Godhika — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Six · Poem 1 of 10
Setting
A rain-sheltered hut
Speaker
Godhika, addressing the rain god directly
Form
One four-line verse
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
★☆☆☆☆ — a familiar image, reopened to begin a new chapter
Why this text
Sujato's note on Subhūti's opening poem (Thag 1.1) predicted this: the rain-god-invited-from-a-hut image ‘recurs many times in the Theragātha’. Chapter Six is where that prediction pays off in full — Godhika's verse reopens the same scene almost fifty poems later, and it will not be the last time this chapter returns to it.
Reading guide
The collection's opening image, reopened
Godhika's second line, ‘Channā me kuṭikā sukhā nivātā’ (‘my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind’), repeats Subhūti's opening line word for word. The rain god is invited to fall as it pleases in both poems — here reordered so the rain itself opens the verse, before the hut is even described.
A serene mind, stated plainly
Where Subhūti called his mind ‘serene and freed’, Godhika says only ‘my mind is serene’ — a smaller claim, without the explicit word for freedom. The difference is subtle, but worth noticing across the run of poems this one opens.
A name shared with a famous, harder story
This site's Saṁyutta Nikāya collection includes SN 4.23, ‘With Godhika’: a monk who repeatedly reached and then fell from temporary freedom of heart, and on a seventh fall took his own life, after which Māra searched the sky in vain for his consciousness. That text and this verse share only a name and a Chapter Six theme of huts and stillness; nothing here confirms they are the same person, and this reading guide does not assert that they are — but the resemblance, and the contrast between this verse's contentment and that sutta's crisis, is worth holding side by side.
Four poems, one formula, about to begin
This verse is the first of four in a row (Thag 1.51 through 1.54) that share the same two opening lines almost exactly, each varying only its third line before returning to the same invitation to the rain. Watch for what each speaker changes.
Key terms
vassati — “rains” — the verb opening this verse, describing the rain god's fall compared to a sweet song.
kuṭikā — “little hut” — the same word that opened Subhūti's verse, Thag 1.1, at the very start of the collection.
susamāhita — “serene” or “well composed” — describing Godhika's mind, a smaller claim than Subhūti's ‘serene and freed’.
deva — “god”, here the rain deity Godhika invites to fall as it wishes.
pavassa — “rain forth” — the imperative closing this verse, echoing Subhūti's own closing invitation to the sky.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind. My mind is serene: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.
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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 line does Godhika's verse share word for word with Subhūti's opening poem, Thag 1.1?
Correct: C. The same image reopens the collection's rain-and-hut motif.
Question 2 of 10
According to Sujato's note on Thag 1.1, what does this rain-and-hut image do across the Theragātha?
Correct: B. Chapter Six is where that recurrence arrives in force.
Question 3 of 10
How does Godhika describe his own mind?
Correct: D. A plain, smaller claim than Subhūti's 'serene and freed'.
Question 4 of 10
What does the verse invite the rain god to do?
Correct: A. An unafraid, welcoming address to the sky, as in Thag 1.1.
Question 5 of 10
What does this reading guide say about SN 4.23, 'With Godhika'?
Correct: B. A resemblance worth noting, not a claim this guide asserts as fact.
Question 6 of 10
In SN 4.23, what happens to the monk named Godhika?
Correct: D. A harder story than this verse's plain contentment.
Question 7 of 10
How many poems in a row, starting with this one, share nearly the same two opening lines?
Correct: B. Thag 1.51 through 1.54 share the formula, each varying its third line.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'pavassa' mean?
Correct: A. The imperative closing this verse's invitation to the sky.
Question 9 of 10
Where does this poem fall in the Theragātha?
Correct: A. The first of ten poems in this new chapter.
Question 10 of 10
What object does Godhika's verse share with Subhūti's, at the very start of the collection?
Correct: C. The same concrete image, reopened almost fifty poems later.
