[31] 3.
"Upon a most excellent couch (pallaṅka), wrought bright with gems and gold,
a magnificent bed strewn all over with flowers —
there you sit, goddess (devī) of great majesty,
displaying manifold transformations of psychic power (iddhi);
and these celestial nymphs (accharā) of yours, on every side,
dance and sing and give delight.
You have attained divine psychic power, O one of great majesty:
when you were a human being, what merit (puñña) did you do?
By what means is your majesty thus ablaze,
and your beauty (vaṇṇa) shining forth in every direction?"
"When I was a human being among humans,
I was a daughter-in-law in a wealthy family —
free from anger, compliant with my husband's will,
heedful in keeping the Uposatha.
While yet a human being, young, free of evil,
with a heart of serene confidence I gladdened my husband;
by day and by night I behaved agreeably.
In former times I was virtuous:
abstaining from the destruction of life, no thief,
wholly pure in body, pure and chaste in conduct,
drinking no intoxicants and speaking no falsehood,
fulfilling in full the training precepts (sikkhāpada).
On the fourteenth, the fifteenth,
and the eighth day of the fortnight,
and through the special fortnight (pāṭihāriyapakkha),
I, with a mind of serene confidence,
living in accordance with the Dhamma,
with joyful mind kept the Uposatha
endowed with its eight factors.
And having undertaken this noble Uposatha,
endowed with the eight excellent factors —
wholesome, yielding happiness —
compliant with my husband's good will,
I was in former times a disciple (sāvikā) of the Sugata.
Having done such a wholesome deed (kamma)
while in the world of the living,
I am a partaker of distinction:
with the breaking up of the body, in the life to come,
having attained divine psychic power,
I came to a good destination (sugati).
In an excellent and delightful palatial mansion (vimāna),
surrounded by a company of celestial nymphs,
the self-luminous hosts of devas delight me —
long-lived, come to this heavenly mansion."
The Pallaṅka Vimāna, the third.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.