Read, reflect, pray
Sutta Nipāta 5-16: Mogharājamāṇavapucchā
Viggo Fausböll, 1881 · Historical English translation
1. ‘Twice have I asked Sakka,’—so said the venerable Mogharājan,—‘but the clearly-seeing has not explained it to me; if the divine Isi is asked for the third time, he will explain it, so I have heard. (1115)
2. ‘There is this world, the other world, Brahman’s world together with the world of the gods; I do not know thy view, the famous Gotama’s (view). (1116)
3. ‘To this man who sees what is good I have come supplicatingly with a question: How is any one to look upon the world that the king of death may not see him?’ (1117)
4. ‘Look upon the world as void, O Mogharājan, being always thoughtful; having destroyed the view of oneself (as really existing), so one may overcome death; the king of death will not see him who thus regards the world.’ (1118)
Mogharājamāṇavapucchā is ended.
Translation, numbering and rights
Viggo Fausböll, 1881. Public-domain 1881 translation, from the free non-commercial EPUB distributed by Reading Faithfully (edition 1.0, February 2012), transcribed by Christopher M. Weimer for the Internet Sacred Text Archive. This reader is free and non-commercial. Pali diacritics follow the EPUB. Translator introductions and footnotes are omitted; discourse prose, verses and the concluding passages are retained.
This 1881 edition uses consecutive verse numbers ending at 1148. It differs from the Japanese edition and must not be aligned by verse number alone. The final reading includes the concluding praises and Piṅgiya’s dialogue. The source’s printed numbering is retained, including gaps. A repeated “1041” in the source is retained; the expected “1047” is not silently substituted. No verse text is supplied by guesswork.
This historical English translation uses older vocabulary. It is independent of the Japanese translation linked from this site. The Japanese edition’s translator and license are credited there.