[470. {473.}[1] Ukkāsatika[2]]
The Blessed One named Kosika,
Meditator, Trance-Loving One,
Buddha, Seclusion-Lover, Sage,
lived on CChittakūṭa[3] back then. (1) [4965]
Plunged[4] into the Himalayas,
attended by troops of women,
I saw [him], Kosika Buddha,
like the moon on the fifteenth day.[5] (2) [4966]
With[6] a hundred flaming[-torches,][7]
I waited on [him] at that time.
Remaining seven nights and days,
on the eighth [day] I departed.[8] (3) [4967]
With a pleased heart, having worshipped
the Self-Become, Unconquered One,
Kosika Buddha, [when] he rose,
I [also] gave one meal [to him]. (4) [4968]
Through that karma for the World’s Best,
the Biped-Lord, the Bull of Men,
I was reborn in Tusitā:[9]
that is the fruit of [that] one meal. (5) [4969]
During the day and also at
night, there is always light for me;
on all sides for a hundred leagues,
I am permeated by light. (6) [4970]
In the fifty-fifth aeon hence
I was a king who turns the wheel,
lord of the grove of rose-apples,[10]
victorious on [all] four sides.[11] (7) [4971]
My city at that time was rich,
prosperous and well-constructed.
[It measured] thirty leagues in length,
and [it was] twenty leagues in width. (8) [4972]
[My] city was named Sobhana;[12]
[it] was built by Vissakamma.
[It] did not lack for the ten sounds,[13]
well-accompanied by cymbals.[14] (9) [4973]
No[thing] in that city was [made
of][15] sticks [or of] vines [or of] clay.
Everything was made out of gold,
[and] it was shining all the time. (10) [4974]
Four rampart walls surrounded [it];
they were constructed out of gems.
In the middle, a palmyra
pond[16] was made by Vissakamma. (11) [4975]
[There were] ten thousand ponds [as well],
covered with pink and blue lotus,
covered with white lotuses [too],
[all] exuding varied perfumes. (12) [4976]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I carried those torches[17] [for him],
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of carrying torches. (13) [4977]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (14) [4978]
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! (15) [4979]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (16) [4980]
Thus indeed Venerable Ukkāsatika Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ukkāsatika Thera is finished.
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. ↩︎
“Hundred-Flame-er” ↩︎
= CChitrakūṭa, a mountain in the Himalayas, one of five said to surround Lake Anottata (Anavatapta), composed of all precious metals and famed for golden swans living in a golden cave. DPPN I:869: “It is generally identified with Kāmptanāthgiri in Bundelkhand, an isolated hill on the Paisunī or Mandākinī River” ↩︎
lit., “plunging” ↩︎
i.e., when it is full, puṇṇamāse va cchandimā ↩︎
gahetvā, lit., “taking” ↩︎
following BJTS in understanding these “flames” as “torches with flames” ↩︎
agamas’, lit., “I left” “I went [away]” ↩︎
tusite kāye, lit., “in a Tusitā body” or “in the Tusitā group” ↩︎
jambusaṇḍa = jambudīpa = India, the South Asian continent ↩︎
cchaturanto vijitāvi, “possessed of conquest of the four quarters,” a supreme imperial overlord ↩︎
“beautiful” ↩︎
reading dasasadda + a + vivittantaṃ with BJTS for PTS dasasaddâvivittan taŋ. ↩︎
reading sammatāḷa° (BJTS) for samatāḷa° (PTS). ↩︎
I follow BJTS Sinhala gloss in interpolating “thing” as the subject of the half-verse, which otherwise would mean that sticks, vines and clay were themselves absent from (n’atthi, “do not exist”) in that city. ↩︎
tālapattī, BJTS gloss tālapaṅkhatīhu ↩︎
lit., “that,” but given that the torches numbered one hundred, I translate it as the plural pronoun ↩︎