According to the sutra, King Ajatashatru visited Gautama Buddha, who, at the time, was living in the mango grove of Jīvaka in Rajagaha among 1250 bhikkhus. The king posed the Buddha the question of whether or not it was possible that the life of a śramaṇa could bear fruit in the same way as the lives of craftsmen bear fruit, declaring that he had previously asked six teachers the same question, yet had not found a satisfactory answer. At the Buddha's request, King Ajatashatru describes, the answers given to him by the six other teachers. The names below are provided in Sanskrit, with the equivalent Pali names given in parentheses.
Makkhali Gosāla, the second teacher visited by Ajatashatru, subscribed to the doctrine of non-causality; the attainment of any condition is dependent on circumstance, fate, or nature rather than human will and events lack in root cause. Like Kassapa, Gosāla denied the existence of karma and vipaka. This doctrine has been likened to fatalism and determinism.
Ajita Keśakambala (Ajita Kesakambala)
Ajita Kesakambala followed Gosāla as the third teacher mentioned by Ajatashatru. Kesakambala followed "ucchedaditthi" and is frequently understood to be a materialist. Kesakambala held that all in existence was merely the process of natural phenomena and vehemently denied the existence of any life after death; "A man is built up of the four elements', when he dies, earth returns to the aggregate of earth, water to water, fire to fire, air to air, and the senses vanish into space."
Kakuda Kātyāyana (Pakudha Kaccāyana)
Pakudha Kaccāyana, the fourth teacher referred to by Ajatashatru, was an atomist who posited that all things were made up of earth, fire, air, water, pleasure, pain, and the soul, which were unchangeable and eternal. Thus objects, like living beings, composed ofthe elements are subject to change, while the elements themselves are absolutely fixed in their existences. Thus similarly to materialism, actions are defined solely by the physical interaction between these substances, rather than the moral value ascribed to them.
Nirgrantha Jñatiputra (Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta)
Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta, regarded as the most recent tirthankara within Jainism, was the fifth teacher who Ajatashatru questioned. Nāṭaputta answered Ajatashatru with a description of Jain teachings, which, unlike the previous teachers recognized morality and consequences in the afterlife. The philosophy of Nāṭaputta, however, varied from that of Buddha in its belief that involuntary actions, like voluntary actions, carry karmic weight; Buddhism holds that only actions with intention have the potential to generate karma.
Saṃjaya Vairāṣṭrikaputra (Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta)
Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta was the sixth and final teacher referenced by Ajatashatru. Belaṭṭhaputta did not provide Ajatashatru with a clear answer to his question one way or another, leading some scholars to align him with Ajñana, an agnosticschool of Indian philosophy which held that metaphysical knowledge was impossible to obtain.
