[35. Mogharāja]
The Blessed One Atthadassi
the Self-Become One, Unconquered,
encompassed by the monks’ Assembly
entered the chariot-road [then]. (1) [1066]
With my students [all] around me
I [then] departed from the house.
Having gone out I [then] saw there
[the Sambuddha], the World-Leader. (2) [1067]
[Then] saluting the Sambuddha,
hands pressed together on my head,
bringing pleasure to [my] own heart,
I praised the World-Leader kindly: (3) [1068]
To what extent beings have form,
are formless or are unconscious,
all of them are included in
the [great] knowledge that you possess.1 (4) [1069]
If one encloses water with
a net that is good for fishing,
all the creatures in the water
would [then] be caught inside the net. (5) [1070]
And whoever has intentions
one with form or a formless one,
are all of them included in
the [great] knowledge that you possess. (6) [1071]
You’re lifting up this world which is
confused by the darkness-maker.2
Having listened to your Teaching
they [all then] cross the flood of doubt. (7) [1072]
This world’s enmeshed in ignorance,
covered by the darkness-maker.
In your knowledge they shine brightly
driving out the darkness-maker. (8) [1073]
That eye of yours, for everyone,
is what removes the great darkness.
Having listened to your Teaching
many folks achieve nirvana.” (9) [1074]
Having filled up a container
[with] a bit of pure [bee’s] honey,
picking it up with both [my] hands,
I held it out to the Great Sage. (10) [1075]
The Great Hero, the Sage So Great,
accepted it, with [some] boiled rice.3
Eating it, the Omniscient One
then rose up into the sky4 [there]. (11) [1076]
Teacher Atthadassi, Man-Bull,
standing up in the atmosphere,
bringing pleasure to my [own] heart,
[then] spoke these verses [about me]: (12) [1077]
“This one by whom knowledge is praised
and the Best Buddha is lauded,
due to the pleasure in [his] heart,
will not go to a bad rebirth. (13) [1078]
He will exercise divine rule
[fully] fourteen [different] times [then].
He will reside upon the earth
with eight hundred earthly5 reigns [there]. (14) [1079]
And five hundred times he will be
a king who turns the wheel [of law].
He will exercise on the earth
uncountable regional reigns. (15) [1080]
A learned man who knows mantras,
he will master the three Vedas.
And [then] he will renounce the world
in Gotama Buddha’s teaching.6 (16) [1081]
Through [his] knowledge he’ll discover
facts which are [so] deep and subtle.
He’ll be the Teacher’s follower
[whose] name [will be] Mogharāja, (17) [1082]
endowed with the three knowledges,7
undefiled, a duty-doer.
Gotama the Top Charioteer
will place him in that foremost place.” (18) [1083]
Abandoning [my] human work,
severing the bonds of being,
knowing well all the defilements,
without defilements I [now] live. (19) [1084]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (20) [1085]
Thus indeed Venerable Mogharāja Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Mogharāja Thera is finished.
reading samogadhā (BJTS) for samāhaṭā (PTS). The Sinhala gloss in BJTS understands the verse to refer to the beings in Brahmaloka; though the text does not stipulate that, it would make sense of the inclusion here of formless and non-sentient beings (as are found there, along with beings that have form). In any event, the point of the verse is that the Buddha’s knowledge is all-encompassing.↩
lit., “that which causes darkness” = ignorance, delusion↩
reading sabhattena (BJTS) for subhakena (PTS)↩
lit., “rose up into the sky the sky;” I have reduced the redundancy of vehāsaṃ nabhaṃ, as does the BJTS Sinhala gloss.↩
I read pathavyā (BJTS) for padesa (PTS), to avoid the redundancy (even contradiction) with the next verse.↩
lit., “in the dispensation of Gotama, the Blessed One”↩
tīhi vijjāhi↩