[154] "May the men of the countryside, more than a hundred strong, and the brahmins of great wealth,
and all these khattiyas, highborn and glorious,
and the honorable King Manoja — may they give assent to my words.
And whatever assembled ones there are — the yakkhas here in this hermitage,
the beings (bhūta) born and yet to be born in the forest — let them hear my speech.
Having paid homage to those beings, I shall address the sage (isi) of excellent vows:
I, O Kosiya, am reckoned to be your right arm.
Since I long to support my father and the mother who bore me,
O hero, this is a station of merit (puñña); do not, O Kosiya, hinder me.
For this has been sanctioned by the good; cede this [charge] to me:
long have merits toward mother and father been wrought by you
through rising up and serving; be now the giver of the [heavenly] world to me.
There are likewise humans who know, within the Dhamma, the word of the Dhamma —
the path to the heavenly world — even as you, O sage, know it.
The man who bars me from those merits —
from the rising up and service that bring happiness to mother and father —
is one who obstructs the noble path."
[Variant readings: 1 Sī. "yaṃ"; Yu. "yaṃ so". 2 M. lacks this reading. 3 Sī. "ye vasanti"; Yu. "ye hi santi".]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.