The Builder
Navakammika Sutta (SN 7:17)
On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Kosalans in a certain forest grove. Now at that time the brahman Navakammika [“Builder”] Bhāradvāja was getting some work done in that forest grove. He saw the Blessed One sitting under a Sal tree—his legs folded crosswise, his body held erect, with mindfulness set to the fore. On seeing him, the thought occurred to the brahman: “Here I am, taking delight in getting work done in this forest grove. But what does this contemplative take delight in getting done?”
So he went to the Blessed One and on arrival recited this verse:
“What jobs are getting done,
monk in the Sal forest?
Alone in the wilderness,
in what does Gotama
find delight?”
The Buddha:
“I have no work
to do in the forest.
The forest of restless dancing about
I’ve cut
at the root.
Though in the forest, I’m
deforested,
de-arrowed.
I delight alone,
discontent cast away.”
When this was said, the brahman Navakammika Bhāradvāja said to the Blessed One: “Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent! Just as if he were to place upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in the same way has Master Gotama—through many lines of reasoning—made the Dhamma clear. I go to Master Gotama for refuge, to the Dhamma, & to the Saṅgha of monks. May Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge from this day forward, for life.”
