[35] 7.
"I saw this splendid, most delightful mansion (vimāna), covered with netting of crystal, of silver, and of gold, its floor variegated and many-hued — a heavenly palace (byamha) well-fashioned, furnished with arched gateways, strewn about with golden sand (rucaka).
And it shines through the ten directions, as in the sky the thousand-rayed sun, dispeller of darkness in autumn; even so does this mansion of yours blaze, like a smoke-crested fire at night at the summit of the sky.
It fairly steals the eye, like a flash of lightning; set in the sky, this charming one, resounding with lutes, tambours, cymbals, and gongs — this mansion of yours is prosperous as the city of Inda.
Red lotuses, white water-lilies, blue lotuses, and kuvalaya lilies are here; there are jasmine (yūthikā), bhaṇḍikā, and anojakā flowers; sāl trees in blossom and asoka trees in flower — this place is suffused with the sweet fragrance of manifold treetops.
Girt with salaḷa, breadfruit (labuja), and sujaka trees, with kusaka trees and hanging creepers in full bloom, resembling a net of gems, glorious — a delightful lotus pond stands at hand for you.
And whatever flowering plants there are that grow in the water, and whatever trees there are that grow upon the land — those of the human world, those not of the human world, and those divine — all have sprung up at your dwelling.
Of what calm and self-control is this the result (vipāka)? By the fruit of what kamma have you arisen here? And how this mansion was gained by you — declare it point by point, O maiden of arching eyelashes."
[The devatā:]
"And how this mansion was gained by me — this mansion ranged over by flocks of herons (koñca), peacocks, and cakora partridges; frequented by celestial pilava water-birds and royal geese; resounding with the cries of birds, of kāraṇḍava ducks and of cuckoos; manifold with various santānaka creepers and flowering trees, possessed of pāṭali, rose-apple (jambu), and asoka trees —
and how this mansion was gained by me: that I shall declare to you; listen, venerable sir.
To the east of the excellent city of Magadha there is a village named Nāḷaka, venerable sir. There in the past I was a daughter-in-law; there they knew me as Sesavatī.
With gladdened mind I strewed with flowers him honored, skilled in the meaning and the Dhamma — venerated by devas and humans, the great Upatissa, who had attained Nibbāna (nibbuta), the immeasurable one.
And having venerated him who had gone to the supreme destination — the lofty seer bearing his final body — on abandoning the human frame I came to the Thirty (Tidasa) and dwell in this place."
The Sesavatī Mansion, the seventh.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.