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SN 2.9PTS (1st ed) SN 1.501 min read

The Moon

Candimasutta

In a parable of a lunar eclipse, the moon god Candimā is swallowed by the demon lord Rāhu. Candimā appeals to the Buddha, who tells Rāhu to let go. This sutta is recited as a protection verse.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 2.9Linked Discourses 2.9
  • 0.21. PaṭhamavaggaChapter One

0.3CandimasuttaThe Moon

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.1

1.2Tena kho pana samayena candimā devaputto rāhunā asurindena gahito hoti.Now at that time the Moon God had been seized by Rāhu, lord of titans.21.3Atha kho candimā devaputto bhagavantaṁ anussaramāno tāyaṁ velāyaṁ imaṁ gāthaṁ abhāsi:Then the Moon God, recollecting the Buddha, at that time spoke this verse:3

2.1“Namo te buddha vīratthu,“Homage to you, Buddha, hero!2.2vippamuttosi sabbadhi;You’re free in every way.2.3Sambādhapaṭipannosmi,I’ve wandered into confinement:42.4tassa me saraṇaṁ bhavā”ti.be my refuge!”5

3.1Atha kho bhagavā candimaṁ devaputtaṁ ārabbha rāhuṁ asurindaṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi:Then the Buddha addressed Rāhu in verse concerning the Moon God:

4.1“Tathāgataṁ arahantaṁ,“The Moon God has gone for refuge4.2candimā saraṇaṁ gato;to the Realized One, the perfected one.4.3Rāhu candaṁ pamuñcassu,The Buddhas have compassion for the world—4.4buddhā lokānukampakā”ti.so Rāhu, release the Moon!”

5.1Atha kho rāhu asurindo candimaṁ devaputtaṁ muñcitvā taramānarūpo yena vepacitti asurindo tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā saṁviggo lomahaṭṭhajāto ekamantaṁ aṭṭhāsi.Then Rāhu, having released the Moon, rushed to see Vepacitti, lord of titans and stood to one side, shocked and awestruck.65.2Ekamantaṁ ṭhitaṁ kho rāhuṁ asurindaṁ vepacitti asurindo gāthāya ajjhabhāsi:Vepacitti addressed him in verse:

6.1“Kiṁ nu santaramānova,“Why the rush?6.2rāhu candaṁ pamuñcasi;Rāhu, you released the Moon6.3Saṁviggarūpo āgamma,and came here looking like you’re in shock:6.4kiṁ nu bhītova tiṭṭhasī”ti.why do you stand there so scared?”

7.1“Sattadhā me phale muddhā,“My head would have exploded in seven pieces,7.2jīvanto na sukhaṁ labhe;I would have found no happiness in life,7.3Buddhagāthābhigītomhi,if, when enchanted by the Buddha’s verse,77.4no ce muñceyya candiman”ti.I had not released the Moon.”

Translator’s notes

  1. This discourse and the next provide the Buddhist community with verses to recite for solace on the terrifying occasion of an eclipse.

    ↩ sn2.9:1.1

  2. Rāhu (“seizer”), is able to swallow the Moon and Sun because he has largest physical body of any creature (AN 4.15:2.1). This also lets him divert the rains (AN 5.197:3.1). This myth is alluded to in Atharvaveda 19.9.10a and Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.13.1. An eclipse was a day unfit for study (Manu 4.110). The full story of Rāhu, however, is not told until the Purāṇas, so this Sutta is possibly the oldest telling that survives.

    ↩ sn2.9:1.2

  3. Candimā, the “moon” as celestial body or deity, appears frequently in the Vedas (eg. Rig Veda 1.24.10, 1.102.2, etc.). A slightly different form of this name appears in SN 2.11.

    ↩ sn2.9:1.3

  4. The later Purāṇic legend says that Rāhu disguised himself as a brahmin to drink the gods’ nectar of immortality. But he was spied by the Sun and Moon, decapitated by Vishnu, and now his disembodied head traverses the skies as a black planet. He does not forget how the Sun and Moon betrayed him, so, nursing his enmity, he swallows them when he can. He is ever frustrated as they simply pass out through his throat.

    ↩ sn2.9:2.3

  5. Here the sense of “refuge” (saraṇa) is both physical and spiritual.

    ↩ sn2.9:2.4

  6. Rāhu was the son of Vepacitti and, according to Purāṇic legend, Siṁhikā.

    ↩ sn2.9:5.1

  7. Abhigīta first appears with regards to a drop of Soma that has been “chanted over”, “besung”, or “enchanted” and hence imbued with potency (Rig Veda 9.96.23). Throughout Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 8.5.4 it is used more prosaically: a history of horse sacrifices is listed, each event honored with a specific verse “sung about” it. In Pali, the phrase gāthābhigīta is found only in this passage and when the Buddha refused to eat food “chanted over” by a brahmin (eg. SN 7.8:8.1). In both cases the chanting has a mysterious potency, so I render “enchanted with verse”.

    ↩ sn2.9:7.3