Reading guide
A litany built from ordinary domestic misfortune
Unlike this vagga's other verses, which engage directly with caste, purity, or ritual, this one stays entirely in the register of household complaint — livestock, crops, vermin, in-laws, debt — a catalogue anyone managing a household would immediately recognize.
A refrain repeated with mounting irony
‘That's why this ascetic is happy’ closes each stanza with the same conclusion, the repetition itself building a kind of wry commentary on how much domestic burden ordinary life carries compared to the Buddha's apparent freedom from all of it.
Confirmation instead of correction
The Buddha's reply doesn't reframe the brahmin's assumption or point toward some deeper source of happiness the list misses; it simply agrees with every single line, repeating the same structure back in the first person — a rare instance in this saṃyutta of the Buddha's answer being agreement rather than redirection.
Humor doing quiet teaching work
Though lighter in tone than the surrounding discourses, the litany still makes a real point: freedom from these specific worldly entanglements — property, dependents, debt, domestic conflict — genuinely does contribute to the Buddha's ease, without needing to be framed as a lofty philosophical claim to register as true.
A comic close before the vagga's own summary
The discourse ends with the same conversion and arahantship formula used throughout this vagga, followed immediately by the untranslated closing summary verse listing all ten discourse titles — Arahantavagga's first chapter complete, closing on laughter rather than gravity.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove. Now at that time one of the brahmins of the Bhāradvāja clan had lost fourteen oxen. While looking for them he went to that forest grove, where he saw the Buddha sitting down cross-legged, his body set straight, and mindfulness brought to the present. He went up to the Buddha, and recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence:
§2“This ascetic mustn’t have fourteen oxen missing for the past six days: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have a field of sesame ruined, with just one or two leaves: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have rats in a vacant barn dancing merrily: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have carpets that for seven months have been infested with fleas: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have seven widowed daughters with one or two children each: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have a wife with sallow, blotchy skin to wake him with a kick: that’s why this ascetic is happy. This ascetic mustn’t have creditors knocking at dawn, demanding, ‘Pay up! Pay up!’: that’s why this ascetic is happy.”
§3“You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have fourteen oxen missing for the past six days: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have a field of sesame ruined, with just one or two leaves: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have rats in a vacant barn dancing merrily: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have carpets that for seven months have been infested with fleas: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have seven widowed daughters with one or two children each: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have a wife with blotchy, pockmarked skin to wake me up with a kick: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin. You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have creditors knocking at dawn, warning, ‘Pay up! Pay up!’: that’s why I’m happy, brahmin.”
§4When he had spoken, the brahmin said to the Buddha, “Excellent, worthy 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 clear eyes can see what’s there, worthy Gotama has made the teaching clear in many ways. I go for refuge to the worthy Gotama, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Saṅgha. May I receive the going forth, the ordination in the worthy Gotama’s presence?”
§5And 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 nothing further for this place.” And Venerable Bhāradvāja became one of the perfected.
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