Anuruddha Sutta

Anuruddha

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

I have heard that on one occasion Ven. Anuruddha was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, a devata from the retinue of the heaven of the Thirty-three named Jalini, one of Ven. Anuruddha's former consorts, went to him and, on arrival, addressed him with this verse:

Direct your mind
to where you used to live,
among the devas of the Thirty-three,
empowered
    with all sensual pleasures.
Honored, surrounded
    by deva maidens,
you
    will shine.

[Ven. Anuruddha:]

They've gone astray,
deva maidens
established in self-identity.
And they've gone astray,
those beings with deva maidens
as their aim.

[Jalini:]

They don't know bliss
who haven't seen Nandana,
abode of the eminent devas,
glorious,
of the Thirty-three.

[Ven. Anuruddha:]

You fool, don't you know
the arahants' maxim? --
'How inconstant are compounded things!
Their nature:     to arise & pass away.
They disband     as they are arising.
    Their total stilling is bliss.'
Jalini, there is now
in deva company
no further abode
[for me].
With the utter ending
of wandering on in birth,
there is now
no further becoming.