[507. {510.}1 Nāḷikeradāyaka2]
In the city, Bandhumatī,
I worked in a hermitage then.3
I saw the Spotless One, Buddha,
[who] was traveling through the sky. (1) [5448]
Having taken a coconut,
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha.
Standing in the sky, the Calm One,
the Great Famed One accepted [it]. (2) [5449]
With a mind that was very clear,
having given Buddha that fruit,
productive of delight for me,
bringing happiness in this world,
I then came to possess great joy
and vast, ultimate happiness.
A gem was truly produced for
[me,] being reborn here and there.4 (3-4) [5450-5451]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [the Buddha] fruit back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (5) [5452]
The divine eye is purified;
I’m skilled in meditative states.5
Special knowledges perfected:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (6) [5453]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [5454]
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! (8) [5455]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [5456]
Thus indeed Venerable Nāḷikeradāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Nāḷikeradāyaka Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Kaṇikār’,and Ekapatta,
Kāsumārī, thus Āvaṭa,
Pāra6 and Mātuluṅga [too],
Ajela, also Amora,7
Tāla and thus Nāḷikera:
the verses that are counted here
[number just] one hundred verses,
avoiding [any] less or more.8
The Kaṇikāra Chapter, the Fifty-First9
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.↩
“Coconut Donor”. This same apadāna is presented above as #379 {382}, and as #464 {467}, above, with different titles reflecting the slight change of the first foot of the second verse from “coconut” to “breadfruit”↩
ārāmiko, lit., “hermitage attendant” or “hermitage dweller”↩
lit., “from where to there” (yahiŋ tahiŋ, PTS) or “from there to there” (tahiṃ tahiṃ, BJTS and PTS alt.)↩
samādhikusalo ahaŋ↩
BJTS reads Vārañccha, “Vāra”↩
BJTS read Amodam eva, “also Amoda”↩
ūnādhika-vivajjitaṃ. BJTS Sinhala gloss adds an asterisked note: “here there are seen 99 verses”↩
BJTS places this line before, rather than after the summary.↩