[410. {413.}1 Tiṇasūlakachādaniya2]
At that time I contemplated
birth and decrepitude [and] death.
Going out [from the home] alone,3
I went forth into homelessness. (1) [4346]
In the course of wandering, I
came to4 the banks of a river.5
There on the riverbank I saw
[a piece of] earth in all fullness.6 (2) [4347]
Fashioning a hermitage there,
I’m living in the hermitage.
My walkway is well-constructed,
housing7 flocks8 of various birds.9 (3) [4348]
Trustingly they come up to me,
and sing10 [their] lovely [songs to me].
Delighting11 [there] along with them,
I’m living in the hermitage. (4) [4349]
Near that hermitage of mine were
wild beasts of four [different] kinds,
who came out of their12 [forest] haunts
and roared [for me] like the thunder. (5) [4350]
When those wild beasts were making sounds,
[great] mirth was [then] produced in me.
[While] searching for [those] animals,13
I saw the Leader of the World. (6) [4351]
[Then] having seen the God of Gods,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
happy, [and] with a happy heart,
I offered14 ironwood pollen.15 (7) [4352]
I praised the Leader of the World,
like the sun [when it] is rising,
like a regal sal tree in bloom,
shining forth like the morning star:16 (8) [4353]
“Omniscient One, with your knowledge,
you light up this [world] with [its] gods.
After having made you happy,
they’re liberated from rebirth. (9) [4354]
Omniscient One, through not seeing
the17 Buddhas who see everything,
those obstructed by lust [and] hate
descend18 into avīcchi hell.19 (10) [4355]
Coming to take a look at you,
Omniscient One, O World-Leader,
they are freed from all existence,
[and] realize20 the deathless state. (11) [4356]
When the Buddhas, the Eyeful Ones,
the Light-Bringers are arising,
they display the light [of the truth],
burning up [all the] defilements.” (12) [4357]
After praising the Sambuddha,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
happy, [and] with a happy heart,
I offered21 Arab jasmine22 blooms. (13) [4358]
Discerning what I was thinking,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
sitting down [there] on [his] own seat,
spoke these verses [about me then]: (14) [4359]
“He who covered me with flowers,
[feeling well-]pleased by his own hands,
I shall relate details of him;
[all of] you listen to my words: (15) [4360]
Twenty-five times he’s going to
exercise rule over the gods,
and seventy-five times he’ll be
a king who turns the wheel [of law]. (16) [4361]
[And there will be] much local rule,
innumerable by counting,
as a result of his karma
of doing pūjā with23 flowers. (17) [4362]
When this person has bathed his head,
if24 he wishes for a flower,
[then] bound up with his good25 karma,
[it] will appear in front of [him]. (18) [4363]
Whatever’s wished for through desires,
that all is going to appear.
Having fulfilled [his] intentions,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled. (19) [4364]
The eighteenth recitation portion
Having burnt up the defilements,
attentive and intelligent,
sitting down on a single seat,
he will attain arahantship.” (20) [4365]
Walking back and forth, lying down,
sitting down or else standing up,
remembering the Best Buddha,
I am living all of the time.26 (21) [4366]
There’s no deficiency for me
in robes and food that I beg for,
in requisites [and] bed-and-seat:27
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (22) [4367]
Now deathlessness has been attained,
the unsurpassed [great] state of peace.
Knowing well all the defilements,
I am living without constraint.28 (23) [4368]
In the ninety-two aeons since
I did pūjā to the Buddha,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (24) [4369]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (25) [4370]
Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (26) [4371]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (27) [4372]
Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇasūlakachādaniya29 Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Tiṇasūlakachādaniya30 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.↩
“Arabian-Jasmine-Flower-Coverer,“ BJTS reads Tiṇasūlakachadaniya, with the same meaning. DPPN I:1008 leaves Tiṇasūla untranslated; BJTS Sinhala gloss is bōlidda, Arabian Jasmine, a fragrant small white flower (°idda) which flowers in ball-like (bōl°) clusters.↩
ekato is the ablative form of eka, the number “one” which also functions as an indefinite article. I am reading it here as though it were ekatta (“alone”) following the BJTS Sinh. gloss (ekalāva = alone, singly) rather than, as is the more common Pāli usage, “together”.↩
upāgamin, “went up to” “approached”↩
or “the banks of the Ganges,” gaṅgātīram↩
paṭhaviŋ…supaṇṇataŋ, I suppose “fullness of flora and fauna,” given the subsequent verses.↩
°āyuto, lit., “connected with” “furnished with” “endowed with” “possessing”↩
°gaṇa°, “groups”.↩
nānādija°↩
kūjanti↩
reading ramamāno with BJTS for PTS ramamāṇo↩
I take the 3rd sing. so (and the declension of the verb, gajji, “it roared”) apposite “four kinds” (cchatukamo), so translate in the plural even though the pronoun and verb are singular.↩
lit., “for those wild beasts”↩
lit., “did pūjā”↩
nāgakesaraŋ, BJTS gloss specifies that the meaning is “pollen of ironwood (nā, nāga) flowers.”↩
osadhī. RD (s.v.) points out that all we really know about this star is that it was particularly bright, leading Childers to translate it as “Venus” and others as the morning star.↩
lit., “of,” gen. case, “not-seeing of Buddhas”↩
patantya<patanti, note the Sanskritic sandhi here↩
avīcchinirayaŋ, a particularly oppressive hell-state↩
phusanti↩
lit., “did pūjā”↩
tiṇasūlaŋ, Sinh. bōlidda↩
lit., “of”↩
reading yadi with BJTS for the second ayaŋ in PTS↩
lit., “meritorious”↩
reading sadā (“always” “all the time”) with BJTS for PTS tadā (“then”)↩
or “residence”↩
or “free of the outflows,” “undefiled,” anāsavo↩
BJTS reads Tiṇasūlakachadaniya↩
BJTS reads Tiṇasūlakachadaniya↩