![[info icon]](./../../../img/question_16.gif "Summary: One of Ven. Anuruddha's consorts from a previous life as a deva, visits him and invites him back.")
I have heard that on one occasion Ven. Anuruddha was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, a devata from the retinue of the heaven of the Thirty-three named Jalini, one of Ven. Anuruddha's former consorts, went to him and, on arrival, addressed him with this verse:
Direct your mind
to where you used to live,
among the devas of the Thirty-three,
empowered
with all sensual pleasures.
Honored, surrounded
by deva maidens,
you
will shine.
[Ven. Anuruddha:]
They've gone astray, deva maidens established in self-identity. And they've gone astray, those beings with deva maidens as their aim.[Jalini:]
They don't know bliss who haven't seen Nandana, abode of the eminent devas, glorious, of the Thirty-three.[Ven. Anuruddha:]
You fool, don't you know the arahants' maxim? — 'How inconstant are compounded things! Their nature: to arise & pass away. They disband as they are arising. Their total stilling is bliss.' Jalini, there is now in deva company no further abode [for me]. With the utter ending of wandering on in birth, there is now no further becoming.
©1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
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Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 30 November 2013.
How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Anuruddha Sutta: Anuruddha" (SN 9.6), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn09/sn09.006.than.html .