[491. {494.}1 Kiŋsukapupphiya2]

Seeing a pulas tree3 in bloom,
stretching out hands pressed together,
recalling Siddhattha Buddha,
I offered pūjā in the sky. (1) [5273]

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (2) [5274]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that [good] karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (3) [5275]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [5276]

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! (5) [5277]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [5278]

Thus indeed Venerable Kiŋsukapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Kiŋsukapupphiya 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. ”Pulas-Tree-Flower-er.” Cf. #350 for an apadāna ascribed to a monk with a similar name, and containing the same first verse (though the remainder is different).↩

  3. kiŋsukaŋ; the kiŋsuka (“what is it” “strange”) tree is Butea frondosa, Sinh. kǟla or gaskǟla, ǟtkan, pulāṣa; Engl. pulas tree. It yields gum and beautiful flowers.↩