[690] When this was said, the Venerable Ānanda said this to the Venerable Sāriputta: "Friend Sāriputta, would sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair not arise in you even at the change and alteration of the Teacher?"
"Friend, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in me even at the change and alteration of the Teacher. Still, it would occur to me thus: 'A being of great might, sir, of great power, of great majesty, has vanished!¹ For if the Blessed One were to remain for a long time, for a long stretch of time, that would be for the welfare of many people, for the happiness of many people, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of devas and human beings.'"
"It must be because I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendencies to conceit (ahaṅkāra-mamaṅkāra-mānānusayā) have long been thoroughly uprooted in the Venerable Sāriputta that sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not arise in the Venerable Sāriputta even at the change and alteration of the Teacher."
The second [sutta].
¹ [Siam ed. footnote: The Burmese (M.) and European (Yu.) editions read *taṃ*.]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.