Puṇṇakamāṇavapucchā

"To the unperturbed one, the root-seer,"
said the venerable Puṇṇaka,
"in need I have come with a question.
Rooted in what did hermits and men,
nobles and brahmins,
prepare various sacrifices to gods here in the world?"

"Whatever hermits and men, Puṇṇaka,"
said the Auspicious One,
"nobles and brahmins,
prepared various sacrifices to gods here in the world,
wishing for the here, Puṇṇaka,
stuck in aging they prepared their sacrifices."

"Those hermits and men,"
said the venerable Puṇṇaka,
"nobles and brahmins,
that prepared various sacrifices to gods here in the world,
did they then, Auspicious One, heedful on the path of sacrifice,
go beyond birth and aging, good sir?
That I ask, Auspicious One. Tell me that."

"They wish, they extol, they pray and oblate, Puṇṇaka,"
said the Auspicious One,
"they pray for desirable things in dependence on gain;
they, yoked to their sacrifice, inflamed with passion for being,
did not go beyond birth and aging, I say."

"If they, yoked to their sacrifice, did not go beyond,”
said the venerable Puṇṇaka,
"birth and aging by means of sacrifices, good sir,
then just who in the world of gods and men,
has gone beyond birth and aging, good sir?
That I ask, Auspicious One. Tell me that."

"Having fathomed in this world beyond things beyond, Puṇṇaka,"
said the Auspicious One,
"unmoved in the face of everything in the world,
at peace, smokeless, untrembling, wishless,
he has gone beyond birth and aging, I say."