Help | Home » Tipitaka » Sutta Pitaka » Khuddaka Nikaya » Theragatha » Context of this chapter

# Theragatha

## Chapter XII -- The Twelves

### (Selected suttas)

For free distribution only.

XII.2 -- Sunita the Outcaste {vv. 620-631}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans.]

> In a lowly family I was born,
> poor, with next to no food.
> My work was degrading:
> I gathered the spoiled,
> the withered flowers from shrines
> and threw them away.
> People found me disgusting,
> despised me, disparaged me.
> Lowering my heart,
> I showed reverence to many.

> Then I saw the One Self-awakened,
> arrayed with a squadron of monks,
> the Great Hero, entering the city,
> supreme, of the Magadhans.
> Throwing down my carrying pole,
> I approached him to do reverence.
> He -- the supreme man -- stood still
> out of sympathy
> just
> for me.
> After paying homage
> to the feet of the teacher,
> I stood to one side
> & requested the Going Forth from him,
> supreme among all living beings.
> The compassionate Teacher,
> sympathetic to all the world, said:
> "Come, monk."
> That was my formal Acceptance.

> Alone, I stayed in the wilds,
> untiring,
> I followed the Teacher's words,
> just as he, the Conqueror, had taught me.

> In the first watch of the night,
> I recollected previous lives;
> in the middle watch,
> purified the divine eye;
> in the last,
> burst the mass of darkness.

> Then, as night was ending
> & the sun returning,
> Indra & Brahma came to pay homage to me,
> hands palm-to-palm at their hearts:
> "Homage to you, O thoroughbred of men,
> Homage to you, O man supreme,
> whose fermentations are ended.
> You, dear sir, are worthy of offerings."

> Seeing me, arrayed with a squadron of devas,
> the Teacher smiled & said:
> "Through austerity, celibacy,
> restraint, & self-control:
> That's how one is a brahman.
> He is a brahman supreme."

Revised: Fri 12 April 2002