Upon meeting Assaji, Sariputta was impressed and asked after his
teacher and the dhamma that he taught. Assaji demurred, being "only
a beginner", but eventually responded with the now famous verse,
and before he had finished Sariputta had a decisive break through.
Nyanaponika says:
"Upon hearing the first two lines, there arose in the wanderer
Upatissa the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma the first
glimpse of the Deathless, the path of Streamentry and to the
ending of the last two lines he already listened as a
stream-enterer".
Ye dharmā hetu prabhavā
hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgataḥ hyavadat
teṣāṃ cayo nirodha
evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ
Of those things that arise from a cause,
The Tathāgata has told the cause,
And also what their cessation is:
This is the doctrine of the Great Recluse
