[520. {523.}1 Saraṇāgamaniya2]

We boarded a boat at that time,
monk and I,3 an ajīvaka.
When the boat was broken [to bits,]
that Buddhist monk gave me refuge. (1) [5556]

In the thirty-one aeons since
he gave refuge to me [back then],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of going for refuge. (2) [5557]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (3) [5558]

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) [5559]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [5560]

Thus indeed Venerable Saraṇāgamaniya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Saraṇāgamaniya 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. “Refuge-Goer,” cf. #23, #113, #298; the same text is repeated verbatim (except for the elision of the first two verses of the standard three-verse concluding refrain, included here), with the same title, as #356 {359}, above.↩

  3. BJTS reads vahaṃ (“the current”)↩