Saddasaññaka Chapter, the Thirty-Sixth
[348. {351.}1 Saddasaññaka2]
I was a deer-hunter back then,
within a grove in the forest.
There I saw the Sambuddha [once],
honored by the gods’ assembly.3 (1) [3140]
[While] preaching the Four Noble Truths
he ferried many folks across.
I [also] heard [his] honeyed speech
like4 the song5 of a cuckoo bird.6 (2) [3141]
Having pleased [my] heart in the sound
of Sikhi [Buddha], World’s Kinsman,
the Sage, Divine Sound Intoner,7
I attained [my] arahantship.8(3) [3142]
In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of [feeling] pleasure. (4) [3143]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [3144]
Thus indeed Venerable Saddasaññaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Saddasaññaka 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.↩
“Sound-Perceiver,” cf. #88, #294, #317↩
devasaṅghapurakkhataŋ↩
lit., “comparable to” or “metaphorically”↩
ruda, lit., “cry” (of an animal)↩
i.e., melodious and clear↩
brahmassara. RD explains this as “a beautiful and deep voice (with 8 fine qualities: see enumd under bindu) D ii.211=227; J i.96; v.336.”↩
lit., “I attained the destruction of the outflows” (āsavakkhayaŋ). This has to be read as a reference to the much later (present) life, for if he had become an arahant in the time of Sikhi Buddha he would not have been reborn during the time of the present (Gotama) Buddha.↩