"The Questions of Magandiya" Sutta Nipata Attahakavagga (v.844)

Extracted from Maha Kaccana - Master of Doctrinal Exposition by Bhikkhu Bodhi 1996

In SN 22:3, Haliddikani asks the elder Venerable Maha Kaccana to explain in detail the meaning of a verse from "The Questions of Magandiya"

"Having left home to roam without abode,In the village the sage is intimate with none;Rid of sensual pleasures, without preference,He would not engage people in dispute".

Taking up first the expression "having left home" (okam pahaya), Maha Kaccana treats the word "home", not as bearing the literal meaning of a place where people live, but as an elliptical reference to the "home of consciousness" (viññanassa oko). He explains that the "home of consciousness" is the other four aggregates - material form, feeling, perception, and volitional formations - which are here referred to as elements (dhatu); elsewhere these are described as the four"stations of consciousness" (viññana-thiti). If consciousness is bound by lust to these four elements, one is said to move about in a home. If one has abandoned all desire, lust, delight, and craving for these four home of consciousness, one is said to "roam about homeless" (anokasari). It should be noted that this last term does not itself occur in the verse, but Maha Kaccana has introduced it into his exegesis as a description of one who has abandoned home. 
Next the elder explicates the phrase "to roam without abode" (aniketasari). He first defines the counterpart, "roaming about in an abode" (niketasari), which also does not appear in the verse. As before, Maha Kaccana treats this expression as a metaphor to be reformulated in terms of systematic doctrine. In this instance, rather than using the five aggregates as his scaffold, he draws in the six external sense bases. By being shackled to the sign of forms (sounds, odours, etc.), by moving about in the abode of forms, etc., one is called "one who roams about in an abode." When one has abandoned all bondage to the sign of forms, etc., cut them off at the root, then one is said to "roam without abode."
The remaining sections of the exposition proceed more literally, and simply explicate, with straightforward definition, the meaning of the phrases used in the verse, always in terms of contrasting pairs. One who is "intimate with none in the village" is defined as a bhikkhu who keeps aloof from lay people and their worldly concerns. One "rid of sensual pleasures" is one devoid of lust and craving for sensual pleasures. One without preferences" (apurakkharano) is one who does not yearn for the future. And one who "would "would not engage people in dispute" is one who does not become embroiled in quarrels and disputes over the interpretation of the Dhamma.