[114. Ekāsaniya[1]]

Back then I was the king of gods,
known by the name of Varuṇa.
I attended the Sambuddha,
as his vehicle of power. (1) [1707]

When Atthadassi, the Best Man,
Lord of the World, reached nirvana,
supplying all the turiyas,
I went to the best Bodhi [tree]. (2) [1708]

As though facing the Sambuddha
I attended on the best Bodhi,
with music and with dances [too,]
well-accompanied by cymbals.[2] (3) [1709]

After having served that Bodhi
tree growing up from the earth [there],
having eaten, with [my] legs crossed,
I passed away [right] on the spot. (4) [1710]

Delighting in [my] own karma,
pleased in that superb Bodhi [tree],
due to that pleasure in [my] heart,
I have achieved nirvana [now]. (5) [1711]

[And] sixty thousand instruments[3]
are attending me all the time
as I move on from birth to birth
among humans and also gods. (6) [1712]

The three fires[4] are blown out in me;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
I am bearing my last body
in the Buddha’s[5] dispensation. (7) [1713]

In the five hundredth aeon hence
there were thirty-four kṣatriyans
[all of whom] were named Subahū,[6]
possessors of the seven gems. (8) [1714]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [1715]

Thus indeed Venerable Ekāsaniya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekāsaniya Thera is finished.

  1. “One Sitting” ↩︎

  2. reading sammatāḷa° (BJTS) for samatāḷa° (PTS). ↩︎

  3. turiyaŋ sabbaŋ, musical instruments ↩︎

  4. the cty here explains these as the fires of rāga (lust), dosa (anger) and moha (ignorance, folly) ↩︎

  5. lit., "in the Supreme Buddha’s” ↩︎

  6. “Very Many” ↩︎

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