[445. {448.}1 Pādapīṭhiya2]
The Sambuddha named Sumedha,
the Chief, Compassionate, the Sage,
causing many beings to cross,
[then] reached nirvana, Great-Famed One. (1) [4766]
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I had a stool for the feet made
close to the lion-throne of him,
of Sumedha, the Sage So Great. (2) [4767]
Doing that wholesome karma which
bears fruit and leads to happiness,3
conforming to [my] good4 karma,
I [then] went to Tāvatiṃsa. (3) [4768]
When I was living in that [world,]
being endowed with good5 karma,
when lifting up [my] feet a gold
footstool [then] comes to be for me. (4) [4769]
The gain for them is well-received,
who are getting a listening;
serving6 [Buddha] in nirvana,7
they’re receiving huge happiness. (5) [4770]
My karma too was so well done,
[carefully] employing merchants.
After having a footstool made,
I’m receiving a chair of gold. (6) [4771]
Whichever direction I go,8
for any reason at all, I’m
stepping on a stool of gold:
that is the fruit of good9 karma. (7) [4772]
In the thirty thousand aeons
since I did that karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of a footstool. (8) [4773]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (9) [4774]
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! (10) [4775]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (11) [4776]
Thus indeed Venerable Pādapīṭhiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Pādapīṭhiya 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.↩
“Footstool-er”↩
sukhapākaŋ sukhūdāyaŋ, ‘whose fruit is happiness, which leads to happiness.” Not that I accept the BJTS reading sukhūdāyaṃ (“leading to happiness”) for PTS sukhindriyaŋ, “wwith happy senses ith happy senses,” though the latter could appropriately be taken as an adverb qualifying katvāna, i.e., “doing wholsesome karma”↩
lit., “meritorious”↩
lit., “meritorious”↩
kāraŋ katvāna, lit., “doing deeds for”↩
nibbute, lit., “with regard to one who has reached nirvana”↩
pakkāmi↩
lit., “meritorious”↩