[392] Near Lake Anotatta, on a delightful slab of rock
gleaming with manifold jewels, amid a wood of manifold fragrances,
the Leader of the World, attended by a great Saṅgha of bhikkhus (bhikkhu),
sat there and declared his own former deeds (pubbakamma):
"Bhikkhus, listen to me — to the kamma that I have done.
Seeing a forest-dwelling bhikkhu, I gave him a rag-cloth (pilotikā).
It was then that I first aspired to [become] a Buddha, for the sake of Buddhahood;
[the fruit] of that deed of the rag-cloth ripens even in Buddhahood.
Formerly I was a cowherd, driving cows to pasture;
seeing a cow drinking turbid water, I held her back.
By the ripening of that kamma, here in my final existence,
though thirsty, I do not get to drink as I would wish.
In other births before, I was a rogue named Punāli;
I slandered the Paccekabuddha Surabhi, who had done no wrong.
By the ripening of that kamma I wandered long in hell (niraya);
for many thousands of years I experienced painful feeling (dukkhā vedanā).
By the remainder of that kamma, here in my final existence,
I incurred false accusation on account of Sundarikā.
The all-vanquishing Buddha (Sabbābhibhū) had a disciple named Nanda;
through slandering him, long did I wander in hell.
For ten thousand years I wandered long in hell;
on gaining human existence, I met with much false accusation.
By the remainder of that kamma, Ciñcamānavikā,
come before the assembled multitude, slandered me with what was untrue.
I was a learned brahmin, treated with honor and veneration;
in a great forest I taught the mantas to five hundred brahmin youths.
There came to that place a sage of awesome might,
possessed of the five superknowledges (abhiññā), of great psychic power;
and seeing him arrived, I slandered him, who had done no wrong.
Then I said to my pupils, 'This sage is an enjoyer of sensual pleasures (kāmabhogī)';
and even as I spoke, the young brahmins approved.
Then all those youths, begging alms from family to family,
told the great populace, 'This sage is an enjoyer of sensual pleasures.'
By the ripening of that kamma, these five hundred bhikkhus
all incurred false accusation on account of Sundarikā.
Formerly, for the sake of wealth, I slew my half-brother, born of another mother;
I flung him into a mountain gorge and crushed him with a rock.
By the ripening of that kamma Devadatta hurled a rock at me:
a splinter of stone crushed the big toe upon my foot.
Formerly, when I was a boy playing on the highway,
seeing a Paccekabuddha, I laid a potsherd in his way upon the road.
By the ripening of that kamma, here in my final existence,
Devadatta engaged assassins for my murder.
Formerly I was a rider of elephants; with my elephant
I assaulted a supreme pacceka-sage even as he walked for alms.
By the ripening of that kamma the elephant Nāḷāgiri,
careering maddened and savage, charged upon me in Giribbaja, that finest of cities.
I was a king [warring] on foot; with the spear I slew men.
By the ripening of that kamma I was roasted fiercely in hell;
and by the remnant of that kamma, even now it has wrought its work
upon the skin of my entire foot — for kamma does not perish.
I was a fisherman's boy in a fishing village;
seeing the fish being killed, I gave rise to gladness (somanassa).
By the ripening of that kamma there was suffering (dukkha) in my head,
when the Sakyans were being slaughtered — when Viṭṭubha slew them.
In the dispensation (pāvacana) of Phussa I reviled the disciples:
'Chew barley and eat it — but do not eat sāli-rice!'
By the ripening of that kamma, barley was eaten for three months:
invited by a brahmin, I dwelt at that time at Verañjā.
While a wrestling bout was in progress, I put down a wrestler's son;
by the ripening of that kamma there was suffering in my back.
I was a physician; I purged a rich merchant's son;
by the ripening of that kamma dysentery (pakkhandikā) is mine.
As Jotipāla I said then to the Sugata Kassapa,
'Whence, pray, awakening (bodhi) at the seat of awakening (bodhimaṇḍa)?
Awakening is supremely hard to win!'
By the ripening of that kamma I practiced much that is hard to do
for six years at Uruvelā; only then did I attain awakening.
Yet not by that path (magga) did I attain the supreme awakening;
goaded on by former kamma, I went searching along a wrong path.
With merit and evil alike exhausted, rid of all burning torment,
sorrowless, free of despair, I shall attain Nibbāna, without taints (āsava)."
Thus did the Victor declare [these matters] in their true purport to the Saṅgha of bhikkhus —
he who had attained the strength of all the superknowledges — at the great Anotatta Lake.
Thus indeed did the Blessed One speak this exposition of Dhamma (dhammapariyāya), the Apadāna of the Buddha named Pubbakammapiloti — "The Rag-strands of Former Kamma" — being his own former conduct.
The Apadāna of the Buddha named Pubbakammapiloti is concluded.
Summary (uddāna):
The Ambaṭa and likewise the Abuja, the Udumbara and the Milakkhu,
the Phāru-creeper and the Kadali, the Panasa, the Koṭivisaka,
and the Pubbakammapiloti — the Apadāna of the Great Sage:
the verses, reckoned by the discerning, are ninety-one.
The Ambaṭaphala Chapter, the Thirty-ninth.
The Fourteenth Recitation Section (bhāṇavāra).
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The Fortieth: the Pilinda Chapter.
First, the Apadāna of the Elder Pilindavaccha (391).
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.