Any brahman
who has banished evil qualities,1
–not overbearing,
not stained,
his mind controlled–
gone to the end of wisdom,2
the holy life completed:3
Rightly would that brahman
speak the holy teaching.
He has no swelling of pride4
anywhere in the world.
Notes
1. This line contains a wordplay on the words brāhmaṇa and bāhita (banished)–the same wordplay used in Dhp 388 and Ud 1:5.
2. This line plays with the term vedanta, which can mean “end of wisdom,” “end of the Vedas,” or “supplement to the Vedas.” In the latter two cases, it would be a term referring to a brahman-by-birth who has studied all the Vedas and their supplements, but the Buddha is obviously giving this term a different meaning here.
3. Here and two lines down, the word “holy” translates brahma.
Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Ud/ud1_4.html