Reading guide
Ānanda’s observation
This is one of the few suttas in this chapter where a specific named companion, rather than a report from anonymous mendicants, opens the exchange. Ānanda approaches the Buddha and lays out a contrast in careful, formulaic detail: so long as no Buddha has arisen in the world, wanderers of other religions are “honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed,” and receive robes, almsfood, lodging, and medicine. But once a Realized One does arise, that same honor and support shifts entirely — “now only the Buddha is honored” and provided for.
“That’s so true, Ānanda”
The Buddha doesn’t soften or complicate the observation; he confirms it almost word for word, repeating Ānanda’s own formula back with one addition — the honor and support now goes not only to the Realized One but “the mendicant Saṅgha” as well. There is no hedging here about whether this shift is fair to the other wanderers, and no suggestion that the Buddha finds the situation uncomfortable to state plainly. The sutta simply confirms, twice over, that this is how it goes.
The glow-worm and the sun
The verse that follows gives the observation its enduring image: “The glow-worm shines so long as the beacon of the sun does not rise. But when the sun has come up, that light is erased and shines no more.” The comparison isn’t a claim that the glow-worm’s light was ever fake — only that it is real within a limited range, a light that made sense in the dark and is simply outmatched, not extinguished, once something far brighter appears.
“Not purified… not freed from suffering”
The second stanza applies the image directly: “So too the sophists shine bright so long as the Buddhas don’t arise in the world. The sophists are not purified, nor are their disciples. Having bad views, they are not freed from suffering.” This final line moves past the question of social standing — which was Ānanda’s original observation — into a stronger claim about the actual effect of “bad views”: not just diminished reputation, but the absence of freedom from suffering, for teachers and disciples alike.
Closing the chapter
As the final sutta of the Jaccandhavagga, Ud 6.10 returns one last time to a question this chapter has circled from several directions — how wanderers of other religions are perceived and evaluated — and closes not with a parable or a dispute, but with the simplest image in the set: light, in its place, eclipsed by a greater light.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him:
§2“Sir, so long as the Realized Ones, the perfected ones, the fully awakened Buddhas do not arise in the world, the wanderers of other religions are honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed. And they receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. But when the Realized Ones do arise in the world, the wanderers of other religions are no longer honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed. And they do not receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. Now only the Buddha is honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed. And he receives robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick.”
§3“That’s so true, Ānanda. So long as the Realized Ones do not arise in the world, the wanderers of other religions are honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed. And they receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. But when the Realized Ones do arise in the world, the wanderers of other religions are no longer honored in this way. Now only the Realized One is honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed. And he receives robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. And so does the mendicant Saṅgha.”
§4Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§5“The glow-worm shines so long as the beacon of the sun does not rise. But when the sun has come up, that light is erased and shines no more.
§6So too the sophists shine bright so long as the Buddhas don’t arise in the world. The sophists are not purified, nor are their disciples. Having bad views, they are not freed from suffering.”
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