[482. {485.}1 CChandanamāliya2]
Giving up the five sense pleasures,3
forms which are dear and delightful;
giving up eight hundred million,
I went forth into homelessness. (1) [5105]
After going forth I gave up
bad karma4 [done] with the body.
Giving up bad conduct through words,
I dwelt upon a river’s banks. (2) [5106]
[Then] the Best Buddha approached me,
living alone5 [near that river].
I did not know, “he’s the Buddha;”
I gave [him] a friendly welcome.6 (3) [5107]
Giving [him that] friendly welcome,
I [then] asked [him] his name and clan:
“Are you a god, a music-nymph,
or7 [even] generous Indra? (4) [5108]
Or else who are you? Son of whom?
[Like] God Himself8 has come here [now],
you’re shining in all directions,
like the sun [when it is] rising. (5) [5109]
[Marks of] wheels with one thousand spokes
are seen on your foot, happy one.9
Who then are you? The son of whom?
How [then] can we [come to] know that?
Please declare [your] name and [your] clan;
please [do] relieve [me] of my doubts!” (6) [5110]10
“I’m not a god, a music-nymph,
nor [even] generous Indra,
and I do not exist as God:
I am superior to them. (7) [5111]
In the past I burst asunder
their sphere, the chains of sense pleasures;11
having destroyed all defilements,
the best Awakening’s attained.12 (8) [5112]
After hearing those words of his,
I spoke these words [to him back then]:
“If you’re a Buddha, O Great Sage,
please sit down [here], Omniscient One.
I am going to worship13 you;
you’re the Ender of Suffering. (9) [5113]14
Spreading out my deer-hide leather,
I gave it to the Teacher [then].
The Blessed One sat down there like
a lion in a mountain cave. (10) [5114]
Quickly ascending a mountain,
I gathered a mango [tree]’s fruit,
a beautiful sal flower and
[some] very costly sandalwood. (11) [5115]
Quickly taking all of that, I
approached the Leader of the World.
Giving the fruit to the Buddha,
I offered [him that] sal-flower. (12) [5116]
Anointing [him with] sandalwood,15
I then worshipped [him], the Teacher,
happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
[and] with a huge [amount of] joy. (13) [5117]
Seated on [my] deer-leather [robe],
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
[then] praised my karma at that time,
causing me to smile16 [about that]: (14) [5118]
“Due to this gift of [mango] fruit,
[and] of both perfume [and] flowers,
for twenty-five hundred aeons
he will delight in the gods’ world.
With intentions not lacking thought,17
he will be very powerful.18 (15) [5119]19
For twenty-six hundred aeons
he will delight in the gods’ world.
He’ll be a king who turns the wheel,
victorious on [all] four sides.20 (16) [5120]
The City known as Vebhāra,
constructed by Vissakamma,
will be entirely made of gold,
adorned with various gemstones. (17) [5121]
By means of that very method,
he’ll transmigrate judiciously.
Being happy in every place,
[whether] as a god or human,
when he obtains [his] last rebirth,
he will be [born as] a brahmin. (18) [5122]21
Having departed from the house
he will be one without a home.
Mastering special knowledges,22
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.” (19) [5123]
Having said that, that Sambuddha,
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
while I meditated [on him,]
[then] departed into the sky. (20) [5124]
Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. [5125]23
Having fallen from Tusitā,
I was born in a mother’s womb.
There is no lack of possessions,
[even] when I am in the womb. (21) [5126]
Food and [also] drink are enjoyed,
even when I’m in mother’s womb;
due to my desire they’re produced
for [my] mother as [she] wishes. (22) [5127]
When I was [only] five years old,
I went forth into homelessness.
I attained [my] arahantship
while [my] hair was being cut off. (23) [5128]
Searching out [my] former karma,
I did not see [it] like a child;24
I remembered karma for
[the whole] thirty thousand aeons. (24) [5129]
“Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person!25
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
Coming in your dispensation,
I’ve attained the unshaking state. (25) [5130]
In the thirty thousand aeons
since I worshipped26 the Buddha [then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (26) [5131]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (27) [5132]
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! (28) [5133]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (29) [5134]
Thus indeed Venerable CChandanamāliya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of CChandanamāliya 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.↩
“Sandalwood and Flowers-er”↩
pañccha-kāma-guṇe, “the five strands of sense pleasure,” namely those obtained through the five senses↩
pāpakammaŋ vivajjayiŋ↩
reading ekakaṃ maṃ viharantaṃ with BJTS for the garbled PTS ekakammaŋ vihāraŋ taŋ (“that monastery, the single karma” [?])↩
akāsiŋ paṭisantharaŋ↩
BJTS (and acc. to PTS note on p. 423 all the mss.) read ādu, but I follow PTS in translating the more straightforward uda in its stead.↩
mahābrahmā, “the great Brahmā”. For an argument that “God” is the appropriate translation, see my and Gunapala Dharmasiri’s entry on “God” in Malalasekera et al, eds., Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Colombo), Volume 5, Fascicle 2 (1991):345-47↩
mārisa, BJTS gloss nidukāṇeni (“O you without suffering”)↩
PTS and BJTS agree in presenting this as a six-footed verse↩
Atīto visayaŋ tesaŋ dālayin kāmabandhanaŋ↩
patto sambodhim uttamaŋ↩
lit., “do pūjā”↩
PTS and BJTS agree in presenting this as a six-footed verse↩
presumably sandalwood which has been prepared into a paste, as prasāda↩
or “to laugh”↩
reading anūnamattasaṅkappo, as above, with BJTS for PTS anunamanasaṅkappo↩
vasavatti bhavissati.↩
PTS and BJTS agree in presenting this as a six-footed verse↩
cchaturanto vijitāvi, “possessed of conquest of the four quarters,” a supreme imperial overlord↩
PTS and BJTS agree in presenting this as a six-footed verse↩
reading abhiññāpāragū hutvā with BJTS for PTS aviññattipaccchchayo, “one whose support is not known”↩
this verse does not appear in PTS↩
orena nâddasaŋ ahaŋ, following BJTS Sinhala gloss lamusē no diṭimi↩
purisājañña, RD “steed of man,” in the voc. Contracted form of ājāniya/ājānīya, “almost exclusively used to donate a thoroughbred horse”↩
lit., “did pūjā”↩