[66] When this was said, the householder Upāli said to the Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta: "Good, good, venerable sir! The venerable Dīgha Tapassī has answered the ascetic Gotama just as would a learned disciple who rightly understands the Teacher's teaching. For how can the wretched mental rod shine when set beside a bodily rod so gross as this? Rather, it is the bodily rod alone that is the more greatly blameworthy in the doing of an evil deed, in the carrying out of an evil deed; not so the verbal rod, not so the mental rod. Come now, venerable sir, I shall go and refute the ascetic Gotama's doctrine on this point of discussion. If the ascetic Gotama takes his stand before me on that same position on which the venerable Tapassī made him take his stand, then—just as a strong man might seize a long-fleeced ram by its fleece and drag it to and fro and drag it all around—even so shall I, doctrine against doctrine, drag the ascetic Gotama to and fro and drag him all around. Just as a strong man, a brewer's workman, might cast a great brewer's straining-mat into a deep pool of water and, taking it by a corner, drag it to and fro and drag it all around, even so shall I, doctrine against doctrine, drag the ascetic Gotama to and fro and drag him all around. Just as a strong man, a tavern rogue, might grasp a bowl by the rim and shake it downward, shake it out, and thump it about, even so shall I, doctrine against doctrine, shake the ascetic Gotama downward, shake him out, and thump him about. Just as an elephant of sixty years might plunge into a deep lotus pond and play the sport called 'hemp-washing,' even so, methinks, shall I play the sport of hemp-washing with the ascetic Gotama. Come now, venerable sir, I shall go and refute the ascetic Gotama's doctrine on this point of discussion."
"Go, householder; refute the ascetic Gotama's doctrine on this point of discussion. For either I, householder, might refute the ascetic Gotama's doctrine, or Dīgha Tapassī the Nigaṇṭha, or you."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.