One short verse about causes turned a wandering sceptic into the Buddha's wisest disciple
Upatissa had tried a sceptic teacher and walked away unsatisfied. Then a calm monk recited four lines saying everything arises from causes and ceases when they cease. That stanza, later carved on countless statues, set him on the path to becoming Sariputra, the Buddha's first chief disciple and General of the Dharma.
Historians place his birth in Magadha, perhaps in the 6th or 5th century BCE, into a wealthy family in a village near Rajagaha. His later name means son of Sari, after his mother, said to have eyes like a sarika bird. All six of his brothers and sisters went on to become enlightened disciples themselves. On the day of his birth a neighbouring family, friends with his own for seven generations, had a son named Kolita, the future Maudgalyayana.
The two boys mastered the Vedas and each gathered a following of young men. At a festival in Rajagaha both were struck by how fleeting life is, and they left home as ascetics, agreeing that whoever found the way first would tell the other. Pali texts say they studied under Sanjaya, a teacher in the sceptic tradition, before growing dissatisfied; other traditions portray Sanjaya as a visionary who foresaw the Buddha.
After hearing the monk Assaji, one of the Buddha's first five enlightened followers, Upatissa shared the verse with Kolita, and both joined the Buddha with many of Sanjaya's students. Some monks bristled when the newcomers were named chief disciples. Maudgalyayana reached full awakening in a week; Sariputra took two, reportedly while fanning the Buddha during a sermon. Commentaries explain the delay by saying the first disciple's understanding had to be the more complete. The philosopher Paul Carus read the verse as rejecting divine intervention in favour of causation.
As leader in the monastic community he assigned meditation subjects, cared for monks and explained doctrine, and he was the first the Buddha permitted to ordain others. Theravada Buddhists rank him close to a second Buddha, and art places him at the Buddha's right hand. He died shortly before his teacher, and relics were reportedly enshrined at Jetavana.
Source: Śāriputra
