[453. {456.}1 Vanakoraṇḍiya2]

Taking wild koraṇḍa [flowers,]3
I offered [them] to the Buddha
[named] Siddhattha, the Blessed One,
the World’s Best One, the Neutral One. (1) [4828]

In the ninety-four aeons since
I offered [him] that flower [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (2) [4829]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [4830]

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) [4831]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [4832]

Thus indeed Venerable Vanakoraṇḍiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Vanakoraṇḍiya 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. “Wild Koraṇḍa-er”↩

  3. vanakoraṇḍam, presumably a wild-growing (lit., “forest”) variety of koraṇḍa, Sinh. kaṭukoraṇḍu, Barberia prionitis (Acanth.), cf. koraṇḍaka, kuraṇḍaka, a shrub and its flower, J. v.473 (RD); here BJTS gloss is vanakaraṇḍa, which I do not find in the dictionaries (a different species from kaṭukoraṇḍa?)↩