[20. Sumaṅgala]
Wishing to make a sacrifice
I had a meal prepared [back then]
[and] stood in a large mālaka1
venerating the brahmins [there]. (1) [796]
And then I saw the Sambuddha,
Piyadassi, Greatly Famed One,
who was the Tamer of All Worlds,2
the Self-Become, the Neutral One. (2) [797]
Standing before his followers
that Blessed One, really shining,
[was] blazing forth just like the sun
when entering its chariot. (3) [798]
Pressing my hands together [then]
[and] bringing [my] own heart pleasure,
I invited [him] with my mind:
“Let the Great Sage come [to me now].” (4) [799]
Discerning what I was thinking,
he who was Peerless in the World,
Teacher, with a thousand arahants
came [right] up to my doorway [then]. (5) [800]
“Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person!3
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
Ascending into [my] palace
please sit upon the lion-throne.” (6) [801]
The Tame One, with Tamed Retinue,
Crossed Over,4 the Best Ferryman5
ascending into [my] palace
sat down upon that seat superb. (7) [802]
Foodstuffs which had been presented
that [still] remained in my own house
I [then] gifted to the Buddha
[feeling well-] pleased by [my] own hands. (8) [803]
With a pleased heart [and] happy mind,
joyful,6 with hands pressed together,
I worshipped the Best of Buddhas:
“O! The Buddha’s [great] eminence! (9) [804]
Many arahants are among these
nobles being served [and] eating.7
That is your majestic power;
I [too] go for refuge in you.” (10) [805]
Piyadassi the Blessed One
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
sat down in the monks’ Assembly
[and] uttered these verses [aloud]: (11) [806]
[Of] he who fed the Assembly
[which is] upright [and] attentive
and the Sambuddha, Thus-Gone-One,
[all of] you listen to my words: (12) [807]
Twenty-seven times [a god-king]
he will exercise divine rule.
With pleasure in his own karma
he’ll delight in the world of gods. (13) [808]
And also eighteen times he’ll be
a king who turns the wheel [of law].
He will reside upon the earth
[and] have five hundred earthly reigns.” (14) [809]
Plunged into the woods, the forest,
a tiger-frequented jungle,
having put forth great exertion
I destroyed [all] the defilements. (15) [810]
In the eighteen hundred aeons
since I gave [him] that gift back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth;
that is the fruit of giving food. (16) [811]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (17) [812]
Thus indeed Venerable Sumaṅgala Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Sumaṅgala Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Sīhāsani and Ekatthambhi,
Nanda and CChulla-Panthaka,
Pilinda and also Rāhula,
Vangata, Raṭṭhapālaka,
Sopāka and also Maṅgala,
ten are in the second chapter
and a hundred and thirty-seven
verses are related here.
The Sīhāsani Chapter, the Second.
see note to [687]↩
sabbalokavinetāraŋ↩
purisājañña, RD “steed of man,” in the voc. Contracted form of ājāniya/ājānīya, “almost exclusively used to donate a thoroughbred horse”↩
tiṇṇo, i.e., one who has gone to the further shore of samsāra, one who has reached nirvana↩
lit., “Excellent among those who cause [others] to cross over”↩
lit., “with enjoyment born”↩
lit., “among the eight [types of noble beings] who are constantly attended upon and [now] are eating, there are many arahants”↩