[59. Paduma1]

He was declaring the Four Truths
[while] turning the best Dhamma-wheel,
raining the rain of deathlessness,
liberating many people.2 (1) [1323]

Taking a lotus with a flag,3
standing half a kosa4 [away],
happy, I raised it in the air
for the Sage Padumuttara. (2) [1324]

There was a strange occurrence then:
the lotus approached [the Buddha].
Discerning what I was thinking
the Best Debater [then] took [it]. (3) [1325]

Having taken with his fine hand
[that] superb water-born lotus,
standing in the monks’ Assembly
the Teacher spoke these verses [then]: (4) [1326]

“I shall relate details of him
who [just] tossed this lotus flower
to the Omniscient Arahant;5
[all of] you listen to my words: (5) [1327]

Thirty aeons as king of gods
he will exercise divine rule.
With seven hundred earthly reigns
he will reside upon the earth. (6) [1328]

Taking a bowl [of lotuses]6 there,
he’ll be a king who turns the wheel.
A rain of flowers from the sky
will rain [on him] all of the time. (7) [1329]

In one hundred thousand aeons,
arising in Okkāka’s clan,
the one whose name is Gotama
will be the Teacher in the world. (8) [1330]

Worthy heir to that one’s Dhamma,
Dhamma’s legitimate offspring,
knowing well all the defilements
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.” (9) [1331]

Coming forth from [my mother’s] womb,
[both] comprehending [and] mindful,
when I was [only] five years old7
I attained [my] arahantship. (10) [1332]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (11) [1333]

Thus indeed Venerable Paduma Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Paduma Thera is finished.

  1. “Pink Lotus”↩

  2. lit., “making many people achieve nirvana.” I am tempted to use a neologism like “nirvan-izing” to get the verbal usage of nibbāpento, but refrain.↩

  3. BJTS and some PTS alternatives read sadaṇḍaṃ (“with the stem”) for sadhajaŋ, but as cty agrees with PTS in reading sadhajaŋ I translate “with a flag” despite the evocative appeal of “with the stem.”↩

  4. a kosa is 500 bow lengths, so he would have been standing 250 bow lengths away.↩

  5. lit., “One Without Outflows,” “Undefiled One,” i.e., the Buddha↩

  6. this follows the BJTS Sinhala gloss. Cty offers no comment. Could pattaŋ gahetvā also be, “taking appointment”?↩

  7. lit., “being five years from birth”↩