[159]
The bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā, who had attained perfection in psychic power (iddhi), having venerated the Teacher's feet, spoke these words:
"I have crossed over the round of births (jātisaṃsāra); I have attained the unshakable state; all suffering (dukkha) has been exhausted by me — I announce it, O Great Sage.
"As many as are the assemblies with confidence in the Victor's teaching (jinasāsana), and those toward whom I have committed any offence — may they pardon me before the Victor's face.
"If, as I wandered on in saṃsāra, there was any stumbling of mine, I declare it, O Great Hero: pardon me my offence."
[The Blessed One:]
"Display your psychic power, O doer of my teaching; today cut off the doubt of the four assemblies, so far as they extend."
[Uppalavaṇṇā:]
"O Great Hero, wise one, bearer of splendor, I am your daughter; many a deed hard to do, exceedingly hard to do, has been done by me.
"My color is the very color of the blue lotus (uppala); by name I am named after the lotus: I am that daughter of yours, O Great Hero — O One with Vision, I venerate your feet.
"Rāhula and I, through many hundreds of births, were born in one and the same existence, of like wish and mind;
"our arising was together, and together too our birth; in the last existence attained, we both came to be with [these] names:
"the son is Rāhula by name; the daughter is called Uppalā. Behold my psychic power, O Hero — I show my strength to the Teacher!"
She cast the four great oceans into the palm of one hand, like oil held in the hand of a boy at play.
Tearing up the earth, she set it in the palm of her hand, as a strong young lad might pluck up a tuft of variegated muñja grass.
With a palm equal to the world-sphere (cakkavāḷa) she covered [all] overhead, and made rain fall, drop by drop, of many colors, again and again.
Making the earth the mortar, making gravel the grain, and making Sineru the pestle, she pounded them, just as a young girl [pounds rice].
"I am the daughter of the supreme Buddha, called Uppalā by name, a master of the superknowledges (abhiññā), a doer of your teaching.
"Having wrought manifold transformations, and shown them to the Leader of the World, having proclaimed my name and clan — O One with Vision, I venerate your feet.
"I am a master of psychic power and of the divine ear-element; I am a master of the knowledge that penetrates the minds of others (cetopariyañāṇa), O Great Sage.
"I know my former abodes; the divine eye has been purified; all taints (āsava) are utterly destroyed; now there is no renewed existence.
"In meaning, in dhamma, in language, and likewise in perspicacity, my knowledge (ñāṇa), vast and pure, [has come to be] through the very nature of the Great Seer.
"Much service of mine to the supreme Victors of old was shown, even upon the field of battle(?), for your sake, O Great Sage.
"Whatever wholesome deed I did of old — remember it of me, O Sage: for your sake, O Great Hero, merit was heaped up by me.
"While [you], shunning misconduct, avoiding the stations where [attainment] could not be, were ripening [in the perfections] — for your sake, O Great Hero, my life, the highest [of gifts], was given up.
"Ten thousand koṭis [of times] you gave me my life; and I in turn have been wholly given up for your sake, O Great Sage."
Then the whole [assembly], struck with amazement, with joined palms raised to their heads, said: "Noble lady, it was done — with power and striving beyond compare!"
[She continued:]
"A hundred thousand kappas ago, I was then a nāga maiden, Vimalā by name, esteemed as virtuous among maidens.
"A mahoraga (great serpent), a mighty nāga, with confidence in the Victor's teaching, invited [the Buddha] Padumuttara of great majesty together with his disciples:
"a pavilion made of jewels, a couch made of jewels, [ground] strewn with jewel-sand, articles of use made of jewels [he made ready];
"and he prepared the road, adorned with jeweled banners; going out to meet the Fully Awakened One, he [advanced] to the sounding of music.
"With the four assemblies spreading round about, the Leader of the World sat down upon the supreme seat in the abode of the mahoraga.
"Food and drink, hard food and soft food of great worth — the nāga king presented the choicest of the choice to the One of great fame.
"When the Fully Awakened One had eaten and had duly washed the bowl, he gave the blessing of appreciation; and the nāga maiden of great power,
"seeing the Omniscient One of great fame, [radiant] as in full bloom — her mind (citta) confident in the Teacher, her heart fast bound [to him] —
"then, knowing my mind, the Great Hero named after the supreme water-born [flower] at that moment displayed a bhikkhunī by psychic power.
"That bhikkhunī, self-assured, displayed manifold psychic powers; delighted, filled with joy, I said this to the Teacher:
"'I have seen these psychic powers [wrought] even by this other one(?): how is it, O Wise One, that she is so well-assured in psychic power?'
[The Blessed One Padumuttara:]
"'She is my very own daughter, born of my mouth, of great power, a doer of my instruction, well-assured in psychic power.'
"Hearing the Buddha's word, delighted, I spoke thus: 'May I too be such as she, well-assured in psychic power!'
"Gladdened, glad at heart, my mind raised to the highest, [I aspired:] 'In the time to come may I be such a one, O Leader!'
"[Having prepared] a couch made of gems and a shining pavilion, having satisfied with food and drink the Leader of the World together with the Saṅgha,
"I honored the Leader of the World with the choicest flower of the nāgas, the blue lotus named Aruṇa, [aspiring:] 'May my complexion be such as this.'
"Through that deed well done, and through [my] intention and aspiration, on abandoning the human body I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
"Passing away from there, arisen among men, I gave to a Self-Awakened One (sayambhū) almsfood (piṇḍapāta) covered over with blue lotuses.
"Ninety-one kappas ago the Leader named Vipassī arose, lovely of eye, possessed of vision into all things.
"Being then a merchant's daughter in Bārāṇasī, best of cities, I invited the Fully Awakened One, the Leader of the World, together with his Saṅgha;
"having given a great gift, and having honored the Guide with blue lotuses, with those very [flowers] I aspired to beauty of complexion.
"In this auspicious kappa there arose Kassapa, kinsman of Brahmā, of great fame, best of speakers.
"The attendant of the Great Seer at that time was the lord of men, the king of Kāsi, Kikī by name, in Bārāṇasī, best of cities.
"I was his second daughter, known by the name Samaṇaguttā; having heard the Dhamma of the supreme Victor, I set my heart on the going forth.
"Our father did not permit us; so then, right at home, for twenty thousand years we lived on, unwearying —
"royal maidens keeping the maiden's holy life (brahmacariya), established in comfort, delighting and rejoicing in waiting upon the Buddha: seven daughters —
"Samaṇī and Samaṇaguttā, Bhikkhunī and Bhikkhudāsikā, Dhammā and Sudhammā, and Saṅghadāsikā the seventh;
"[who now are] I, wise Khemā, Paṭācārā, Kuṇḍalā, Kisāgotamī, Dhammadinnā, and Visākhā the seventh.
"Through those deeds well done, and through [my] intention and aspiration, on abandoning the human body I went to Tāvatiṃsa.
"Passing away from there, arisen among men in a great family, I gave to an Arahant a fine cloth, yellow and smooth.
"Passing away from there, I was born at Ariṭṭhapura in a brahmin family, the daughter of Tiriṭivaccha — Ummādantī, ravisher of hearts.
"Passing away from there, I was born in the countryside, in a certain family not over-prosperous; I then watched over the sāli rice.
"Seeing a Paccekabuddha, I gave five hundred [grains of] parched rice wrapped in lotus [petals], and [aspired to] five hundred sons; wishing for those sons, I gave honey to the Self-Awakened One.
"Passing away from there, I was born in the forest, within the calyx of a lotus; becoming the chief queen of the king of Kāsi, honored and revered, I bore royal sons, a full five hundred.
"When they had come to youth, and were sporting at play in the water, seeing a lotus whose petals had fallen, they became Pacceka Leaders (paccekanāyaka).
"Bereft of them, those excellent sons, I was filled with sorrow; passing away, I was born in a little village on the slope of Isigili.
"When — [my] sons now Awakened Ones(?) — taking gruel both for the sons and for myself(?), I was going along, [and saw] the eight Pacceka Leaders
"going to the village for alms, I remembered [my] sons; a stream of milk burst forth from me then, through love for my sons.
"Then, with confidence, with my own hands I gave them gruel; passing away from there, I arose in Nandana among the Thirty.
"Having experienced happiness and suffering, having wandered through existence upon existence, for your sake, O Great Hero, my life was given up.
"Thus manifold was [my] suffering, and manifold [my] prosperity; when the final existence was reached, I was born in the city of Sāvatthī,
"in a merchant's family of great wealth, happy, well-furnished, aglow with divers jewels, abounding in every object of desire.
"Honored and revered, esteemed and venerated, I attained the glory of beauty, exceedingly prized among the families.
"And I was sought after exceedingly, for beauty, wealth, and glory — sought by merchants' sons in many hundreds.
"Abandoning the household, I went forth into homelessness; before half a month had passed I attained the four truths.
"Creating by psychic power a four-horse chariot, I venerated the feet of the Buddha, the glorious Protector of the World."
[Māra:]
"Come to a tree whose crown is all in flower,
you stand alone at the foot of the sāla tree;
nor have you any companion at all —
foolish girl, do you not fear rogues?"
[Uppalavaṇṇā:]
"Though a hundred thousand rogues
such as you were to come here,
I stir not a hair, I do not tremble:
what will you do to me, Māra, [you] alone?
"Here I vanish, or I enter your belly; I might stand between your very eyebrows, and you would not see me standing there.
"I am master of my mind; the bases of psychic power (iddhipāda) are well developed; I am freed from every bond: I do not fear you, friend.
"Sensual pleasures are like swords and stakes; the aggregates (khandha) are their chopping-block(?); what you call delight in sensual pleasure is now for me no delight at all.
"Everywhere enjoyment has been demolished; the mass of darkness has been torn apart. Know thus, Evil One: you are struck down, O Ender!"
"The Victor, pleased at that quality, established me in the foremost place (etadagga): 'She is the best of those possessed of psychic power' — [so declared] the Guide amid the assemblies.
"The Teacher has been served by me; the Buddha's teaching has been done; the heavy burden has been laid down; the conduit to existence (bhavanetti) has been uprooted.
"The goal for whose sake I went forth from home into homelessness — that goal has been attained by me: the destruction of all fetters (saṃyojana).
"Robes, almsfood, requisites, bed and seat — in a moment [people] present them by the thousand, from every side.
"My defilements (kilesa) have been burned away; all existences have been uprooted; like a she-elephant that has burst her bonds, I dwell without taints.
"Welcome indeed was my coming into the presence of the supreme Buddha! The three true knowledges (vijjā) have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
"The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā), and these eight liberations (vimokkha), the six superknowledges have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done."
Thus indeed did the bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā utter these verses.
The Apadāna of Uppalavaṇṇā Therī is concluded.
The Tenth: The Apadāna of Paṭācārā Therī (20)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.