[16. Rāhula]

I gifted a mirrored surface1
in the seven-story palace
of Blessed Padumuttara
the World’s Best One, the Neutral One. (1) [741]

The Biped-Lord, the Bull of Men,
the Great Sage [then] surrounded by
a thousand [arahants] undefiled
proceeded to [his] perfumed hut. (2) [742]

Standing in the monks’ Assembly,
[and] lighting up that perfumed hut,
the God of Gods, the Bull of Men,
the Teacher, spoke these verses [then]: (3) [743]

“I shall relate details of him
who would cause this [palace]2 to shine
[with] a mirror well spread out [here];
[all of] you listen to my words: (4) [744]

Things made of gold, things of silver,
things made of lapis lazuli;
whatever things he wishes for3
will arise in the sky [for him]. (5) [745]

Sixty-four times the king of gods
he will exercise divine rule;
a thousand times he’s going to be
a wheel-turner, without a break. (6) [746]

In the twenty-first aeon [hence]
the Kṣatriyan named Vimala4
victorious on [all] four sides
will be a wheel-turning monarch. (7) [747]

[His] city, called Reṇuvatī,5
will be well-fashioned out of tile.
[Each side] three hundred [leagues] in length
will be joined rectangularly. (8) [748]

[His] palace named Sudassana6
constructed by Vissakamma7
will be furnished with gabled cells
studded with seven kinds of gems. (9) [749]

Filled with divine musicians,8
[and never] lacking the ten sounds;
it will be like Sudassana,
the city where the gods reside.9 (10) [750]

[Even] when its radiance dims,
as though the sun were rising [then]
it will be made to shine brightly
eight leagues in every direction. (11) [751]

In one hundred thousand aeons,
arising in Okkāka’s clan,
the one whose name is Gotama
will be the Teacher in the world. (12) [752]

Falling from Tusitā [heaven],
incited by [his] wholesome roots,
he’ll be the legitimate son
of Gotama the Blessed One. (13) [753]

If he should remain in the house
[then] he would be a wheel-turner.
For that [reason] an arahant10 can’t
obtain pleasure within the house. (14) [754]

Being well-trained he will renounce
after going forth from the house.
He will be known as Rāhula
[and] he will become an arahant.” (15) [755]

“As a blue jay protects its eggs
[and] as an ox [protects] its tail,
so too,11 Great Sage, I being wise
and moral did protect [virtue]. (16) [756]

Understanding his Teaching, I
lived loving [his] dispensation.
Knowing well all the defilements,
without defilements I [now] live. (17) [757]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (18) [758]

Thus indeed Venerable Rāhula Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Venerable Rāhula Thera is finished.

  1. santharaŋ (PTS) or santhariṃ (BJTS, cty) literally means “spread out” or a mat. Cty clarifies that this mirror was a mirrored surface (ādāsa-talam), though it reads santharim as a gerund (santaritvā) meaning “produced” (nipphādetvā), “having produced a mirror I gave it”. This seems unnecessary (as well as ungrammatical) if we take the reading santharaṃ, “a spread out [mirror]”.↩

  2. PTS has jotito (m. nom. sing) but I follow cty and BJTS in reading jotitā (f. nom. sing), to agree with “palace” (pāsādā), which seems to be what ayam (m. or f. nom. sing.) refers to.↩

  3. lit., “whatever things are beloved to his mind”↩

  4. “Stainless”↩

  5. “Full of Pollen”↩

  6. Good to Look At”↩

  7. Vishwakarma, “the divine architect”↩

  8. vijjādhara° = Skt. vidyādhara°, divine musicians (or here too “spell-knowers,” sorcerers?)↩

  9. lit., the gods’ city, metri causa↩

  10. tādī, one who is neutral in terms of likes and dislikes, translated as the Neutral One or sometimes as the Such-like One when it’s a Buddha epithet.↩

  11. reading evaṃ (cty, BJTS) for mamaŋ (PTS)↩