Karmashataka 35.23

35.23

ལ་བབ་པར་བྱས་ཏེ་བཀོད་ནས། གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་དུ་གཤེགས་སོ། །དེ་ནས་དགེ་སློང་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ལ་ཞུས་པ། བཙུན་པ་བྲམ་ཟེ་འདི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལས་ཅི་བགྱིས་ན། ལས་དེའི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པས་ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མཉེས་པར་བགྱིས་ཏེ། མི་མཉེས་པར་མ་བགྱིས། ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤངས་ཏེ། དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་དུ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བགྱིས་ལགས། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་བཀའ་སྩལ་པ། ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་འོད་སྲུང་གི་གསུང་རབ་ལ།

With this accomplished, the Blessed One returned to the monastery.

“Lord,” the monks inquired of the Blessed Buddha, “what action did the brahmins take that ripened into some of them pleasing the Blessed One, and not displeasing him, and that some of them went forth, cast away all afflictive emotions, and manifested arhatship?”

The Blessed One replied, “Some had been lay vow holders in the teaching of the totally and completely awakened Buddha Kāśyapa. At that time some went forth, took refuge, and maintained the fundamental precepts. As a result, their faculties ripened, and now they have been liberated.”

The Story of the Householder Govinda

As the Blessed One was traveling through Magadha, he was accompanied by a saṅgha of numerous monks including the thousand monks who had all previously been the matted-hair ascetics. They were also all arhats who had exhausted the outflows, done what was before them, carried out their activities, subsequently fulfilled their ambitions, completely eradicated that which bound them to saṃsāra, and with right cognition²²² liberated their minds.

They made their way with him across the breadth of Forest of Reeds, proceeding directly to the stūpa of the Magadha people called Very Steady. As they arrived at the stūpa Very Steady, the Blessed One seated himself at the base of the stūpa.

Bimbisāra, the king of Magadha, heard that the Blessed One and a saṅgha of numerous monks including the thousand monks had made their way across the country to arrive at the Magadha stūpa called Very Steady, near Forest of Reeds.