[432. {435.}1 Ucchchukaṇḍika2]
In the city, Bandhumatī,
I was a gate-keeper [back then].
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
[who was] Master of Everything. (1) [4673]
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
bringing a stalk of sugarcane,3
I gave it to [him,] the Best Buddha,
the Great Sage [known as] Vipassi. (2) [4674]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [the Buddha] sugar-cane,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of a sugar-cane stalk. (3) [4675]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [4676]
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! (5) [4677]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [4678]
Thus indeed Venerable Ucchchukaṇḍika4 Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ucchchukaṇḍika5 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.↩
“Stalk of Sugarcane-er” BJTS reads Ucchchukhaṇḍika (“Broken Bit/Stick of Sugarcane”)↩
ucchchu + kaṇḍika, fr. kaṇḍa, a reed or stalk or arrow shaft (or the entire arrow). BJTS reads ucchchu + khaṇḍaka, with much the same meaning. Sugar-cane grows like bamboo, shooting up discrete stalks or canes (hence the name) which are then chewed raw, or boiled and processed into granulated sugar.↩
BJTS reads Ucchchukhaṇḍika°↩
BJTS reads Ucchchukhaṇḍika°↩