[472]
As the bhikkhunī Subhā was going to Jīvaka's delightful Mango Grove (Jīvakambavana), a libertine barred her way; Subhā said this to him:
"What wrong have I done you, that you should stand obstructing me?
It is not fitting, friend, for a man to touch a woman gone forth.
"In the honoured dispensation of my Teacher stands the training (sikkhā) which the Sublime One (Sugata) has taught:
why do you stand obstructing me — one wholly purified, without blemish?
"You whose mind is turbid — one untroubled; you dusty with passion — one free of dust, without blemish,
whose mind is released in regard to all: why do you stand obstructing me?"
[The libertine:]
"You are young and not unlovely — what good will the going forth do you?
Cast off the ochre robe and come — let us take delight in the wood all in flower.
"Sweetness the trees breathe out on every side, wreathed with the pollen of their blossoms;
early spring is a season of ease — come, let us take delight in the wood all in flower.
"The trees with blossoming crests seem to cry aloud when the breeze sets them swaying:
what delight will there be for you, if you plunge into the wood alone?
"Haunted by herds of beasts of prey, astir with cow-elephants roused by rutting bulls —
the great wood, desolate and terrifying: thither would you go without a companion?
"Like a doll wrought of burnished gold, like a nymph (accharā) ranging Cittaratha [grove], you shall move about;
in fine and lovely cloths of Kāsi you shall shine in your garments, O peerless one.
"I would be a slave to your will, if we might dwell within the grove;
for no creature is dearer to me than you, O you of the kinnarī's languid eyes.
"If you will do my bidding, come and dwell, in happiness, in a house:
you shall live in the calm of a mansion, and women shall wait upon you.
"Wear fine cloths of Kāsi, and put on garlands and unguents;
I will make you many and varied ornaments, of gold and gems and pearls.
"Mount a bed of great price — fair and new, its coverlet washed clean of dust,
spread with fleecy quilts and down, adorned with sandalwood, fragrant with its essence.
"As a blue lotus risen up from the water, haunted by non-human beings [is enjoyed by no man],
so shall you, keeper of the holy life, go to old age in limbs that are your own alone."
[Subhā:]
"What here do you take for essence — in this carcass filling the charnel grounds,
stuffed with corpse-filth, of a nature to break apart? What have you seen, that beside yourself you gaze at me?"
[The libertine:]
"Your eyes are like a fawn's, like a kinnarī's within the mountain:
seeing those eyes of yours, my sensual delight grows all the more.
"Like tips of the blue lotus are they, set in your flawless face bright as gold:
seeing those eyes of yours, my sensual passion (kāmaguṇa) grows all the more.
"Though I go far away, I shall remember you, O long-lashed one, O pure of gaze;
for nothing is dearer to me than those eyes, O you of the kinnarī's languid eyes."
[Subhā:]
"You would travel by a pathless way; you seek the moon for a plaything;
you would leap over Sineru — you who pursue a child of the Buddha!
"For nowhere in this world with its devas is there now that wherein my lust (rāga) might dwell;
I do not even know what it is like — slain, root and all, by the path (magga).
"Forsaken like a pit of glowing coals, treated like a bowl of poison set before [me] —
I do not even see what it is like — slain, root and all, by the path.
"Some woman there may be who has not reflected, or has not sat at the Teacher's instruction —
go tempt one such as she; in assailing this one who knows, you but torment yourself.
"For amid abuse and homage, amid pleasure and pain, my mindfulness (sati) stands established;
knowing that the conditioned (saṅkhata) is foul, my mind cleaves to nothing at all.
"I am a disciple (sāvikā) of the Sublime One, riding the vehicle that is the eightfold path;
the dart drawn out, free of taints (āsava), gone to an empty dwelling, I rejoice.
"For I have seen painted puppets, gaily made, and marionettes of wood,
fastened up with strings and pegs, set dancing this way and that.
"When the strings and pegs are drawn out, loosed, undone, dismembered,
not to be found, reduced to fragments — on what, there, should the mind be set?
"Of just that kind are these limbs of mine: without those states (dhammā) they do not go on;
without the states they do not go on — on what, there, should the mind be set?
"As when you have seen some painted scene, daubed with orpiment upon a wall,
your seeing of it is inverted: worthless there is human wisdom.
"O blind one! you chase an empty thing — like an illusion conjured up before you,
like a golden tree in a dream, like a puppet-show set amid the crowd.
"An eye is a little ball lodged in a hollow, a bubble at its middle, with its tears;
eye-slime too is bred there: the manifold kinds of eyes are but tricked out so."
Then she of the lovely gaze plucked out her eye; she clung not, her mind unattached:
"Here then — take the eye; it is yours!" — and straightway she gave it to that man.
And straightway his lust there ceased, and he begged her pardon:
"May you be whole again, O keeper of the holy life! Never again shall such a thing be done.
"Assaulting such a one as this — it is as though I embraced a blazing fire,
as though I grasped a venomous serpent. Can it be well with me? Forgive us!"
And freed from him, that bhikkhunī went into the presence of the excellent Buddha;
when she beheld him whose marks were born of excellent merit, her eye became as it was before.
Subhā of Jīvaka's Mango Grove (Subhā Jīvakambavanikā).
The Section of the Thirties (Tiṃsanipāta) is concluded.
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The Therīgāthā: The Section of the Forties (Cattāḷīsanipāta)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.