[189] When a deva passes away from a company of devas through the exhaustion of his lifespan,
three sounds ring out from the devas as they rejoice:
"Go from here, good sir, to a good destination, to the companionship of human beings;
having become a human being, gain unsurpassed faith (saddhā) in the true Dhamma (saddhamma).
"May that faith of yours, once you have settled in it, be grown at the root and established,
unshakeable for as long as life lasts, in the true Dhamma well proclaimed.
"Having done what is wholesome (kusala) with the body, and much that is wholesome with speech,
having done with the mind what is wholesome, free from affliction, free from attachments (nirūpadhi),
"then, having heaped up merit (puñña) and made it abundant through giving (dāna),
establish other mortals as well in the true Dhamma, in the holy life (brahmacariya).
"With this compassion, those who know accordingly rejoice over you, the deva of devas:
'Come, deva, again and again.'"
Then I was stirred with a sense of urgency (saṁvega) amid the assembled company of devas:
"To what womb, indeed, shall I go when I have passed away from here?"
Knowing my sense of urgency, an ascetic with developed faculties,
desiring to raise me up, came into my presence.
Sumana by name, a disciple of Padumuttara,
having instructed me in the meaning and the Dhamma, he stirred me then with urgency.
Having heard his word, I made my mind (citta) confident in the Buddha;
and having paid homage to the Fully Awakened One, I died right there.
Spurred on by that wholesome root, I was reborn in that very place;
for a hundred thousand aeons I was not reborn in any bad destination.
The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā), and also these eight liberations (vimokkha),
and the six superknowledges (abhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching (sāsana) has been fulfilled.
Thus indeed did the Venerable Elder Ekacintika speak these verses.
The Apadāna of the Elder Ekacintika is concluded.
The eighth: the Apadāna of the Elder Tikaṇṇipupphiya (188)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.