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1311 MA: He cut his throat, and just at that moment the fear of death descended on him and the sign of future rebirth appeared. Recognising that he was still an ordinary person, he was aroused and developed insight. Comprehending the formations, he attained arahantship just before he expired.

1312 MA: Although this declaration (of blamelessness) was made while Channa was still a worldling, as his attainment of final Nibbāna followed immediately, the Buddha answered by referring to that very declaration.

It should be noted that this commentarial interpretation is imposed on the text from the outside, as it were. If one sticks to the actual wording of the text it seems that Channa was already an arahant when he made his declaration, the dramatic punch being delivered by the failure of his two brother-monks to recognise this. The implication, of course, is that excruciating pain might motivate even an arahant to take his own life—not from aversion but simply from a wish to be free from unbearable pain.

1313 The terms used to describe the lay families which supported the Venerable Channa—mittakulāni suhajjakulāni upavajjakulāni—are obviously synonymous. The third term gives the opportunity for a word play. MA glosses it upasankamitabbakulāni, “families to be approached” (that is, for his requisites). According to CPD, upavajja here represents Skt upavrajya; the word in this sense is not in PED, though this may be the only instance where it bears such a meaning. The word is homonymous with another word meaning “blameworthy,” representing Skt upavadya, thus linking up with Channa’s earlier avowal that he would kill himself blamelessly (anupavajja). See the following note.

1314 This statement seems to imply that Channa was an arahant at the time he committed suicide, though the commentary explains otherwise.

When the Buddha speaks about the conditions under which one is blameworthy (sa-upavajja), upavajja represents upavadya. Though earlier MA explained the correct sense of upavajjakulāni, here the commentator seems oblivious to the pun and comments as if Channa had actually been at fault for associating too closely with lay people: “The Elder Sāriputta, showing the fault of intimacy with families (kulasaṁsaggadosa) in the preliminary stage of practice, asks: ‘When that bhikkhu had such supporters, could he have attained final Nibbāna?’ The Blessed One answers showing that he was not intimate with families.”

SUTTA 145

1315 This Pu˚˚a is a different person from Pu˚˚a Mantā˚iputta of MN 24. He was from a family of merchants residing in the port city of Suppāraka in the Sunāparanta country (present-day Maharashtra). On a business trip to Sāvatthı̄ he heard the Buddha give a discourse and renounced the home life to become a bhikkhu.

1316 MA explains this instruction as a short teaching on the Four Noble Truths. Delight (nandı̄) is an aspect of craving. Through the arising of delight in regard to the eye and forms there arises the suffering of the five aggregates. Thus in this first part of the instruction the Buddha teaches the round of existence by way of the first two truths—suffering and its origin—as they occur through the six senses. In the second part (§4) he teaches the ending of the round by way of the second two truths—cessation and the path—expressed as the abandoning of delight in the six senses and their objects.

1317 That is, he expired. Since the Buddha still refers to Pu˚˚a as a clansman (kulaputta), he must have died within a short time after returning to the Sunāparanta country. The texts leave no record of how he died. The version of this sutta at SN 35:88 (iv.60–63) says that he expired during his first rains retreat there.

SUTTA 146

1318 One of the eight important rules laid down by the Buddha when he established the Bhikkhunı̄ Sangha stipulated that every fortnight the bhikkhunı̄ should request the bhikkhus to send a bhikkhu for the purpose of giving them an exhortation. According to MA, in a previous life Ven. Nandaka had been a king