After the awakening, while I was following the road between the tree of awakening and the village of Gāya, a naked Ājīvika ascetic called Upaka saw me and said this:

           Your faculties are quite clear, sir, and your complexion is pure and bright.

           On account of whom have you gone forth – who is your teacher?

           Whose Dharma do you consent to?

I then addressed Upaka in verse as follows:

• I am the
  conqueror of all
  a knower of all,
  I am untainted
  among all phenomena,
• I have abandoned all,
  And am released
  in the destruction
  of craving.
• ‍
• Having come
  to understanding,
  all by myself,
  To whom
  should I defer?
  I have no teacher,
  there is no other
  like me,
  In the entire world
  including its gods,
  I have no equal.
• ‍
• I am a liberated,
  an Arahant,
  the unsurpassed teacher,
  I alone am fully awakened,
  I have become cool,
  I’ve been quenched in Nirvana.
• ‍
• And I now go
  to the city of Kāsi,
  To set in motion
  the wheen Dharma,
  In this blind world,
  I will beat
  the drum of the deathless.
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Upaka then said this to me:

          According to your declaration, sir, you ought to have conquered the infinite.

‍

I replied as follows:

         Conquerors, like me,
         have attained
         The destruction
         of corruption.

         I have conquered
         all evil phenomena,
         Therefore, Upaka,
         I alone
         am the conqueror.

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When I said this, Upaka, the naked Ājīvika, simply said ‘Maybe, sir’, before shaking his head and taking a different path.

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