[474]
In the city of Mantāvatī, Sumedhā was the daughter
of the chief queen of King Koñca,
won to confidence by those who practise the teaching.
Virtuous, a brilliant speaker, of great learning (bahussutā),
trained in the Buddha's teaching,
she approached her mother and father and said:
"Attend, both of you.
I delight in Nibbāna. Existence, even though divine, is not eternal;
what then of empty sensual pleasures,
affording little gratification and much distress?
Sensual pleasures are bitter, like a serpent's venom;
infatuated with them, fools,
consigned for a long time to hell (niraya),
are struck down and suffer.
Doers of evil deeds, evil-minded,
unrestrained in body, speech, and mind — fools —
sorrow at all times in the downfall (vinipāta).
Those fools, weak in wisdom, unreflecting,
obstructed by suffering (dukkha) and its origin,
not understanding while it is being taught,
do not awaken to the noble truths (ariyasacca).
They, mother, are the greater number — those who,
not knowing the truths taught by the excellent Buddha,
delight in existence
and long for rebirth among devas.
Even rebirth among devas is not eternal,
in impermanent existence;
yet fools are not terrified
of being born again and again.
Four downfalls and two destinations
are gained somehow or other;
but for those gone to the downfall
there is no going forth (pabbajjā) in the hells.
May you both permit me to go forth
in the dispensation (pāvacana) of the One of Ten Powers (Dasabala);
with few concerns I shall strive
for the abandoning of birth and death.
What is there in existence, in delighting in it —
in this bane of a body, without substance?
For the cessation of craving for existence (bhavataṇhā),
grant me leave: I shall go forth.
The inopportune time, void of the arising of Buddhas, has been avoided;
the moment has been won.
As long as I live I would not violate
virtue and the holy life (brahmacariya)."
Thus speaks Sumedhā. Then her mother and father said to her:
"We householders will not give [you] up,
even come under the sway of death."
Her mother, pained, weeps; and her father likewise,
pained, wholly overcome by sorrow,
they strive to persuade her,
fallen upon the floor of the palace:
"Rise up, little daughter. Why this grieving?
You are given in marriage in Vāraṇavatī:
King Anikaratta, the handsome —
to him you are given.
You shall be the chief queen,
wife of King Anikaratta.
Virtue, the holy life, going forth —
these are hard to do, little daughter.
In kingship are command, wealth, authority,
enjoyments and pleasures; and you are young.
Enjoy, therefore, the pleasures of the senses;
let your marriage take place, child."
Then Sumedhā says to them:
"Let there be no such things! Existence is without substance.
Either there shall be the going forth for me, or death —
but never marriage.
Why should I cleave to this foul body,
impure, reeking of its oozings, a fearsome bag of carrion,
ever oozing, full of impurity?
Knowing it for what it is — repulsive,
smeared with flesh and blood,
the abode of worm-hosts, food for birds —
why is this carcass given away?
Before long the body, bereft of consciousness,
is carried out to the charnel ground,
cast aside like a log
by relatives filled with disgust.
Having thrown it away in the charnel ground as food for others,
even one's own mother and father bathe, disgusted;
what then of people at large?
They are attached to this essenceless carcass,
this conjunction of bones and sinews,
this foul body full of spittle,
excrement, and discharges.
Were anyone to dissect it
and turn its inside out,
even one's own mother, unable to bear the smell,
would be disgusted by it.
Aggregates (khandha), elements (dhātu), sense bases (āyatana) —
conditioned, rooted in birth, suffering:
so, reflecting rightly, do [the wise] declare it repugnant.
Why then should I wish for marriage?
Let three hundred spears, ever new,
fall upon the body day after day;
even the striking for a hundred years were better,
if thus there were the destruction of suffering.
He would submit to that striking
who understands thus the Teacher's word:
'Long is saṃsāra for those
who are struck again and again.'
Among devas and among humans,
in the animal womb and in the asura host (asurakāya),
among ghosts (peta) and in the hells,
blows without measure are dealt.
Many are the blows in the hells
for the defiled one gone to the downfall;
even among devas there is no shelter;
there is nothing beyond the happiness of Nibbāna.
They have attained Nibbāna who are devoted
to the dispensation of the One of Ten Powers,
who with few concerns strive
for the abandoning of birth and death.
This very day, father, I shall renounce:
what are riches without substance?
I am repelled by sensual pleasures —
made like vomit, made like a palm-stump."
Thus she speaks to her father; and Anikaratta,
to whom she had been given,
attended by young men, drew near
when the appointed time of the marriage was at hand.
Then with a sword Sumedhā cut
her hair — black, thick, and soft —
and, shutting the palace [door],
she entered upon the first absorption (jhāna).
She abode there attained to the attainments (samāpatti),
while Anikaratta arrived at the city;
in the palace itself Sumedhā
well developed the perception of impermanence (aniccasaññā).
And while she was attending [to it],
Anikaratta ascended in haste,
his body adorned with gems and gold;
with joined palms he entreats Sumedhā:
"In kingship are command, wealth, authority,
enjoyments and pleasures; and you are young.
Enjoy the pleasures of the senses;
sensual happiness is hard to gain in the world.
The kingship is made over to you:
enjoy the enjoyments, give gifts;
do not be downcast;
your mother and father are pained."
To him Sumedhā, having no need of sensual pleasures,
free of delusion, says:
"Do not rejoice in sensual pleasures;
see the peril in sensual pleasures.
Mandhātā, king of the four continents,
was foremost of the enjoyers of sensual pleasures;
he died unsated,
nor were his wishes fulfilled.
Were the rain-god to rain down the seven jewels
all around, in the ten directions,
still there would be no satiety with pleasures:
unsated indeed do men die.
Sensual pleasures are like the butcher's knife and block;
sensual pleasures are like a serpent's head;
like torches they burn on;
they are like a skeleton of bones.
Sensual pleasures are impermanent, unstable,
of much suffering, great poisons,
like a heated ball of iron,
the root of misery, with suffering as their fruit.
Sensual pleasures are like the fruits of a tree,
like gobbets of flesh, painful,
deceptive as dreams;
sensual pleasures are like borrowed goods.
Sensual pleasures are like spears and stakes,
a disease, a tumour, misery, adversity;
like a pit of glowing coals,
the root of misery, a peril, slaughter.
Thus sensual pleasures are declared
to be of much suffering, obstructions. Go!
As for me, I have no trust
of my own in existence.
What will another do for me
while my own head is burning?
When aging and death follow hard behind,
one must strive for their destruction."
Before they had reached the door, she,
seeing her mother and father and Anikaratta
seated upon the ground, weeping,
said this:
"Long is saṃsāra for fools, weeping again and again
in what is without discoverable beginning —
at a father's death, at a brother's slaying,
and at their own slaying.
Remember the tears, the mother's milk, the blood —
saṃsāra from its beginningless past;
remember the heap of bones
of beings wandering on.
Remember the four oceans set beside
the tears, the milk, the blood;
remember the pile of bones [of one man] for a single aeon (kappa),
equal in measure to Vipula.
For one wandering on in beginningless saṃsāra
the great earth of Jambudīpa is set forth [in comparison]:
pellets of the mere size of jujube kernels
are not enough for his mothers and fathers.
Remember grass, sticks, branches, and leaves,
set forth [in comparison] with the beginningless past:
billets four fingers long are not enough
for his fathers, for his fathers' fathers.
Remember the blind turtle in the eastern sea,
and the yoke-hole [drifting] from the other side,
and the thrusting of its head therein —
the simile for the gaining of human birth.
Remember the form (rūpa) of this bane of a body,
without substance, like unto a lump of foam;
see the aggregates as impermanent;
remember the hells of much distress.
Remember those who swell the charnel ground
again and again in birth after birth;
remember the perils of the crocodile;
remember the four truths.
When the deathless (amata) exists,
what have you to do with drinking the five bitter things?
For all delights of sensual pleasure
are more bitter than the five bitter things.
When the deathless exists,
what have you to do with sensual pleasures, which are burning fevers?
For all delights of sensual pleasure
are ablaze, seething, boiling up, scorched.
When that which is without enmity exists,
what have you to do with sensual pleasures, which have many enemies?
Held in common with kings, fire, thieves, waters, and unloved ones,
sensual pleasures have many enemies.
When release exists,
what have you to do with sensual pleasures, in which are slaughter and bondage?
For through sensual pleasures there is slaughter and bondage:
those who desire pleasures undergo sufferings.
A blazing torch of grass burns
the one who holds it and does not let go;
for sensual pleasures are like torches:
they burn those who do not let them go.
Do not, for the sake of some slight sensual pleasure,
cast away abundant happiness;
do not, like a fish that has swallowed the hook,
come to grief hereafter.
Do not whirl about because of sensual pleasures,
like a dog bound with a chain;
truly, sensual pleasures will deal with you
as famished outcastes (caṇḍāla) deal with a dog.
Yoked to sensual pleasure, you will undergo
suffering without measure
and many a grief of mind (citta):
relinquish unstable sensual pleasures.
When the unaging exists,
what have you to do with sensual pleasures, wherein is aging?
All births everywhere
are gripped by death and by sickness.
This is the unaging, this the undying,
this the unaging, undying state, sorrowless,
without enmity, unobstructed,
without stumbling, without fear, without torment.
This deathless has been attained by many,
and even today it may be obtained
by one who rightly applies himself;
but it cannot be won by one who does not strive."
So speaks Sumedhā, finding no delight
in conditioned things (saṅkhāragata);
and, conciliating Anikaratta,
Sumedhā cast her hair upon the ground.
Rising, Anikaratta, with joined palms,
entreated her father:
"Release Sumedhā to go forth,
a seer of liberation (vimokkha) and of truth."
Released by her mother and father, she went forth,
frightened by sorrow and fear;
the six direct knowledges (abhiññā) were realized by her,
together with the highest fruit, while yet a trainee (sikkhamānā).
Marvellous, wondrous was that Nibbāna
of the daughter of the king;
her conduct in former abodes
she declared at the final hour:
"In the time of the Blessed One Konāgamana,
in a new dwelling-place in the Saṅgha's park,
we, three women friends,
gave the gift of a dwelling.
Ten times, a hundred times,
a thousand times, and a hundred times a hundred,
we were reborn among the devas —
what need to speak of [rebirths] among humans?
Among the devas we were of great power —
what need to speak of the human state?
I was the chief queen of the possessor of the seven jewels —
I was [his] woman-jewel.
That was the cause, that the source,
that the root, and that the acceptance in the dispensation;
that the first meeting;
that — for one delighting in the Dhamma — was Nibbāna."
Thus speak they who have faith
in the word of the One of matchless wisdom:
they grow disenchanted with existence,
and, disenchanted, they become dispassionate.
Sumedhā.
The Great Chapter (Mahānipāta) is concluded.
Four hundred verses, and eighty,
and again fourteen;
the therīs, one more than seventy —
all of them had destroyed the taints (āsava).
The verses of the therīs are concluded.
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English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.