[{555.}1 Vajjīputta2]
The Blessed One, Thousand-Rayed One,3
the Self-Become, Unconquered One,
rising up from [his] solitude,
went forth in order to seek food. [6379]
[Holding] fruit in [my] hand, I saw
the Bull of Men who had approached.
Happy, with pleasure in [my] heart,
I gave [him] fruit with stems attached. [6380]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave [him] that fruit [at that time],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. [6381]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. [6382]
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! [6383]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! [6384]
Thus indeed Venerable Vajjīputta Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Vajjīputta Thera, the fifth.
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.↩
a historical monk, “Son of the Vajjian [King],” who was indeed the son of a Licchchavi king (assuming he is DPPN Vajjiputta (2); see DPPN II: 810-811). This same apadāna appears above as #501 {504}, ascribed to a monk named Avaṭaphaliya (in parallel texts and one PTS alt. sp. Avaṇṭa°), meaning “Stemless Fruit Giver”. The present version differs from #501 {504} only in two minor ways: the opening epithet sataraṃsi (“Hundred-Rayed One”) in the latter becomes “Thousand-Rayed One” (sahassaraṃsi) here, and in the final line of v. 2 of #501 {504} (and all the parallel texts) the fruit is specified to be “with stems removed” (avaṇṭa) whereas here the fruit is specified to be “with stems attached” (savaṇṭaṃ). With similarly minor variations, parallel texts are found as #378 {381} as #463 {466}.↩
sahassaraṃsi, i.e., “the Sun”↩