true:
§8‘In this world he is the perfected one, the Holy One. He’s not easily seduced by lust. He has slipped free of Māra’s dominion; that’s why I’m so upset.’
§9For if we had come on to any ascetic or brahmin like this who was not free of lust, his heart would explode, or he’d spew hot blood from his mouth, or he’d go mad or lose his mind. He’d dry up, wither away, and shrivel up like a green reed that was mowed down.”
§10Then Māra’s daughters Craving, Malignancy, and Lust went up to the Buddha, and stood to one side. Māra’s daughter Craving addressed the Buddha in verse: “Are you swamped by sorrow that you meditate in the forest? Have you lost a fortune, or do you long for one? Or perhaps you’ve committed some crime in the village? Why don’t you get too close to people? And why does no-one get close to you?” “I’ve reached the goal, peace of heart. Having conquered the army of the likable and pleasant, alone, practicing absorption, I awakened to bliss. That’s why I don’t get too close to people, and no-one gets too close to me.”
§11Then Māra’s daughter Malignancy addressed the Buddha in verse: “How does a mendicant who has crossed five floods usually meditate here while crossing the sixth? How do they usually practice absorption so that sensual perceptions are blocked out and don’t get hold of them?” “With tranquil body and mind well freed, without making choices, mindful, homeless; understanding the teaching, they practice absorption without placing the mind; they’re not shaking or drifting or rigid. That’s how a mendicant who has crossed five floods usually meditates here while crossing the sixth. That’s how they usually practice absorption so that sensual perceptions are blocked out and don’t get hold of them.”
§12Then Māra’s daughter Lust addressed the Buddha in verse: “He lives with his community after cutting off craving, and many of the faithful will cross over for sure. Alas, this homeless one will snatch many men away, and lead them past the King of Death!” “The great heroes they lead by means of the true teaching. When the Realized Ones are leading by the teaching, how could anyone who knows be jealous?”
§13Then Māra’s daughters Craving, Malignancy, and Lust went up to Māra the Wicked. Māra the Wicked saw them coming off in the distance, and addressed them in verse: “Fools! You drill into a mountain with lotus stalks! You dig up a hill with your nails! You chew iron with your teeth! You seek a footing in the abyss, as it were, while lifting a rock with your head! After attacking a stump with your breast, as it were, you leave Gotama disappointed.”
§14They came dazzling—Craving, Malignancy, and Lust. But the Teacher brushed them off right there, like the gale, a fallen tuft.
§15The Linked Discourses with Māra are complete.
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