[440. {443.}1 Billaphaliya2]

On CChandabhāgā River’s bank,
my well-constructed hermitage
was served by varied [types] of trees,
[and] strewn with bel trees [full of fruit.] (1) [4731]

Seeing a fragrant bel tree,3 I,
remembering the Best Buddha,
having filled up a khāri load,
thrilled, mind [stirred up] with emotion,
having approached Kakusandha,
with a mind that was very clear,
I gave [that] bel fruit [I had brought]
to [him,] the Hero, Merit-Field. (2-3) [4732-4733]

Within the [present] aeon, since
I gave that fruit [to him] back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (4) [4734]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (5) [4735]

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! (6) [4736]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [4737]

Thus indeed Venerable Billaphaliya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Billaphaliya 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. “Bel-Fruit-er”↩

  3. bellaŋ, billā = fruit of Aegle marmelos, Sinh. beli geḍiya, bael, bel, Bengal quince; bilva or vilva tree, = beluvā↩