Reading guide
A dismissal delivered before any exchange begins
Unlike every other discourse in this vagga, there's no greeting, no question, no approach at all before the insult; the crowd judges and rejects the Buddha purely from a distance, based on appearance alone.
A whole assembly's contempt, not one brahmin's anger
This is the only discourse in the entire saṃyutta where the hostile party is a collective — ‘the brahmins and householders of Khomadussa’ — rather than a single named individual, scaling up the confrontation to match the discourse's role as the saṃyutta's close.
A redefinition of the word at the center of the insult
Rather than defending his own right to approach, the Buddha's verse redefines ‘council’ itself — not a gathering by status or seating arrangement, but one where good people, defined by their speech and conduct, are actually present.
Speech against principle as the true disqualification
The verse doesn't locate goodness in birth, appearance, or standing within the group that dismissed him; it names speaking against principle — dhamma — as precisely what disqualifies someone from being ‘good’, regardless of who is doing the dismissing.
A collective conversion matching the collective confrontation
Where every other discourse in this vagga closes with a single individual's declaration of lay refuge, this one closes with the entire assembly speaking together — ‘may you remember us’, plural — the scale of the ending matching the scale of the opening dismissal, and closing the whole saṃyutta on a note of collective reversal.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans, where they have a town named Khomadussa. Then the Buddha robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Khomadussa for alms. Now at that time the brahmins and householders of Khomadussa were gathered in the council hall for some business, while a gentle rain drizzled down. Then the Buddha approached that council. The brahmins and householders saw the Buddha coming off in the distance, and said, “Who are these shavelings, these fake ascetics? Don’t they understand the council rules?” Then the Buddha addressed the brahmins and householders of Khomadussa in verse:
§2“If good people are not present it is no true council; and those whose speak against principle are not good people. Having given up greed, hate, and delusion, speakers of principle are good people.”
§3When he had spoken, the brahmins and householders of Khomadussa 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. We go for refuge to the worthy Gotama, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Saṅgha. From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember us as lay followers who have gone for refuge for life.”
§4The Linked Discourses with Brahmins are complete.
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