[324. Saññasāmika1]
I was [only] seven years old,2
a learned master of mantras.
Carrying on the family line,
I encouraged sacrifice[s]. (1) [2841]
Eighty-four thousand [living] beasts,
are slaughtered by me every day.
Brought to a wooden hitching post,3
they are kept for sacrificing. (2) [2842]
Like beaten4 [gold] atop a forge,5
[burning bright] like cedar charcoal,6
like the sun [when it] is rising,
like the moon on the fifteenth day,7
Siddhattha, Goal of All Success,
Worshipped8 by the Triple World, Friend,9
the Sambuddha, having approached
[me] uttered this speech [then and there]: (3-4) [2843-2844]
“Non-violence to all that breathe,
young man, is [what best] pleases me,
and abstaining from stealing [things],
transgressing and drinking liquor. (5) [2845]
I am pleased by good behavior,
and gratitude for the learned;
praiseworthy too are those things [done]
for others in [this] world of things. (6) [2846]
Having cultivated those things,
delighting in kindness to all,10
pleasing [your] heart in the Buddha,
cultivate the ultimate Path.” (7) [2847]
Saying this, the Omniscient One,
the World’s Best, the Bull among Men,
having thus given me advice,
rose into the sky and flew off.11 (8) [2848]
Beforehand having cleansed [my] heart,
I later brought [my] heart pleasure.
Because of that mental pleasure,
I was reborn in Tusitā. (9) [2849]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I brought [that] pleasure to [my] heart,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of perceiving Buddhas. (10) [2850]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (11) [2851]
Thus indeed Venerable Saññasāmika Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Saññasāmika Thera is finished.
“Mastered through Perception”↩
lit., “seven years from birth”↩
reading sārathambh-upanītāni with BJTS for PTS sārasmiŋ hi upatāni (“brought on a post”)↩
pahaṭaŋ, BJTS reads pahaṭṭhaŋ with the same meaning.↩
ukkāmukhaŋ, the “mouth” (receiving or discharging end) of a furnace or forge, a goldsmith’s smelting pot.↩
khadiraṅgārasannibha. Khadira is Sinh. kihiri, Acacia Sundra, English “red cutch” or “khayer.” The tree produces impressive spikes of yellow flowers but is known primarily for its timber and use in making charcoal.↩
i.e., when it is full, puṇṇamāse va cchandimā↩
mahita↩
hito, lit., “Friendly One”↩
reading sabbasattahite (lit., “in friendliness to all creatures”) with BJTS for PTS sattāsattahite, “kindness to creatures and non-creatures.”↩
gato, lit., “was gone”↩