[419. {422.}1 Ekadussadāyaka2]
In the City, Haṃsavatī,
I was a grass-carrier [then].
I [earn my] living hauling grass,
[and] through it I feed [my] children. (1) [4476]
The Victor, Padumuttara,
was the Master of Everything.3
Doing away with the darkness,
the World-Leader arose back then. (2) [4477]
[While] sitting down in [my] own house,
this is what I thought at that time:
“The Buddha’s risen in the world,
[but] I lack anything to give. (3) [4478]
I [only] have this single cloak,
I do not have [my own] donor.
Suffering is a taste of hell;4
I will [now] plant a donation.” (4) [4479]
Contemplating [it] in this way,
I brought pleasure to [my] own heart.
Taking that single piece of cloth,
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha. (5) [4480]
Having given [that] single cloth,
I gave rise to [great] shouts of joy,
“If you are a Buddha, Wise One,
carry me across, O Great Sage.” (6) [4481]
Padumuttara, World-Knower,
Sacrificial Recipient,
singing the praises of my gift,
[the Buddha] then gave thanks to me: (7) [4482]
“Because of this single cloak[-gift,]
[done] with intention and resolve,
he will not go to a bad place
for one hundred thousand5 aeons. (8) [4483]
Thirty-six times a lord of gods,
he will exercise divine rule.
And thirty-three times he’ll become
a king who turns the wheel [of law]. (9) [4484]
There will be much regional rule,
incalculable by counting.
In the world of gods or of men,
you’ll transmigrate in existence. (10) [4485]
Good-looking and full of virtue,
with a body that’s not surpassed,
you’ll obtain, whenever you wish,
unwavering limitless cloth.” (11) [4486]
When he had said this, the Buddha
known by the name Supreme Lotus,6
the Hero7 rose into the sky,
just like a swan-king in the air. (12) [4487]
In whichever womb I’m reborn,
[whether] it’s human or divine,
I have no lack of possessions:
that’s the fruit of a single cloth. (13) [4488]
With every footstep [that I take],8
[some] cloth is [then] produced for me.
I stand upon cloth underneath;
a canopy on top of me. (14) [4489]
[And] today I [still] am wishing
that I could cover with [some] cloth
even the [whole] universe
with [its] forests [and its] mountains. (15) [4490]
Just because of that single cloth,
transmigrating from birth to birth,
I was9 one of golden color,
transmigrating from birth to birth.10 (16) [4491]
[One] result of that single cloth:
no ruination anywhere.11
This one [will be my] final life;
[that] now is bearing fruit for me. (17) [4492]
In the hundred thousand aeons
since I gave that cloth at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of a single cloth. (18) [4493]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (19) [4494]
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! (20) [4495]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (21) [4496]
Thus indeed Venerable Ekadussadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ekadussadāyaka 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.↩
“One-Cloth-Donor” This same apadāna appears as #{334}, above (BJTS only), presumably (as I speculate in the notes there) in order to fill a gap in the mss. tradition.↩
lit., “master of all things (dhamma)” (or “Master of All Teachings”)↩
niraya-samphassa, lit., “contact with hell” “touching of hell” “experience of hell”↩
amending kappasatahassāni to kappasatasahassāni, which keeps the meter.↩
jalajuttamanāmaka↩
BJTS (and PTS alt.) reads dhīro (“the wise one”)↩
lit., “footstep after footstep,” or more literally still, “on footstep on footstep,” reduplicated to suggest the whole series. This interpretation follows the BJTS Sinhala gloss.↩
lit., “having been”↩
the repetition of the second foot as the fourth foot does not seem to be intentional, as it carries no poetic force and cries out for an indicative verb. I suspect it is a mistake, but an early one as it seems to be in all the manuscript traditions.↩
lit., “not going up into destruction anywhere”↩