[547. {550.}1 CChūlasugandha2]

In this [present] lucky aeon
Brahmā’s Kinsman, Greatly Famed One,
known by the name of Kassapa,3
Best Debater,4 [Buddha,] arose. (1) [6294]

Possessing Eighty Lesser Marks,5
Bearing the Thirty-Two Great Marks,6
Having7 a Fathom-Wide Aura,
Gone into a Net of Light-Rays,8 (2) [6295]

as Comforting9 as is the moon,
Maker of Light [just] like the sun,
Quenching [just] as does a raincloud,
a Mine of Gems like the ocean, (3) [6296]

Through morals like earth; through wisdom
like the sky; through meditation10
like Himalaya; like the wind
[he does] not stick to anything. (4) [6297]

At that very time I was born
in Benares, in a big clan,
rich in grain and abundant wealth,11
with heaps of various gemstones. (5) [6298]

Approaching the Leader, who was
seated with a large retinue,
I heard [him preaching] the Dhamma,
undying, delighting the mind.12 (6) [6299]

Bearing the Thirty-Two Marks13 like
the moon with the constellations,
Possessing Eighty Lesser Marks,14
like a regal sal tree in bloom, (7) [6300]

Encircled by a Net of Rays,15
like a shining mountain of gold,16
Having17 a Fathom-Wide Aura,
like the sun [shining] on a lake, (8) [6301]

Excellent Golden-Faced18 Victor,
like a mountain [made] of gemstones,
with a Heart Full of Compassion,19
like the ocean through [his] virtue.20 (9) [6302]

The Ultimate Man, like Mt. Meru,
[his] Praises are Famous World-wide;21
Widespread with Fame,22 the [Great] Hero,
the Sage, who is the Same as Space,23 (10) [6303]

Heart Unattached24 in every place,
the Leader is [thus] like the wind;
Support25 for all living beings,
the Seventh Sage is like the earth. (11) [6304]

[Kassapa,] Unsoiled by the World
like a pink lotus by water,
shines forth like a mountain of fire
Burning the Bad-Speech Undergrowth.26 (12) [6305]

Everywhere, like an antidote,27
he Destroys the Defilement-Poison,28
Adorned with the Scent of Virtue,29
like Gandhamādana Mountain. (13) [6306]

The Hero’s a Mine of Virtues30
like the ocean [is] of gemstones;
Thoroughbred Man31 like a Sindh horse,
he Carries Off Defilement’s Filth.32 (14) [6307]

Like a champion great soldier,
he Crushes the Army of Death;33
he is like a wheel-turning king,
Lord of Wisdom’s [Seven] Gems.34 (15) [6308]

Just like a man of medicine,35
he Doctors the Illness [called] Faults;36
just like the very best surgeon,
he Drains37 the Abscess [called False] Views.38 (16) [6309]

At that time, the Torch of the World,39
Honored by Gods along with Men,40
the Sun among Men,41 the Victor,
preached Dhamma to42 his retinue. (17) [6310]

“Giving alms [one becomes] wealthy,
through morals one gains43 well-being,
through meditation, nirvana:”44
thus indeed he gave instruction. (18) [6311]

Everyone in the retinue
hears that, [his] very sweet45 preaching,
pure in beginning, middle, end,
very tasty,46 like ambrosia. (19) [6312]

Having heard [his] honeyed Teaching,
pleased in Victor’s dispensation,
going to Buddha47 for refuge,
I praised [him] as long as [I] lived. (20) [6313]

At that time, for eight days [each] month,48
I covered over the ground of
the perfumed hut [where lived] the Sage
with the four types of fragrant [things],
out of my wish49 for that good smell
for [my own] odor-free body.
Then the Victor prophesied that
[I’d] attain that fragrant body: (21-22) [6314-6315]

“He who covered over the ground
of [my] own perfumed hut with scents,
as the result of that karma,
[while being] reborn here and there,50
this man will be one who has a
good-smelling body everywhere.
Having the fragrance of virtue,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.” (23-24) [6316-6317]

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and [firm] resolve,
discarding [my] human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa [then]. (25) [6318]

And now in my final rebirth,
I’m born in a clan of brahmins.
When I was dwelling in the womb,
my mother’s body was fragrant.51 (26) [6319]

And when I was departing from
[my] mother’s womb, then the city,
Śrāvasti, was diffused with good
scents, as though it had been perfumed. (27) [6320]

And a perfumed rain of flowers,
divinely-scented, delightful,
and very costly incense [too,]
was wafted about all that time. (28) [6321]

And the gods rained down on that house,
the house in which I had been born,
a perfumed [rain] with all good-scented
[types of] incense [and] flowers [too]. (29) [6322]

And while I, a lucky young man,
remained in the prime of [my] youth,
then the Charioteer of Men
guided Sela52 with retinue. (30) [6323]

I [too], along with all of them,
came to the city, Śrāvasti.
Seeing the Buddha’s majestic
power, I went forth at that time. (31) [6324]

Morals, meditation, wisdom
and the freedom that’s unsurpassed;
cultivating [those] four things,53
I attained [my] arahantship.54 (32) [6325]

And when I was a renouncer,55
and when I was an arahant,
and when I attained nirvana,
there was then a good-smelling rain. (33) [6326]

The fragrance of my body is always blowing
costly sandalwood, champaka and blue lotus.
In just that way, gone here and there I’m perfuming,
suppressing [all] different scents in every respect. (34) [6327]56

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (35) [6328]

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! (36) [6329]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (37) [6330]

Thus indeed Venerable CChūlasugandha Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of CChūlasugandha Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Bhaddiya, Elder Revata,
and Sīvalī, the great getter,
Vaṅgīsa, also Nandaka,
Kāḷudāyi, thus Ābhaya,
Lomasa and Vanavacchcha,
and Sugandha done as the tenth.
There are three hundred verses [here,]
and [also] sixteen more than that.

Then there is the Summary of Chapters:

The chapter called Kaṇikāra,
Phalada, Tiṇadāyaka,
Kaccchchāna, Bhaddiya chapter;
the verses that are counted here
are nine hundred in this57 [grouping]
and exactly eighty-four [more].
Five [times] one hundred [plus] fifty
apadānas are explained [here].
Along with summary verses
these are six thousand [verses here]
and two hundred verses [as well]
[plus] eighteen [verses] more than that.

To that extent the Buddhāpadāna, Paccchchekabuddhāpadāna and Therāpadāna are finished. Let it be the basis for nirvana!58

The Bhaddiya Chapter, the Fifty-Fifth59

  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. “Little Good Scent,” perhaps to distinguish him from the Sugandha Thera whose apadāna appears above as #527 {530}, with which the present apadāna shares some verses. DPPN I: 904 says he is probably identical with Subhūti Thera↩

  3. One BJTS alt. reads gottena, “by lineage”↩

  4. vadataŋ varo↩

  5. anuvyañjanasampanno↩

  6. dvattiŋsavaralakkhaṇo↩

  7. lit., “Surrounded by”↩

  8. raŋsijālasamosaṭo↩

  9. assāsetā↩

  10. lit., samādhi↩

  11. pahūtadhanadhaññasmiŋ taking the compound as a dvandva, see RD, dhana s.v. for a discussion of the options here. This is a stock phrase which means “rich in abundant treasures”↩

  12. amataŋ ccha manoharaŋ↩

  13. dvattiŋsalakkhaṇadharo↩

  14. anuvyañjanasampanno↩

  15. raŋsijālaparikkhitto↩

  16. ditto va kanakācchalo↩

  17. lit., “Surrounded by”↩

  18. soṇṇānano↩

  19. karuṇāpuṇṇahadayo↩

  20. reading guṇena with BJTS (and PTS alt., also alt. guṇe, “in virtue”) for PTS vivaddho (“without aging”?)↩

  21. lokavissutakittī↩

  22. yasasā vitato↩

  23. ākāsasadiso↩

  24. asaṅga-cchitto↩

  25. patiṭṭhā, support, resting place↩

  26. reading kuvāda° with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS kupāda°. PTS reads the second component of the compound as °kacchcha (“reed,” “marshy land”) and BJTS reads it as gacchcha (“shrub” “small plant”); “undergrowth” attempts to capture both meanings.↩

  27. agado viya, “counter-poison” “medicine”↩

  28. reading kilesavisanāsako with BJTS for PTS °nāyako (“he is the Leader of poison of the defilements”)↩

  29. guṇagandhavibhūsito↩

  30. guṇānaŋ ākaro↩

  31. narājañño↩

  32. kilesamalahārako, or “defilement’s stains”↩

  33. mārasenāpamaddano, BJTS reads mārasenappamaddano↩

  34. bojjhaṅgaratan’issaro, a play on the “seven gems” (the wheel, etc.) of the wheel-turning monarch↩

  35. mahābhisakkasaṅkāso↩

  36. dosavyādhitikicchchako↩

  37. °viphālako, lit., “de-fruiter,” BJTS Sinh. gloss sindunā↩

  38. diṭṭhigaṇḍa°↩

  39. lokapajjoto↩

  40. sanarāmarasakkato↩

  41. narādiccchcho↩

  42. lit., “in”↩

  43. sugatūpago, lit., “approaching well-being”. Could also be read as: through morals approaching the Well-Gone-One↩

  44. nibbāti, or “he cools off”↩

  45. mahāssādaŋ↩

  46. mahārasaŋ↩

  47. lit., “to the Well-Gone-One↩

  48. reading māse aṭṭhadinesv-ahaṃ with BJTS for PTS māse aṭṭhadine svaha↩

  49. paṇidhāya, or “firm resolve”, Sinh. prārthanāva↩

  50. PTS yahiŋ tahiŋ; BJTS tahiṃ tahiṃ↩

  51. lit., “my mother was fragrant through her body”↩

  52. #389 {392}, above, esp. vv.66-71 [3648-3653]↩

  53. or “cultivating [those] four in the Teaching”↩

  54. lit., “destruction of the outflows”↩

  55. or “one who had gone forth”: pabbajito↩

  56. this verse is in a more complex meter, with twelve-syllable feet.↩

  57. lit., “here”↩

  58. BJTS omits these two concluding lines, because the BJTS recension of the apadāna does not end here, even though BJTS includes these chapter summary verses for an incomplete hundred (sātakaṃ).↩

  59. BJTS places this statement above the summary, rather than after it↩