[120] 10.
"Standing in mid-air, you reek, foul-smelling and putrid,
and worms devour your putrid-smelling mouth.
What kamma did you do in the past?
Thereupon, taking knives, they cut you again and again;
sprinkling you with lye, they cut you again and again.
What wrong was done by body, by speech, or by mind?
Through the ripening of what kamma do you undergo this suffering (dukkha)?"
"Good sir (mārisa), in delightful Rājagaha, in charming Giribbaja,
I was master of wealth and grain in great abundance.
This wife of mine, and my daughter, and my daughter-in-law —
as they were carrying tamāla and uppala flowers
and costly unguent to the stūpa (thūpa),
I forbade them: that evil was done by me.
We, eighty-six thousand, each experiencing feeling (vedanā) on his own account,
having disparaged worship at the stūpa, are roasted fiercely in hell (niraya).
And those who, while the Arahant's festival of stūpa-worship is in progress,
proclaim danger in it — one should turn them away from that.
And see these women coming, wearing garlands, adorned,
experiencing the result of their garlands: prosperous are they and glorious.
Having seen that wonder, marvellous and hair-raising,
the wise pay homage and venerate that Great Sage.
Surely, when I have gone from here and have obtained a human womb,
heedful, I shall perform worship at the stūpa again and again."
The Story of the Peta Who Reviled the Relics (Dhātuvivaṇṇapetavatthu), the tenth.
Summary (uddāna):
Abhijjamāna, Koṇḍañña, Rathakārī, and with Bhusa;
Kumāra and Bhaṇikā, the two hunters,
the Back-flesh (Piṭṭhi) and the Worship (Pūjā):
by these the chapter is named.
The Lesser Chapter (Cūḷavagga), the third.
The Great Chapter (Mahāvagga), the fourth.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.