Reading guide
A discovery relayed secondhand before the encounter proper
Unlike most of this saṃyutta's discourses, the Buddha isn't first noticed by the person who eventually questions him; a group of students discovers him and brings the news to their teacher, who then makes a separate trip to see for himself.
Admiration stated without hostility or challenge
The brahmin's verse carries real aesthetic and spiritual appreciation — ‘how beautifully you meditate’ — a tone distinct from both the confrontational openings of Arahantavagga and the more neutral curiosity of discourses like SN 7.17.
A specific, nameable goal assumed rather than asked about
The brahmin doesn't simply wonder what the Buddha is doing; he proposes a specific explanation — practicing austerity to be reborn as ruler of the Third Heaven — a concrete Brahmanical goal for ascetic practice that the verse offers as its own working hypothesis.
Every wish traced to a single root and removed entirely
The Buddha's reply doesn't address the heavenly-rebirth hypothesis item by item; it traces all such wishes and hopes back to a single source — unknowing — and states that source has been eliminated completely, down to the root.
Awakening named as a different kind of goal entirely
The verse's closing lines don't just deny wanting heavenly rebirth; they name what has actually been attained instead — supreme awakening — making clear this isn't an absence of goals but a different category of goal altogether, one that ends the very wishing that heavenly rebirth would only extend.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove. Then several students, pupils of one of the Bhāradvāja brahmins, approached a forest grove while collecting firewood. They saw the Buddha sitting down cross-legged at the root of a certain sal tree, his body set straight, and mindfulness brought to the present. Seeing this, they went up to Bhāradvāja and said to him, “Please sir, you should know this. In such and such a forest grove the ascetic Gotama is sitting down cross-legged, his body set straight, and mindfulness brought to the present.” Then Bhāradvāja together with those young students 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 addressed him in verse:
§2“Deep in the jungle so full of terrors, you’ve plunged into the empty, desolate wilderness. Still, steady, and graceful: how beautifully you meditate, mendicant!
§3Where there is no song or music, a lonely sage resorts to the wilderness. This strikes me as an amazing thing, that you dwell so joyfully alone in the jungle.
§4I suppose you wish to be reborn in the company of the supreme world-sovereign of the Third Heaven. Is that why you resort to the desolate wilderness, to practice fervor for attaining divinity?”
§5“Any wishes and hopes that are always attached to the many and various realms—the yearnings sprung from the root of unknowing—I’ve eliminated them all down to the root.
§6So I’m wishless, unattached, uninvolved; amongst all things, my vision is clear. I’ve attained the state of grace, the supreme awakening; I meditate alone, brahmin, and self-assured.”
§7When he had spoken, Bhāradvāja said to the Buddha, “Excellent, worthy Gotama! Excellent! … From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.