[313] "But, worthy Ānanda, how many are the emancipated ones (niyyātāro) in this Dhamma and Discipline?"
"Sandaka, those who are emancipated in this Dhamma and Discipline are not merely one hundred, nor two hundred, nor three hundred, nor four hundred, nor five hundred; rather, they are far more than that."
"It is wonderful, worthy Ānanda! It is marvellous, worthy Ānanda! That there should be no exalting of one's own teaching and no disparaging of the teaching of others, but the teaching of the Dhamma in its own proper field — and yet so many emancipated ones are made known! But these Ājīvakas, sons of a mother whose sons are dead, exalt only themselves and disparage others, and they declare only three as emancipated ones, namely: Nanda Vaccha, Kisa Saṅkicca, and Makkhali Gosāla."
Then the wanderer Sandaka addressed his own assembly: "Go forth, good sirs; the living of the spiritual life is under the ascetic Gotama. It is not easy for us now to relinquish gain, honor, and fame."
Thus indeed did the wanderer Sandaka dispatch his own assembly to the spiritual life under the Blessed One.
The Sandaka Sutta, the sixth, is finished.
______________
Mahāsakuludāyi Sutta
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.