This is as I heard from the Blessed One. At one time the Blessed One was staying in the city of Rājagaha, in the Bamboo park at the squirrels’ garden. Those days the Arahant Mahā Kassapa stayed in Pipphali cave. He was very sick, in great pain and was severely ill. After a couple of days, he recovered from that sickness. One day he thought to himself, “I shall enter the village of Rājagaha to beg for food.”
At that time, about five hundred gods were eagerly preparing to go to the Arahant Mahā Kassapa in order to offer food to him. However, Arahant Mahā Kassapa turned down those five hundred gods’ food. He wore his robe, took his bowl, double robe, and entered the village of Rājagaha for alms. He was walking in the street of very poor people who earned their living by weaving cloth. The Blessed One with his divine eye saw Arahant Mahā Kassapa walking for alms in the street of very poor people who earned their living by weaving cloth.
Then, the Blessed One who realised the quality of detachment of Arahant Mahā Kassapa, spoke the following inspired verse,
The liberated one doesn’t feed others. Everybody knows his noble qualities. He is well-restrained. He is well-established in the most essential, Nibbāna. He has destroyed all taints and removed completely defilements. Him I call a Brāhmin.
