Jagatidāyaka Chapter, the Forty-Sixth

[448. {451.}1 Jagatidāyaka2]

Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I had the spot of earth3 cleared for
the foot of the superb Bodhi4
of Dhammadassi [Buddha], Sage. (1) [4797]

From a cliff or from a mountain,
[when] I have fallen from a tree,
I get support [to break] the fall:
that’s the fruit of a spot of earth. (2) [4798]

Thieves are not harassing me [and]
rulers5 don’t despise me [either];
I am surpassing all my friends:
that’s the fruit of a spot of earth. (3) [4799]

In whichever womb I’m reborn,
[whether] it’s human or divine,
everywhere I’m being worshipped:6
that’s the fruit of a spot of earth. (4) [4800]

In the eighteen hundred aeons
[since] I prepared that spot of earth,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of a spot of earth. (5) [4801]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (6) [4802]

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) [4803]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [4804]

Thus indeed Venerable Jagatidāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Jagatidāyaka 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. “Spot of Earth Donor”↩

  3. jagati, lit., “earth” “the ground”↩

  4. i.e., at the base of his Bodhi tree, which was a bimbijāla tree, .↩

  5. kṣatriyans, khattiyo↩

  6. sabbattha pūjito homi↩