Sakiŋsammajjaka Chapter, the Forty-Third
[418. {421.}[1] Sakiŋsammajjaka[2]]
Having seen the chief of [all] trees,
the trumpet-flower[3] Bodhi tree
of Vipassi, the Blessed One,
I brought pleasure to [my] heart there. (1) [4462]
Having taken a broom [with me,]
I always swept that Bodhi tree.
After sweeping that Bodhi tree,
I worshipped the trumpet-flower. (2) [4463]
Bringing pleasure to [my] heart there,
hands pressed together on [my] head,
praising [that] Bodhi tree I [then,]
crouched over,[4] departed [from there]. (3) [4464]
Going along a walking path,[5]
remembering the supreme tree,[6]
[at that time] a python[7] crushed me,
of frightful form, extremely strong. (4) [4465]
Due to the fruit of my karma,[8]
being near death[9] I was happy.
[The python] swallowed my body;[10]
I delighted in the gods’ world. (5) [4466]
My mind is always undisturbed,
well-purified and very clear.[11]
I do not know arrows of grief,
[nor any] torment in my heart. (6) [4467]
I do not get the itch,[12] ringworm,[13]
rashes,[14] abscesses,[15] leprosy,[16]
epilepsy[17] [and] scabies[18] [too]:
that is the fruit of sweeping [up]. (7) [4468]
Grief as well as lamentation
are[19] not known in [this] heart of mine.
My mind’s upright and unattached:[20]
that is the fruit of sweeping [up]. (8) [4469]
My mind is pure, I do not cling
when in the meditative states.[21]
Whichever of those states[22] I want,
it [always] comes to be for me. (9) [4470]
I’m not attached to lustful [ways]
and also [not to] hateful [ones];
not bewildered in ignorance:
that is the fruit of sweeping [up]. (10) [4471]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I did that karma at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of sweeping [up]. (11) [4472]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (12) [4473]
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! (13) [4474]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (14) [4475]
Thus indeed Venerable Sakiŋsammajjaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Sakiŋsammajjaka 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. ↩︎
“Once-Sweeper” ↩︎
pāṭali, Sinh. paḷol, Bignonia suaveolens, sterospermum suaveolens (Bignon.), trumpet-flower tree, the Bodhi Tree of Vipassi Buddha. ↩︎
taking paṭikuṭim (BJTS reads paṭikūṭī°) as fr. paṭikuṭati “to crouch,” “to bend over.” BJTS gloss here (gauravayen nämunem, “bending over (in reverence)” ↩︎
reading cchārimaggena with BJTS (and PTS alt) for PTS cchārima-maggena, which breaks the meter ↩︎
lit., “remembering the supreme (or ultimate) Bodhi tree ↩︎
ajagarā. RD says “a large snake…a Boa Constrictor” ↩︎
lit., “the karma done by me” ↩︎
āsanne, BJTS gloss maraṇasannayehi, which in Sinhala anyway is one of the senses of āsanna (lit., “near”) ↩︎
kalebaraŋ (BJTS kaḷebaraṃ) me ↩︎
visuddhaŋ paṇḍaraŋ ↩︎
kaṇḍu. BJTS reads kacchchu, with the same meaning. ↩︎
daddu ↩︎
kuṭṭha ↩︎
gaṇḍa ↩︎
kilāsa ↩︎
apamāra. This seems an outlier since the remainder of the diseases listed here are all diseases of the skin, but the Pāli is unambiguous. ↩︎
vitacchchikā ↩︎
lit., “is,” singular ↩︎
asattaŋ. BJTS reads abhantaṃ, “not swerving,” “not careening out of control” ↩︎
samādhisu (reading samādhsu with BJTS) ↩︎
lit., “whichever samādhi” ↩︎