Bandhura — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eleven · Poem 3 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a declaration built on a taste metaphor
Speaker
Bandhura, in the first person
Form
One four-line verse, contrasting nectar and poison
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, one taste metaphor
Why this text
Bandhura declares himself ‘happy and satisfied with the sweet teaching’, having ‘drunk the best, the supreme nectar’ — and on that basis, refuses to ‘go near poison’. The verse never says what the opening ‘this’ (etena) that he has no need of actually refers to.
Reading guide
Nectar and poison, two tastes
Dhammarasa (‘the flavor of the teaching’) and rasagga (‘the best flavor, the supreme nectar’) build one half of the verse's taste metaphor; visa (‘poison’) supplies its opposite. Having tasted the best, the verse reasons, there's no reason to seek out its opposite — santhavaṁ, ‘close association’, with poison. The logic is simple: satisfaction with the best removes any pull toward its opposite.
What is 'this'?
Nāhaṁ etena atthiko, ‘I have no need of this’, opens the verse with a demonstrative pronoun whose referent is never specified. Whether ‘this’ points to worldly pleasures, a specific temptation, or something implied by a context now lost to the verse alone, this reading guide does not resolve — the poem itself supplies no antecedent.
A second taste image for the Dhamma
Thag 1.91 (Paripuṇṇaka), which opened Chapter Ten, compared the Dhamma to food — something ‘consumed’ and found better than a feast. This verse reaches for a related but distinct image: not solid food but nectar, paired with its opposite, poison. Both verses draw on ingestion and taste to describe encountering the teaching, without repeating each other's specific wording.
Key terms
dhammarasa — “the flavor of the teaching” — dhamma plus rasa (‘taste, flavor’).
rasagga — “the best flavor, supreme nectar” — rasa plus agga (‘best, highest’).
visa — “poison” — the opposite of the nectar this verse describes drinking.
santhava — “close association, familiarity” — what the verse says it will not form with poison.
etena — “with this” — a demonstrative pronoun opening the verse, whose referent is never specified.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1I have no need of this—I’m happy and satisfied with the sweet teaching. I’ve drunk the best, the supreme nectar: I won’t go near poison.
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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 the verse say the speaker has drunk?
Correct: A. Pitvā rasaggamuttamaṁ, the verse's central claim.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say the speaker will not go near?
Correct: A. Na ca kāhāmi visena santhavaṁ, the verse's closing line.
Question 3 of 10
Does the verse specify what 'this' (etena), which the speaker has no need of, refers to?
Correct: B. A genuine ambiguity this reading guide does not resolve.
Question 4 of 10
What earlier poem does this reading guide compare to this verse, as another taste-based image for the Dhamma?
Correct: C. Both use ingestion imagery, though with different specific wording.
Question 5 of 10
What does 'dhammarasa' mean?
Correct: A. Dhamma plus rasa ('taste, flavor').
Question 6 of 10
What does 'rasagga' mean?
Correct: B. Rasa plus agga ('best, highest').
Question 7 of 10
What does 'santhava' mean?
Correct: C. What the verse says it will not form with poison.
Question 8 of 10
What logic does the verse's taste metaphor rest on?
Correct: D. Satisfaction with the supreme removes any need for its opposite.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'visa' mean?
Correct: D. The opposite of the nectar this verse describes.
