[3] Stream entry is purportedly followed by three subsequent stages of awakening: Sakadāgāmi (once-returner), Anāgāmi (non-returner), and Arahant (fully liberated).
[4] It describes a person who has grasped the dharma and thereby dropped the first three fetters (Pāli: samyojana), namely self-view (sakkāya-ditthi), and skeptical indecision (vicikicchā), clinging to rites and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa).
Whereas the stream-entrant has seen nibbāna and therefore has verified confidence in it, the arahant[13] can drink fully of its waters, to use a simile from the Kosambi Sutta (SN 12.68) of a "well" encountered along a desert road.
'"[15] The remaining three paths—namely: once-return (sakadāgāmin), non-return (anāgāmin), and sainthood (arahatta)—become "destined" (sammatta niyāma) for the stream-entrant, whose enlightenment as a disciple (ariya-sāvaka) becomes inevitable within seven lives transmigrating among gods and humans.
[18] The early Buddhist texts (e.g. the Ratana Sutta) say that a stream-entrant will no longer be born in the animal womb, or hell realms, nor as a hungry ghost.
[20] In the Pali Canon, the qualities of a sotāpanna are described as:[21] ...those monks who have abandoned (the first) three fetters, are all stream-winners, certain, never again destined for the lower realms, headed for self-awakening.
In that chapter's discourse-numbers 1–4, 6–9, 11–14, 16–20, 22–36, 39–49, 51, 53, and 54, sotāpannas are praised as sangha members—by and to: the sick, lay followers, people on their deathbed, bhikkhunis, bhikkhus, and devas—and end up becoming the well-being and benefit of many.
From Dhammapada verse 178:[further explanation needed] Sole dominion over the earth, going to heaven, lordship over all worlds: the fruit of stream-entry excels them.