Thus have I heard. At one time the Venerable Mahā-Kātyāyana, accompanied by a great many monks, altogether five hundred, visited Varaṇā on the bank of the Deep Pool.

At that time Venerable Kātyāyana was renowned for his perfectly practising the four kinds of right effort. An elderly, greatly respected gentleman, the brahmin Jiānchá, heard that Venerable Kātyāyana had reached the bank of the said pool, being the leader of five hundred monks and being a venerable elder fully endowed with virtue. Thinking to himself, “Now I should go and interview this person”, this brahmin of highest standing, himself also being a leader of five hundred disciples, approached Venerable Kātyāyana. After exchanging courtesies with him and having taken a seat at one side, the brahmin said to Venerable Kātyāyana:

“Kātyāyana’s style of behaviour confirms with neither the normal social conventions for the discipline. A ‘young’ monk is impolite to personalities like me, being high-minded brahmins.”

“O brahmin,” replied Kātyāyana, “You should know that the Tathāgata, the Fully and Completely Enlightened One, has spoken of two kinds of standing. Which are the two? The standing of old age and that of youth.”

“What is this standing of old age?” asked the brahmin, “And what is that of youth?”

“Now seniormost brahmin,” answered Kātyāyana, “Someone who is eighty or ninety years old, who is still in the grip of carnal desire and does not refrain from misconduct is of the standing of youth, although he is in fact to be called an elderly man.”

“And what does it mean,” the brahmin continued, “to be young and yet to be the standing of old age?”

“O brahmin,” Kātyāyana said, “even though a monk may be just twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years old, he is of the standing of old age in spite of his youth if he is not given to carnal desire and if he refrains from misconduct.”

“I wonder whether within this large crowd,” the brahmin remarked, “there be just a single monk who does not indulge in carnal desire and if he refrains from misconduct.”

Kātyāyana assured him that in this large crowd there was not a single bikkhu who was given either to lust or to misconduct.

Immediately thereafter the brahmin rose from his seat, bowed down before all the monks, and in doing so, said, “Now you are young, and yet your are the standing of old age! I myself am already old but of the standing of youth!”

Then the brahmin again turned towards Kātyāyana at whose feet he bowed down his head and announced, “Today I go for refuge to Kātyāyana and to the order of monks so long as my life will last.”

Kātyāyana told him not to go for refuge to him; he should intead go for refuge to the same person as he himself had done. The brahmin wanted to know from Venerable Kātyāyana to whom he had gone for refuge. Thereupon Venerable Kātyāyana prostrated himself in the direction of that place where the Tathāgata had entered Parinirvāṇa, saying, “Following the example of the son of the Śākya clan who went forth into homelessness in search of the truth, I have gone to him for good; and this is the person who is my master.”

The brahmin inquired, “Where does the Śramaṇa Gautama stay? I would like to see him.”

“The Tathāgata has already entered Parinirvāṇa,” replied Kātyāyana.

“If the Tathāgata still remained in the world,” the brahmin declared, I would certainly walk one hundred thousand yojanas in order to seek his advice. Though the Tathāgata has already entered Parinirvāna, now I definitely go for refuge to the Buddha, to his Teaching and his multitude of worthy disciples and make obeisance to them so long as my life will last.”

After listening to Venerable Kātyāyana’s words, the brahmin of highest standing was pleased and respectfully applied himself to practice.