[18] 1. "Like Sakka, lord of the devas, in the delightful Cittalatā Grove,
you roam about on every side, attended by a troop of women,
lighting up all the quarters like the healing-star (osadhī tārakā).
By what is such beauty yours? By what does it prosper for you here,
and there arise for you enjoyments, whatever are dear to the mind?
I ask you, devī of great power:
when you were a human being, what merit (puñña) did you make?
By what is your power thus ablaze,
and your beauty radiant over every quarter?"
That devatā, elated at being questioned by Moggallāna,
when asked the question, explained of what deed this was the fruit:
"When I was a human being among human beings,
I was a slave-woman (dāsī), a servant in another's family.
A laywoman follower (upāsikā) of the One with Vision, Gotama the glorious,
mine was exertion (nikkama) in the dispensation (sāsana) of that Stable One (tādī):
'Willingly let this body break apart—here there shall be no slackening!'
The way of the five training precepts (sikkhāpada) is a path secure and blissful,
without thorns, without thickets, straight, made known by the good.
Behold the fruit of exertion, even as a woman has attained it:
I am the companion-at-call of King Sakka, the wielder of power.
Sixty thousand instruments make music to wake me:
Ālamba, Gaggama, Bhīma, Sādhuvādi, Pasaṃsiya,
Pokkhara and Suphassa; and women foremost with the lute (vīṇā)—
Nandā and Sunandā, Soṇadinnā, Sucimhitā,
Ālambusā, Missakesī, and Puṇḍarīkā the fierce,
Enipassā and Supassā, Subhaddā and Mudukāvadī—
these, and others more excellent still, are the nymphs (accharā) who rouse me.
Coming to me at the fitting time, those devatās call out:
'Come, let us dance, let us sing! Come, let us delight you!'
This is not for those who have made no merit; only for those who have made merit
is this sorrowless, delightful Nandana, the great grove of the Thirty (tidasa).
For those who have made no merit there is no happiness, either here or in the world beyond;
but for those who have made merit there is happiness both here and in the world beyond.
By those who long for their company much that is wholesome must be done,
for those who have made merit rejoice in heaven (sagga), endowed with enjoyments."
The Mansion of the Slave-Woman (Dāsīvimāna), the first.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.