[355] 2.
When I was resolute in striving (padhāna),
beside the river Nerañjarā,
meditating with utmost exertion
for the attainment of security from bondage (yogakkhema),
Namucī approached me,
speaking compassionate words:
"You are thin, of bad complexion;
death is close beside you.
A thousand parts of you belong to death;
your life is but a single part.
Life is better for one who lives:
living, you will make merits.
While you live the holy life (brahmacariya)
and pour the fire-oblation,
abundant merit is heaped up for you.
What will you accomplish by striving?
Hard to travel is the road of striving,
hard to do, hard to achieve."
Speaking these verses, Māra
stood in the presence of the Buddha.
To Māra who spoke thus
the Blessed One said this:
"Kinsman of the negligent, Evil One,
for whatever purpose you have come here —
not even the slightest need of merit
is to be found in me;
those who have need of merits,
to them Māra ought to speak.
There is faith (saddhā), there is austerity (tapa),
and energy (vīriya) and wisdom (paññā) are found in me.
When I am thus resolute,
why do you question me about living?
This wind could dry up
even the currents of the rivers;
so why should the blood of me,
who am resolute, not dry up?
While the blood is drying up,
bile and phlegm dry up;
while the flesh is wasting away,
the mind (citta) grows ever more serene,
and ever firmer stand my mindfulness (sati),
my wisdom, and my concentration (samādhi).
While I dwell thus,
having reached the utmost feeling (vedanā),
my mind has no regard for sensual pleasures (kāmā):
behold a being's purity!
Sensual pleasures are your first army;
the second is called discontent (arati);
your third is hunger and thirst;
the fourth is called craving (taṇhā);
your fifth is dullness and drowsiness (thīna-middha);
the sixth is called cowardice (bhīrū);
your seventh is doubt (vicikicchā);
denigration (makkha) and obstinacy (thambha) are your eighth;
gain, renown, honor,
and fame wrongly won,
and whoever exalts himself
and despises others —
this, Namuci, is your army,
the striking force of the Dark One (Kaṇha).
No coward conquers it;
but having conquered it, one gains happiness.
I bear the muñja grass!
Shame upon my life!
Better for me is death in battle
than that I should live defeated.
Sunk here, some ascetics and brahmins
are seen no more;
and they do not know the path
by which those of good vows go.
Seeing the bannered army on every side,
with Māra ready upon his mount,
I go forth to meet them in battle:
let him not drive me from my place!
That army of yours, which the world
with its devas cannot overcome —
that I shall shatter with wisdom,
as with a stone one shatters a pot of clay, unfired or fired.
Having made intention (saṅkappa) subject to my will,
and mindfulness well established,
I shall wander from realm to realm,
training many disciples.
Heedful and resolute,
carrying out my teaching (sāsana),
they will go — though you wish it not —
to where, having gone, they do not sorrow."
"For seven years I followed
the Blessed One step by step,
yet I found no opening
in the Fully Awakened One, endowed with glory.
As a crow circled round
a stone the color of fat, thinking:
'Perhaps we may find something soft here;
perhaps there may be something savory' —
and, gaining no savor there,
the crow departed from that place:
so, like the crow that assailed the rock,
we depart from Gotama in despair."
As he was overcome with sorrow,
his lute (vīṇā) slipped from beneath his arm;
and then that dejected yakkha
vanished on that very spot.
The Padhāna Sutta, the second, [is ended].
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In the Suttanipāta, the third [discourse] of the Mahāvagga, the third [chapter]: the Subhāsita Sutta.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.