Now at that time around five hundred brahmins from abroad were residing in Opāsāda on some business. They heard that the brahmin Caṅkī was going to see the ascetic Gotama. They approached Caṅkī and said to him, “Is it really true that you are going to see the ascetic Gotama?” “Yes, gentlemen, it is true.”

“Please don’t! It’s not appropriate for you to go to see the ascetic Gotama; it’s appropriate that he comes to see you. You are well born on both your mother’s and father’s side, stemming from a clean vessel, with irrefutable and impeccable genealogy back to the seventh paternal generation. For this reason it’s not appropriate for you to go to see the ascetic Gotama; it’s appropriate that he comes to see you. You’re rich, affluent, and wealthy. … You recite and remember the hymns, and have mastered the three Vedas, together with their vocabularies and ritual performance, their phonology and word classification, and the testaments as fifth. You know them word-by-word, and their grammar. You are well versed in cosmology and the marks of a great man. … You are attractive, good-looking, lovely, of surpassing beauty. You have divine looks and lustre, remarkable to behold. … You are ethical, mature in ethical conduct. … You’re a good speaker who enunciates well, with a polished, clear, and articulate voice that expresses the meaning. … You’re the tutor of tutors for many, and teach three hundred young students to recite the hymns. … You’re honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed by King Pasenadi of Kosala and the brahmin Pokkharasāti. … You live in Opāsāda, a crown property given by King Pasenadi of Kosala, teeming with living creatures, full of hay, wood, water, and grain, a royal park endowed to a brahmin. For all these reasons it’s not appropriate for you to go to see the ascetic Gotama; it’s appropriate that he comes to see you.”

When they had spoken, Caṅkī said to those brahmins: “Well then, gentlemen, listen to why it’s appropriate for me to go to see the ascetic Gotama, and it’s not appropriate for him to come to see me. He is well born on both his mother’s and father’s side, stemming from a clean vessel, with irrefutable and impeccable genealogy back to the seventh paternal generation. For this reason it’s not appropriate for the ascetic Gotama to come to see me; rather, it’s appropriate for me to go to see him. When he went forth he abandoned abundant gold, both coined and uncoined, stored above and below ground. … He went forth from the lay life to homelessness while still a youth, young, with pristine black hair, blessed with youth, in the prime of life. … Though his mother and father wished otherwise, weeping with tearful faces, he shaved off his hair and beard, dressed in ocher robes, and went forth from the lay life to homelessness. …