[126. Kusumāsaniya1]
In the city, Dhaññavatī,
I was a brahmin at that time,
a master of the three Vedas,
well-versed in marks and history,
the dictionaries and poetry,2
[also] skilled in [reading] omens,
an [erudite] grammarian;
I taught mantras to my students. (1-2) [1830-1831]
At that time I’d placed on the road3
five handfuls of lotus flowers,
wishing to offer sacrifice
for [my] mother and [my] father.4 (3) [1832]
The Blessed One then, Vipassi,
Honored by the monks’ Assembly,
the Bull of Men went [near me then,]
lighting up every direction. (4) [1833]
Having invited the Great Sage,
I appointed a seat [for him,]
then spreading out those flowers [there],
I led5 [him] up to [my] own house. (5) [1834]
Whatever I had in [my] house,
alms-food which [I] had been given,
I gave [all] that to the Buddha,
[feeling well-] pleased by [my] own hands. (6) [1835]
Discerning when his meal was done,6
I gave one handful [of flowers].
Giving thanks, the Omniscient One
[then] departed facing the north. (7) [1836]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [him] that flower back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving flowers. (8) [1837]
In an intervening aeon,
I was King Varadassana,7
a wheel-turner with great power,
possessor of the seven gems. (9) [1838]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (10) [1839]
Thus indeed Venerable Kusumāsaniya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Kusumāsaniya Thera is finished.
“Floral Seat-er”↩
keṭubha = “poetical fiction”↩
reading pīṭhiyaṃ (BJTS) for piṭṭhiyaŋ (“on [my] back,” PTS).↩
lit., “in association with [my] mother and father”↩
reading abhinesiṃ (BJTS, PTS alt) for atinesiŋ (PTS)↩
lit., “discerning the time when he became one who had eaten”↩
“Seeing the Excellent”↩