[{554.}1 Kimbila2]

When Kakusandha passed away,3
the Brahmin, the Perfected One,4
gathering salala5 flowers,
I constructed a pavilion.6 [6372]

Having gone to Tāvatiṃsa,
I received a supreme mansion.
I surpassed [all] the other gods:
that is the fruit of good karma. [6373]

Whether it’s the day or the night,
walking back and forth or7 standing,
I’m covered with salala blooms:
that is the fruit of good karma. [6374]

Within just this [present] aeon8
since I [thus] worshipped9 the Buddha,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. [6375]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. [6376]

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! [6377]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [6378]

Thus indeed Venerable Kimbila Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Kimbila Thera, the fourth.

  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. the personal name of a historical monk, well known in the early texts. See DPPN I: 604-605 for details. This same apadāna, almost verbatim (the only difference is in the first verse of the concluding refrain; there “All defilements…” replaces the more common “Like elephant…” found here), is included above as #395 {398}. There it is ascribed to a monk named Salaḷamaṇḍapiya (“Salaḷa-Pavilion-er”), apparently reflecting the nature of the formative gift described in this apadāna.↩

  3. lit., “reached nirvana”↩

  4. vusīmati, loc. of vusīmant = vusitavant, “one who has reached perfection” “the Master”↩

  5. BJTS Sinh.gloss = hora, Bot. Dict. = “large timber tree yielding rezin and oil, Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (Dipterocarp.)”↩

  6. lit., “I caused a pavilion (maṇḍapa) to be constructed,” caus. of karoti↩

  7. lit., “and,” ccha↩

  8. Kakusandha Buddha lived at an earlier time in the present aeon, one of five Buddhas said to have done so. The author demonstrates awareness of — and a solution that smoothes out — the little wrinkle this creates in applying this typical refrain.↩

  9. lit., “did pūjā”↩