8.6 The Story about the Elder Sāriputta’s Nephew
Sāriputtattherassa Bhāgineyyavatthu
Dhp 107
CST4: Sāriputtattherassa bhāgineyyavatthu
Burlingame: Sāriputta’s Nephew
Elder Sāriputta asked the Buddha to teach his nephew, who slayed animals and tended the sacrificial fire, the true way to the Brahma world, and the Buddha gave a teaching in a verse.
Keywords: Sacrifice, Worship, Great Disciples
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“One person might care for the fire,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Veḷuvana with reference to Elder Sāriputta’s nephew.
For the elder went to him and said: “Brahmin, do you ever do a single good deed?” – “Yes, venerable Sir.” – “What do you do?” – “Month after month, I slay a single beast and tend the sacrificial fire.” – “For what purpose do you do that?” – “That, they say, is the way to the world of Brahma.” – “Who told you so?” – “My teachers, venerable Sir.” – “Neither you nor your teachers know the way to the world of Brahma. Come, let us go to the Teacher.”
So Elder Sāriputta conducted his nephew to the Teacher, informed the Teacher of the incident, and said to him: “Venerable Sir, tell this man the way to the world of Brahma.” The Teacher said: “Brahmin, are you correctly reported?” – “Yes, dear Gotama.” – “Brahmin, though you should thus tend the sacrificial fire for a hundred years, yet would the merit of your performance not attain the worth of honor done to my disciple for even a single instant.” So saying, he joined the connection, and teaching the Dhamma, pronounced the following verse:
107. Yo ca vassasataṁ jantu aggiṁ paricare vane;
ekañ-ca bhāvitattānaṁ muhuttam-api pūjaye –
sā yeva pūjanā seyyo yañ-ce vassasataṁ hutaṁ.
One person might care for the fire
in the woods for a hundred years;
and one might worship someone with
developed self for a second –
that worship is surely better
than the hundred-year sacrifice.
At the end of the teaching that Brahmin reached the fruition of Stream-entry, and many others reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.
