[400]
Forest-dwellers, eaters of almsfood,
delighting in whatever gleanings come into the bowl —
let us shatter the army of Death (Maccu),
well concentrated (susamāhita) within.
Forest-dwellers, eaters of almsfood,
delighting in whatever gleanings come into the bowl —
let us shake off the army of Death,
as an elephant [shatters] a house of reeds.
Dwellers at the root of a tree, ever-persevering,
delighting in whatever gleanings come into the bowl —
let us shatter the army of Death,
well concentrated within.
Dwellers at the root of a tree, ever-persevering,
delighting in whatever gleanings come into the bowl —
let us shake off the army of Death,
as an elephant [shatters] a house of reeds.
You hut made of a chain of bones,
sewn together with flesh and sinew:
fie upon [this body], full [of filth], foul-smelling —
you who cherish the limbs of another!
You bag of dung bound about with skin,
you she-demon with swellings on your breast!
Nine are the streams in your body,
and they flow at all times.
Your body with its nine streams,
foul-smelling, one should shun:
the bhikkhu shuns it,
as one who loves cleanliness shuns excrement.
If people knew you
as I know you,
they would shun you from afar,
as [one shuns] a cesspit in the rainy season.
"So it is, great hero;
it is just as you say, ascetic.
Yet some sink down here,
like an old ox in the mud."
Whoever might think to dye the sky
with turmeric or with any other dye —
that [attempt] is nothing but a source of vexation.
This mind (citta) is like the sky,
well concentrated within:
do not assail [it], O evil-minded one —
like a winged moth [plunging into] a mass of fire.
See the decked-out figure,
a mass of sores, propped up,
afflicted, the object of many intentions,
in which there is no lasting stability.
Then there was terror,
then there was horripilation,
when Sāriputta, endowed with so many excellent qualities,
had attained final Nibbāna.
Impermanent indeed are conditioned things (saṅkhārā);
their nature is to arise and pass away;
having arisen, they cease;
their stilling is bliss.
Those who see the five aggregates (pañcakkhandhā)
as other and not as self
penetrate what is subtle,
as [one pierces] the tip of a hair with an arrow.
And those who see conditioned things
as other and not as self
have pierced what is fine,
as [one pierces] the tip of a hair with an arrow.
As if smitten with a sword,
as if his head were ablaze,
a bhikkhu should wander forth mindful (sato)
for the abandoning of sensual lust (kāmarāga).
As if smitten with a sword,
as if his head were ablaze,
a bhikkhu should wander forth mindful
for the abandoning of lust for existence (bhavarāga).
Urged on by the one of developed self,
the bearer of his final body,
I shook the mansion of Migāra's mother
with my big toe.
Not by what is slack,
not by little strength,
is Nibbāna to be attained —
the release from all ties (gantha).
And this young bhikkhu,
this supreme person,
bears his final body,
having conquered Māra together with his mount.
Flashes of lightning fall upon the cleft
of Vebhāra and of Paṇḍava;
but, gone into the mountain's cleft, he meditates —
the son of the incomparable one, the steadfast.
Calmed, desisting,
lodging in remote dwellings, the sage,
heir of the supreme Buddha,
is revered by Brahmā.
Revere, O brahmin, Kassapa —
the calmed, the desisting,
whose lodging is remote, the sage,
heir of the supreme Buddha.
And though one should pass through a hundred births,
all of them brahmin births,
a scholar accomplished in the Vedas,
again and again among human beings;
and though he were a reciter [of the mantras],
gone to the far shore of the three Vedas —
he is not worth one sixteenth part
of the homage paid to this one.
He who before his meal
touches the eight liberations (vimokkha),
in forward and in reverse order,
and then goes for alms —
do not assail such a bhikkhu;
do not dig up your own [good], brahmin!
Settle your mind in confidence
in the arahant, the steadfast one;
quickly revere him with joined palms —
let not your head split apart!
He does not see the true Dhamma (saddhamma),
led on by saṃsāra;
he runs along the crooked path,
the wrong road not to be traveled.
Like a worm smeared with dung,
infatuated with conditioned things,
sunk deep in gain and honor,
Poṭṭhila goes about empty.
And see this one coming —
Sāriputta, lovely to behold,
liberated in both ways,
well concentrated within,
dart-free, his bonds destroyed,
bearing the three true knowledges (tevijja), who has left death behind,
worthy of offerings from human beings,
an unsurpassed field of merit.
These deities, many in number,
possessed of psychic power (iddhi), glorious —
ten thousand deities,
all Brahmā's Ministers (Brahmapurohitā) —
stand with joined palms,
paying homage to Moggallāna:
"Homage to you, thoroughbred among men!
Homage to you, supreme among men!
You whose taints (āsava) are destroyed —
you, dear sir, are worthy of offerings."
Honored by men and gods,
arisen [in the world], the vanquisher of death,
he is not stained by conditioned things,
as a white lotus [is not stained] by water.
He by whom, in an instant, the thousandfold world
is known — one like unto Brahmā —
that bhikkhu, a master in the qualities of psychic power
and in [beings'] passing away and rearising,
sees the deities in due time.
In wisdom, in virtue, and in calm,
Sāriputta indeed [stands foremost];
a bhikkhu who has gone to the far shore
could at best be his equal.
In an instant I can fashion
the bodily forms of a hundred thousand koṭis;
I am skilled in transformations;
I am a master of psychic power.
A master of concentration (samādhi) and the true knowledges,
gone to perfection, one of the Moggallāna clan,
in the teaching of the Unattached One (asita),
the wise one, his faculties concentrated,
has cut off [his bonds],
as a bull-elephant [snaps] a bond of rotten creeper.
The Teacher has been served by me …
the conduit to existence has been uprooted.
And the goal for whose sake I went forth
from home into homelessness —
that goal has been attained by me:
the destruction of all fetters (saṃyojana).
Of what sort was the hell
in which Dussī was roasted,
having assailed Vidhura the disciple
and Kakusandha the brahmin?
There were a hundred iron stakes,
each producing its own separate feeling (vedanā):
such was the hell
in which Dussī was roasted,
having assailed Vidhura the disciple
and Kakusandha the brahmin.
The bhikkhu who directly knows this,
a disciple of the Buddha —
having assailed such a bhikkhu,
Kaṇha (Dark One), you will come to suffering (dukkha)!
In the middle of the ocean stand mansions
that endure for an aeon,
beryl-hued, beautiful,
flashing with flame, radiant;
there dance celestial nymphs (accharā),
many, of varied hue.
The bhikkhu who directly knows this … —
Kaṇha, you will come to suffering!
He who, urged by the Buddha,
while the Saṅgha of bhikkhus looked on,
shook the mansion of Migāra's mother
with his big toe —
The bhikkhu who directly knows this … —
Kaṇha, you will come to suffering!
He who shook the Vejayanta Palace
with his big toe,
sustained by the strength of psychic power,
and stirred the deities to urgency —
The bhikkhu who directly knows this … —
Kaṇha, you will come to suffering!
He
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.