[734] **"Like a nāga that has forsaken the herds" (nāgova yūthāni vivajjayitvā):** a bull elephant is called a nāga. A Paccekasambuddha, too, is a nāga. For what reason is a Paccekasambuddha a nāga? He commits no wrong (āguṃ na karoti), thus he is a nāga; he does not go, thus he is a nāga; he does not come back, thus he is a nāga.
How is that Paccekasambuddha a nāga in that he commits no wrong? "Wrongs" are what evil, unwholesome dhammas are called—defiling, leading to renewed existence, accompanied by distress, ripening in suffering (dukkha), leading to future birth, aging, and death.
He commits no wrong of any kind in the world;
having cast off all fetters and bonds,
he clings nowhere, fully released—
such a one, the stable one, is called a nāga because he is thus.
Thus that Paccekasambuddha is a nāga in that he commits no wrong.
How is that Paccekasambuddha a nāga in that he does not go? That Paccekasambuddha does not go the wrong course of desire, does not go the wrong course of hatred, does not go the wrong course of delusion, does not go the wrong course of fear; he does not go by the power of lust, does not go by the power of hatred, does not go by the power of delusion, does not go by the power of conceit, does not go by the power of views, does not go by the power of restlessness, does not go by the power of doubt, does not go by the power of the latent tendencies; he is not led, guided, carried away, or swept along by factious dhammas. Thus that Paccekasambuddha is a nāga in that he does not go.
How is the Paccekasambuddha a nāga in that he does not come back? Those defilements abandoned by the path of stream-entry—to those defilements he does not return, does not revert, does not come back again; those defilements abandoned by the path of once-returning, by the path of non-returning, by the path of Arahantship—to those defilements he does not return, does not revert, does not come back again. Thus that Paccekasambuddha is a nāga in that he does not come back.
**"Like a nāga that has forsaken the herds":** just as that bull elephant, having forsaken, avoided, and turned away from the herds, having plunged alone into the midst of the forest wilderness, wanders, roams, moves, carries on, keeps himself, maintains himself, sustains himself—so too the Paccekasambuddha, having forsaken, avoided, and turned away from the group, wanders alone like the horn of a rhinoceros; he resorts to remote lodgings in forest and woodland thickets—of little sound, of little noise, with an atmosphere empty of people, fit for lying hidden from human beings, suitable for seclusion. He goes alone, stands alone, sits alone, lies down alone, enters the village for alms alone, returns alone, sits alone in private, determines upon walking meditation alone; alone he wanders, roams, moves, carries on, keeps himself, maintains himself, sustains himself. Hence: "like a nāga that has forsaken the herds."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.