[194. Asokapūjaka1]

In lovely Tivarā City,
there was a royal garden then.
I was a royal attendant,2
the warden of the garden there. (1) [2230]

The Self-Become One, Full of Light,3
named Paduma was [Buddha then].
Sitting in a lotus’ shade
that Sage had not [yet] left [the world].4 (2) [2231]

Seeing an ashoka5 in bloom
heavy with clusters, beautiful,
I gave a bloom to the Buddha,
the excellent-lotus-named Sage. (3) [2232]

In the ninety-four aeons since
I offered that flower [to him,]
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (4) [2233]

In the seventieth aeon
were sixteen Aruṇañjahas,6
wheel-turning monarchs with great strength,
possessors of the seven gems. (5) [2234]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [2235]

Thus indeed Venerable Asokapūjaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Asokapūjaka Thera is finished.

  1. “Offerer of Ashoka [Blossoms]”↩

  2. BJTS reads baddhacaro. Cty explains the term: “I was the servant, the employee of the king”↩

  3. sappabho↩

  4. na jahitaŋ muniŋ, taking jahita from jahati to abandon, leave, relinquish, quit, give up (Sinh. at harīma)↩

  5. Jonesia Asoka, Saraca asoca; a large, flowering tree with dense clusters of red flowers↩

  6. “Abandoning the Sun”↩