[19] 2. "You who stand, O devatā, with surpassing beauty (vaṇṇa),
making all the quarters shine like the morning star (osadhī):
by what is such beauty yours? …
and [why does] your beauty radiate in all the quarters?"
That devatā, gladdened, questioned by Moggallāna,
[#1 The Po., Ma., and Yu. editions read: "alambusā missakesī ca."]
when asked the question, explained of what deed (kamma) this is the fruit:
"Just where one goes out by the Fishermen's Gate, there was my dwelling;
to the disciples, those great seers, as they passed along there,
I gave boiled rice, porridge, greens, and salted sour gruel;
I gave to the upright ones with a mind full of confidence.
The fourteenth, the fifteenth, and the eighth day of the fortnight,
and the special period of the fortnight (pāṭihāriyapakkha) —
[on these] I observed the Uposatha, complete in its eight factors,
ever restrained in the precepts.
Through self-restraint and through sharing I dwell in [this] mansion (vimāna):
abstaining from the destruction of life, restrained from false speech,
far from theft, from [sexual] transgression, and from the drinking of intoxicants,
delighting in the five training rules (sikkhāpada), well versed in the noble truths (ariyasacca),
a laywoman follower (upāsikā) of the One with Vision, the glorious Gotama —
by that is such beauty mine …
and my beauty radiates in all the quarters."
"And, venerable sir, in my name pay homage with your head at the feet of the Blessed One: 'Venerable sir, the laywoman named Lakhumā pays homage with her head at the feet of the Blessed One.' And it is no wonder, venerable sir, that the Blessed One should declare me [to stand] in one or another fruit of the ascetic life (sāmaññaphala): the Blessed One declared me in the fruit of once-returning (sakadāgāmiphala)."
The Lakhumā Mansion (Lakhumāvimāna), the second.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.