[338]
There was a shrine (cetiya) of the Blessed One Padumuttara, the eldest of the world, the Steadfast One (tādī), in a great forest teeming with beasts of prey.
No one dared to go there to venerate the shrine; overgrown with grass, brushwood, and creepers, the shrine had fallen into ruin.
At that time I was a forest worker, following the trade of my father and grandfather; I saw in the great forest the stūpa (thūpa), broken down, tangled over with grass and creepers.
On seeing the Buddha's stūpa, I established a mind of reverence: "This stūpa of the supreme Buddha stands ruined in the forest.
It is not seemly, it is not proper, for one who knows good qualities from bad, that he should apply himself to other work without having cleared the Buddha's stūpa."
Having cleared away the grass, the brushwood, and the creepers at the shrine, and having venerated it eight times, I departed bending low in reverence.
By that deed well performed, and by my intention and resolve, on abandoning the human body I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
There a well-made mansion was mine, golden, gleaming with radiance, sixty yojanas in height, thirty yojanas in breadth.
Three hundred times I exercised kingship among the devas, and twenty-five times I was a wheel-turning monarch (cakkavatti).
Wandering on through existence after existence, I obtain great wealth; for me there is no deficiency in wealth: this is the fruit of the clearing.
As I go through the great forest by palanquin (sivikā) or on an elephant's back, in whatever direction I go, the forest becomes my shelter.
With my eye I never see a stump or even a thorn; endowed as I am with meritorious deed, they are removed of their own accord.
Leprosy, boils, eczema, epilepsy, scabies, ringworm, and itch — none of these exist for me: this is the fruit of the clearing.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: I do not recall even a pustule-spot having arisen on my body.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: I wander in but two existences — in divinity and then among humans.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: everywhere I am golden-hued, endowed with radiance.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: the disagreeable turns aside from me, and the agreeable stands near.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: my mind (citta) is pure, one-pointed, well concentrated.
Another marvel there is for me, since the Buddha's stūpa was cleared: sitting in a single session, I attained arahantship (arahatta).
A hundred thousand aeons (kappa) ago I did that deed then; I know of no bad destination (duggati): this is the fruit of the clearing.
The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā), and also these eight liberations (vimokkha), and the six superknowledges (chaḷabhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been fulfilled.
Thus indeed the Venerable Pabhaṅkara the Elder spoke these verses.
The Apadāna of Pabhaṅkara the Elder is concluded.
Seventh: The Apadāna of Tiṇakuṭidāyaka the Elder (337)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.