[451. {454.}1 Tiṇukkadhāriya2]
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I carried three [grass] torches at
the foot of the superb Bodhi3
of Padumuttara Buddha. (1) [4818]
In the hundred thousand aeons
since I carried those torches [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving torches. (2) [4819]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [4820]
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! (4) [4821]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [4822]
Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇukkadhāriya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Tiṇukkadhāriya 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.↩
“Grass-Torch-Bearer,” BJTS reads less ambiguously Tiṇukkādhāraka°↩
i.e., at the base of his Bodhi tree, which was a salala tree.↩