[336. {339.}1 Dhammasavaniya2]
The Victor, Padumuttara,
was the Master of Everything.3
[While] preaching the Four Noble Truths,
he ferried many folks across. (1) [3042]
A matted-haired ascetic4 then,
I practiced fierce austerities.5
Throwing off [my] clothes made of bark,
I traveled in the sky back then. (2) [3043]
Then I was unable to fly6
over [him], the Best of Buddhas.
Like a bird hitting7 a mountain,
I did not get to journey on.8 (3) [3044]
My movement had not formerly
been obstructed in such a way;9
as though rising up10 from water,
I easily11 flew12 through the sky. (4) [3045]
“A lofty human being must13
be sitting underneath [me now].
It’s good14 for me to search for him;
I might obtain something worthwhile.”15 (5) [3046]
Then descending from the sky, I
heard the sound of the Teacher,
who was preaching impermanence;
I learned that [lesson] at that time. (6) [3047]
Learning to see16 impermanence
I went back to my hermitage.
Dwelling there the rest of my life,
I passed away [right] on the spot. (7) [3048]
In [my] subsequent existence,
I recalled hearing that Teaching.
Due to that karma done very well,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (8) [3049]
For thirty thousand aeons I
delighted in the world of gods.
And I exercised divine rule,
one more than fifty [different] times. (9) [3050]
And seventy-one [different] times
I was a wheel-turning monarch.
There was [also] much local rule,
innumerable by counting. (10) [3051]
[Then] seated in my father’s house,
a monk with senses [well-]controlled,
illustrating [the truth] in verse,17
spoke of things as impermanent.18 (11) [3052]
Remembering that perception,
transmigrating from birth to birth,
I [still] did not perceive the end,
nirvana, everlasting state. (12) [3053]
“In flux indeed is all that is;
things come to be [and then] decay.
They arise [and then] they dissolve;
their cessation19 is happiness.” (13) [3054]20
After hearing [him say] that verse,21
I recalled my past perception.
Seated in a single sitting,
I achieved the arahant-state. (14) [3055]
Being [only] seven years old,
I attained [my] arahantship.
Recognizing [my] virtue the
Buddha, Eyeful One ordained me. (15) [3056]
Even though I was a [mere] boy,
I finished what needs to be done.
Today what do I need to do
in the Śākyan’s dispensation?22 (16) [3057]
In the hundred thousand aeons
since I did that [good] karma then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit in hearing the Teaching.23 (17) [3058]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (18) [3059]
Thus indeed Venerable Dhammasavaniya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Dhammasavaniya Thera is finished.
Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation.↩
“Dharma-Hearer” or “Hearer of the Teaching”↩
lit., “Master of All Things (dhamma)” (or “Master of All Teachings”)↩
jaṭila, an ascetic who wears his hair in a matted braid (jaṭā)↩
lit., “I was one who practices fierce austerities,” reading ugga-tāpano with BJTS (and PTS alternative) for PTS uggata-āpaṇa, “rising over the bazaar”↩
lit., “to go”↩
āsajja, lit., “having hit/struck”↩
lit., “I did not receive a journey”. BJTS (and PTS alt.) reads na ālabhiṃ for PTS na labhe; the grammar is clearer but the meaning is the same.↩
lit., “this obstruction of movement had not formerly transpired for me”↩
reading dake yathā ummujjitvā with BJTS for PTS dake yathā ummisitvā (“as though opening one’s eyes in the water”)↩
evaŋ, lit., “thus,” “in this way”↩
lit., “am going” (“went”)↩
lit., “will” (bhavissati, future tense)↩
handa me, “well then for me”↩
lit., “I might obtain a thing of value”↩
lit., “the perception of”↩
reading gāthāya with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS kathāya, “through [his] speech”↩
BJTS reads, more straightforwardly, aniccchchataṃ udāhari, “[then] spoke about impermanence”↩
reading vūpasamo with BJTS for PTS vupasamo↩
cf. S iv.28; A i.152, 299↩
saha gāthaŋ sunitavāna, lit., “after hearing [his sermon] together with that verse” or “in conjunction with that verse”↩
lit., “in the dispensation of the Śākyan Son”↩
saddhammasavane phalaŋ, lit., “the fruit in the Great Teaching”↩