[446. {449.}1 Vedikāraka2]

Making a well-made railing for
the foot of the superb Bodhi3
of Padumuttara Buddha,
I brought pleasure to [my] own heart. (1) [4777]

Really excellent4 merchandise,5
[things] man-made and [things] not man-made,6
are raining [on me] from the sky:
that is the fruit of a railing. (2) [4778]

Being jumped on from both [sides] when
threatening armies are massing,7
I am not seeing frights or fears:
that is the fruit of a railing. (3) [4779]

Discerning what I am thinking,
a good mansion gets made8 [for me]
[with] many very costly beds:
that is the fruit of a railing. (4) [4780]

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I had that railing made [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of a railing. (5) [4781]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (6) [4782]

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! (7) [4783]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [4784]

Thus indeed Venerable Vedikāraka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Vedikāraka 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. “Railing-Maker.” Cf. #143, above, for another monk with the same name/seed karma.↩

  3. i.e., at the base of his Bodhi tree, which was a salala tree.↩

  4. reading atolārṇi (PTS) or athoḷārāṇni (BJTS) as ati-uḷārāṇi, “excessively lofty” “very superior”↩

  5. bhaṇḍāni, “things,” “articles,” “stock in trade,” “goods,” “property;” BJTS Sinh. goss bhāṇḍayō↩

  6. katāni akatāni ccha, or “manufactured and natural”↩

  7. ubhato byūḷhasaṇgame (BJTS vyūḷlhasaṅgame)/pakkhadanto bhayānake, following the first suggestion for interpreting this difficult half-verse in BJTS Sinhala gloss, which takes the first compound as v[i]yūḷha + saṅgame, lit., “the meeting of a mass of troops” (Sinhala gloss: “being sprung upon from two sides by a frightful army”). The other suggestion, also possible, takes vyūḷlhasaṅgame in the sense of “meeting that has arisen” (but also “intention,” “plan,” “design:” aramuṇak) to produce “[when] springing forward into dangerous situations” (or “an intention to spring forward into imminent danger”)↩

  8. lit., “is produced” “is born” “comes into existence”↩