Ekavihāriya Chapter, the Forty-Fourth

[428. {431.}1 Ekavihāriya2]

In this [present] lucky aeon
Brahmā’s Kinsman, Greatly Famed One,
named Kassapa through [his] lineage,3
Best Debater, [Buddha] arose. (1) [4630]

Non-Delayed One,4 Unsupported,5
Whose Mind is as Level as Space,6
Very Empty,7 Neutral,8 Not Fond
of Appearances,9 the Master,10 (2) [4631]

Heart Unattached,11 Defilement-Free,12
Not Mixing in the clan [and] group,13
Greatly Compassionate, Hero,
Skilled in means of disciplining,14 (3) [4632]

Active in duties to others,15
Training [the whole world] with [its] gods,16
Drying Up the muddiness on
road that leads to nirvana —
undying, supreme enjoyment,17
obstacle to old age and death18 —
the One Who Helps the World Across19
was seated amidst a huge crowd. (4-5) [4633-4634]

Lord,20 with the Voice of a Cuckoo,21
the Sound of Brahmā,22 Thus-Gone-One,23
Lifting [those on] very bad roads24
who are lost25 without a Leader,26 (6) [4635]

preaching the stainless Teaching [then,]
the World-Leader was seen by me.
Having listened to his Teaching,
I went forth into homelessness. (7) [4636]

Going forth, I was then thinking
of the Victor’s dispensation;
weighed down by associations,
I lived alone in lovely woods. (8) [4637]

Physical solitude became
the great condition27 [then] for me,
possessed of mental solitude,
looking at meetings fearfully.28 (9) [4638]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (10) [4639]

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! (11) [4640]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (12) [4641]

Thus indeed Venerable Ekavihāriya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekavihāriya Thera is finished.

  1. 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.↩

  2. “”One Condition-er”↩

  3. gottena↩

  4. nippapañccha, lit., “One who Lacks the Delays,” i.e., the three characteristics (craving, delusion, pride) which delay progress toward nirvana.↩

  5. nirālambo↩

  6. ākāsa-sama-mānaso, following BJTS gloss (no gäṭena)↩

  7. lit., “possessing much emptiness,” reading suññatā with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS puññatā (“much merit-ness,” sic)↩

  8. tadī↩

  9. animittarato↩

  10. vasī↩

  11. asaṅga-cchitto↩

  12. nikleso↩

  13. asaŋsaṭṭho kule gaṇe↩

  14. vinayopāyakovido (cf. Skt. upāya kauśālya)↩

  15. uyyutto parakiccchchesu↩

  16. vinayanto sadevake↩

  17. param-assāda, BJTS Sinhala gloss paramāśvādaya↩

  18. jarāmaccchchunivāraṇaŋ↩

  19. lokatārano↩

  20. nātho↩

  21. karavīikarudo (BJTS [and PTS alt.] corrects to karavīika-ruto). RD Karavīika = the Indian cuckoo↩

  22. brahmaghoso↩

  23. tathāgato↩

  24. uddharanto mahāduggā; I follow BJTS gloss in supplying “people” as the object of the verbal noun.↩

  25. vipannaṭṭhe (PTS), vipannaddhe (BJTS)↩

  26. anāyake↩

  27. hetubhūto, i.e., the condition suitable to his attaining arahantship↩

  28. reading sakāyavūpakasso [corrected in BJTS alt. to vūpakāso] me hetubhūto mahābhavi with BJTS for PTS svakāūpakaṭṭho me hetubhūto mam āgami (“physical solitude came to me become the condition for me”)↩