Mahāsīhanādasutta

Majjhima Nikāya 12

The Longer Discourse on the Lion’s Roar · Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral

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So kho ahaṁ, sāriputta, ye te goṭṭhā paṭṭhitagāvo apagatagopālakā, tattha catukkuṇḍiko upasaṅkamitvā yāni tāni vacchakānaṁ taruṇakānaṁ dhenupakānaṁ gomayāni tāni sudaṁ āhāremi.
Yāvakīvañca me, sāriputta, sakaṁ muttakarīsaṁ apariyādinnaṁ hoti, sakaṁyeva sudaṁ muttakarīsaṁ āhāremi.
Idaṁsu me, sāriputta, mahāvikaṭabhojanasmiṁ hoti.

I would go on all fours into the cow-pens after the cattle had left and eat the dung of the young suckling calves. As long as my own urine and excrement lasted, I would even eat that. Such was my eating of most unnatural things.

So kho ahaṁ, sāriputta, aññataraṁ bhiṁsanakaṁ vanasaṇḍaṁ ajjhogāhetvā viharāmi.
Tatrāssudaṁ, sāriputta, bhiṁsanakassa vanasaṇḍassa bhiṁsanakatasmiṁ hoti—
yo koci avītarāgo taṁ vanasaṇḍaṁ pavisati, yebhuyyena lomāni haṁsanti.
So kho ahaṁ, sāriputta, yā tā rattiyo sītā hemantikā antaraṭṭhakā himapātasamayā tathārūpāsu rattīsu rattiṁ abbhokāse viharāmi, divā vanasaṇḍe;
gimhānaṁ pacchime māse divā abbhokāse viharāmi, rattiṁ vanasaṇḍe.
Apissu maṁ, sāriputta, ayaṁ anacchariyagāthā paṭibhāsi pubbe assutapubbā:
‘Sotatto sosinno ceva,
eko bhiṁsanake vane;
Naggo na caggimāsīno,
esanāpasuto munī’ti.

I would plunge deep into an awe-inspiring forest grove and stay there. It was so awe-inspiring that normally it would make your hair stand on end if you weren’t free of greed. And on days such as the cold spell when the snow falls in the January winter, I stayed in the open by night and in the forest by day. But in the last month of summer I’d stay in the open by day and in the forest by night. And then these verses, which were neither supernaturally inspired, nor learned before in the past, occurred to me: ‘Scorched and frozen, alone in the awe-inspiring forest. nude, no fire to sit beside, the sage still pursues his quest.’

So kho ahaṁ, sāriputta, susāne seyyaṁ kappemi chavaṭṭhikāni upadhāya.
Apissu maṁ, sāriputta, gāmaṇḍalā upasaṅkamitvā oṭṭhubhantipi, omuttentipi, paṁsukenapi okiranti, kaṇṇasotesupi salākaṁ pavesenti.
Na kho panāhaṁ, sāriputta, abhijānāmi tesu pāpakaṁ cittaṁ uppādetā.
Idaṁsu me, sāriputta, upekkhāvihārasmiṁ hoti.

I would make my bed in a charnel ground, with the bones of the dead for a pillow. Then village louts would come up to me. They’d spit and piss on me, throw mud on me, even poke twigs in my ears. But I don’t recall ever having a bad thought about them. Such was my abiding in equanimity.

There are some ascetics and brahmins who have this doctrine and view: ‘Purity comes from food.’ They say: ‘Let’s live on jujubes.’ So they eat jujubes and jujube powder, and drink jujube juice. And they enjoy many jujube concoctions. I recall eating just a single jujube. You might think that at that time the jujubes must have been very big. But you should not see it like this. The jujubes then were at most the same size as today. Eating so very little, my body became severely emaciated. Due to eating so little, my major and minor limbs became like the joints of an eighty-year-old or a dying man, my bottom became like a camel’s hoof, my vertebrae stuck out like beads on a string, and my ribs were as gaunt as the broken-down rafters on an old barn. Due to eating so little, the gleam of my eyes sank deep in their sockets, like the gleam of water sunk deep down a well. Due to eating so little, my scalp shriveled and withered like a green bitter-gourd in the wind and sun. Due to eating so little, the skin of my belly stuck to my backbone, so that when I tried to rub the skin of my belly I grabbed my backbone, and when I tried to rub my backbone I rubbed the skin of my belly. Due to eating so little, when I tried to urinate or defecate I fell face down right there. Due to eating so little, when I tried to relieve my body by rubbing my limbs with my hands, the hair, rotted at its roots, fell out.

There are some ascetics and brahmins who have this doctrine and view: ‘Purity comes from food.’ They say: ‘Let’s live on mung beans.’ … ‘Let’s live on sesame.’ … ‘Let’s live on ordinary rice.’ … Due to eating so little, when I tried to relieve my body by rubbing my limbs with my hands, the hair, rotted at its roots, fell out.

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