འདལ་བ་གཞ 1.32

1.32

the handling of ashes, the handling of ritual vases, and the handling of sites; hand gestures, turbans, offering praise, and salutations; the Ṛgveda, the Yajurveda, the Sāmaveda, and the Atharvaveda; and a brahmin’s six duties—making fire sacrifices, officiating over fire sacrifices, studying, teaching, giving, and receiving. He mastered and became learned in the Vedas and all branches of Vedic knowledge. The Vedas and the limbs of the Vedas were entrusted to him, and with his blazing intelligence, he could illuminate his own assertions and vanquish those of others.

His father made him study all fields of knowledge. Once, when he was reciting the Vedas with his father, he asked, “Father, what does this statement mean?”

“Son, even I don’t know the meaning of this statement. Sages of the past recited with praise, sung, and furnished these sacred mantra, but nowadays brahmins simply recite and repeat them.”

“Father, do you think there is no meaning to these sacred mantra, which have been recited with praise, sung, and furnished by past sages, but nowadays are simply recited and repeated by brahmins? This is what such statements mean,” and he proceeded to explain.

Potalaka was delighted and in his delight thought, “This is what a son should do: he should carry on his father’s tradition or develop his insight even further. Were he to accomplish only that, this brahmin boy’s insight would surpass my own.”

Potalaka shared this insight with the five hundred young brahmins he was teaching to recite brahmanic mantras and they too were delighted and happily turned to Maudgalyāyana. The young brahmin Maudgalyāyana then taught the five hundred young brahmins to recite the brahmanic mantras.

The five hundred young brahmins were in the habit,