Sakyamuni repeated in verse what he had said in prose. One stanza reads:

My disciples are performing
The Bodhisattva practices secretly,
Though they show themselves in the forms of sravakas.
They are purifying my world,
Though they pretend to want little
And to shun birth and death.

The lines, “Though they pretend to want little and to shun birth and death,” represent sravaka-practices. The world of birth and death refers to this world, where we live with various desires and sufferings. “Hearers” of the Lesser Vehicle regarded such a world as unclean. They tried to rid themselves, not only of earthly desires, but even of the world itself, by entering some spiritual world, where they sought an ideal state of enlightenment. At first glance, this might seem admirable enough. But if they succeeded in cutting themselves off from the world, it would be impossible for them to save other creatures from suffering. Although Purna seemed to be performing these sravaka-practices, he was really practicing the Bodhisattva practice, helping to purify the world of the Buddha—that is, the world in which we live. Sakyamuni’s affirmation that Purna was secretly performing the Bodhisattva practice is attributed mainly to his efforts to expound the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha), in spite of his appearance of being a sravaka.