[7]
[The Venerable Moggallāna asked:]
"O lady, having boarded a boat roofed with gold, you stand;
you plunge into the lotus pond (pokkharaṇī) and pluck a lotus with your hand.
Your peaked-roofed dwellings (kūṭāgāra), laid out in parts, proportioned in measure,
blazing brilliantly, shine all around to the four quarters.
By what is such beauty (vaṇṇa) yours? By what does it prosper for you here,
and there arise for you whatever enjoyments (bhoga) are dear to the mind?
I ask you, O devī of great majesty:
when you were a human being, what merit (puñña) did you make?
By what is your majesty thus ablaze,
and your radiance shines forth in every direction?"
That devatā, glad at heart when questioned by Moggallāna,
explained, when asked the question, of what deed (kamma) this is the fruit:
"When I was a human being among humans,
in a former birth in the human world,
I saw a bhikkhu thirsty and weary,
and rising up I gave him water to drink.
Whoever rises up and gives water to drink
to one who is weary and thirsty —
for him there come to be rivers of cool water,
abounding in garlands of flowers, with many white lotuses.
Streams flow ever around it on every side —
rivers cool-watered, strewn with sand —
and mango trees and sāls, tilakas and rose-apples,
uddālakas and pāṭalis, all in bloom.
That supreme mansion (vimāna), endowed with such expanses of ground,
shining with exceeding splendor —
of that very deed this is the result (vipāka);
those who have made merit obtain such as this.
By that is such beauty mine; by that does it prosper for me here,
and there arise for me whatever enjoyments are dear to the mind.
I declare to you, O bhikkhu of great majesty,
what merit I made when I was a human being:
by that is my majesty thus ablaze,
and my radiance shines forth in every direction."
The Boat Mansion (Nāvāvimāna), the seventh.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.