[26]
At that time I was a hired laborer in the city of Candavatī;
engaged in doing the work of others, I did not obtain the going forth (pabbajjā).
[Variant notes to the Siam page: 1. M: sammādhammaṃ bhāvetvā. 2. M: saraṇo vandati satthuno; Yu: saraṇe … (these two pertain to the close of the preceding apadāna). 3. M, Yu: bhatako āsahaṃ tadā.]
Shrouded in great darkness, [beings] are burned by the threefold fires.
"By what means, indeed, might I become released?
I have nothing to offer (deyyadhamma); I am a wretched hired hand.
What if I were to keep the five precepts (pañcasīla) and bring them to fulfillment?"
There was a disciple of the sage Anomadassī, Nisabha by name;
approaching him, I took upon myself the five training rules (sikkhāpada).
At that time the lifespan was a hundred thousand years;
for all that time I guarded the five precepts, complete and entire.
When the time of death had arrived, the devas comforted me:
"Good sir, this chariot yoked with a thousand [steeds] stands ready for you."
As my final mind (citta) was proceeding, I recollected my virtue (sīla);
through that well-done deed I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
Thirty times, as lord of the devas, I exercised rulership over the devas;
I experienced divine happiness, attended by celestial nymphs (accharā).
Seventy-five times I was a wheel-turning monarch (cakkavatti);
and [my] regional kingship was extensive, beyond reckoning by count.
Having fallen away from the deva-world, impelled by the bright root [of merit],
I was born in the city of Vesālī, in a great and very wealthy family.
At the time of entering upon the rains, while the Conqueror's dispensation was shining forth,
my mother and my father took upon themselves the five training rules.
The moment I heard [the word] "precepts," I recollected my own virtue;
seated in a single session, I attained arahantship.
At five years from birth I attained arahantship;
the Buddha, the One with Vision, recognizing [my] quality, conferred on me the full ordination (upasampadā).
Having guarded the five training rules complete and entire,
in the immeasurable aeons (kappa) since then I have not gone to the downfall (vinipāta).
I experienced glory by the power of those precepts;
though proclaiming it for ten million aeons, I could proclaim but a single portion.
Having guarded the five precepts, I obtain three grounds:
I become long-lived, of great wealth, and of keen wisdom.
And, as [these] are proclaimed among all, [I gain] a stature surpassing that of every man;
wandering on through existence upon existence, I obtain these states.
If the Conqueror's disciples, practicing in immeasurable virtues,
were to take delight in existences, of what sort would the result be?
The five precepts were well practiced by me, a hired laborer given to austerity;
by that virtue I have today been released from every bond.
In the immeasurable aeons since I guarded the five precepts,
I have known no bad destination (duggati): this is the fruit of the five precepts.
The four analytical knowledges (paṭisambhidā), and these eight liberations (vimokkha),
and the six direct knowledges (abhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been carried out.
[Variant notes to the Siam page: 1. M: saṅkittento; Yu: pakittento. 2. Yu: vipassinā. 3. Yu: poṭhayiṃ.]
Thus indeed the Venerable Elder Pañcasīlasamādāniya spoke these verses.
The Apadāna of the Elder Pañcasīlasamādāniya is concluded.
Fifth: The Apadāna of the Elder Annasaṃsāvaka (25)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.