[170]
Eighteen thousand bhikkhunīs born of the Sakyans, headed by Yasodharā,
approached the Fully Awakened One.
The eighteen thousand, all possessed of great psychic power (iddhi),
venerated the Sage's feet and declared according to their ability:
"Birth is destroyed, and aging, sickness, and death, O Great Sage;
we go, O Leader, to the taintless, peaceful, deathless state.
"There were slips of ours aforetime — of every one of us, O Great Sage;
acknowledging our offense, [we beg]: forgive us, O Guide."
[The Blessed One:]
"Display psychic power, you who carry out my teaching,
and cut off the doubt of all the assemblies, so far as it extends."
"Yasodharās, O Great Hero, pleasing, lovely to behold —
all of us, O Great Hero, were your consorts (pajāpati) in the household life.
"Among one hundred and ninety-six thousand women
in your household, O Hero, we were the foremost, sovereign over all.
"Endowed with beauty, good conduct, and virtue, standing in the prime of youth, speaking kindly —
all paid us respect, as humans do to deities.
"Eighteen thousand, all born of the Sakyans —
of those thousands Yasodharā was then the foremost, the sovereign lady.
"Passed beyond the element of sensuality, established in the element of form —
in beauty there was none among the thousands her equal, O Great Sage."
Having saluted the Fully Awakened One, they displayed psychic power to the Teacher;
they showed manifold great powers of many different kinds:
a body equal to the world-sphere (cakkavāḷa); the head, the Kuru country to the north;
the two wings, the two [flanking] continents; Jambudīpa, the trunk;
the southern sea, the tail-feathers; the various branches, the plumage;
the moon and the sun, the eyes; the crest, Mount Meru;
the beak, the mountain-rim of the world-sphere. Holding the rose-apple tree together with its root
and fanning [him] with it, they approached and venerated the Leader of the World.
They displayed the likeness of an elephant, likewise of a horse, a mountain and then the sea,
the moon and the sun, Meru, and the likeness of Sakka.
"We Yasodharās, O Hero, venerate your feet, O One with Vision;
we have been brought to fulfillment by your power [at work] through long ages, O Leader of Men.
"We have mastery of the psychic powers, and of the divine ear element;
of the knowledge penetrating the minds of others we have mastery, O Great Sage.
"We know our former abodes; the divine eye has been purified;
all taints (āsava) are utterly destroyed in us; now there is no renewed existence.
"Knowledge (ñāṇa) concerning meaning, dhamma, and language, and likewise concerning ready exposition,
has arisen in us, O Great Hero, in your presence.
"Our coming together with the Buddhas, the Lords of the World, has been shown;
great were our acts of service, O Great Sage, done for your sake.
"Whatever former wholesome kamma of ours you recall, O Sage —
for your sake, O Great Hero, were our merits heaped up.
"Shunning unfitting occasions and warding off misconduct,
for your sake, O Great Hero, even our lives were surrendered.
"Many thousands of koṭis [of times] you gave us away to be wives [of others];
we were not dismayed at that — for your sake, O Great Sage.
"Many thousands of koṭis [of times] you gave us away for service;
we were not dismayed at that — for your sake, O Great Sage.
"Many thousands of koṭis [of times] you gave us away for the sake of food;
we were not dismayed at that — for your sake, O Great Sage.
"Many thousands of koṭis of lives we relinquished;
[thinking,] 'We shall bring about deliverance from peril,' we relinquished our lives.
"The ornaments upon our limbs, garments many and various,
and our women's goods — we did not withhold them, for your sake, O Great Sage.
"The giving up of wealth and grain, of villages and market towns,
of fields, of son and of daughter — [all] was relinquished, O Great Sage.
"Elephants, horses, and cattle too, slave-women and serving-women —
for your sake, O Great Hero, [all this] was relinquished beyond reckoning.
"When you took counsel with us, [saying,] 'We shall give a gift to the beggars,'
we saw no dismay of ours while you gave the supreme gift.
"Suffering (dukkha) abundant and of many kinds, in saṃsāra of many turns,
for your sake, O Great Hero, we endured beyond reckoning.
"When happiness was won, we rejoiced; nor were we downcast amid sufferings;
everywhere we were content — for your sake, O Great Sage.
"The dhamma to which the Fully Awakened One applied himself along the way —
having experienced happiness and suffering, he attained awakening, O Great Sage.
"Great has been our coming together with the Fully Awakened One, Gotama the sublime deva (brahmadeva), Leader of the World,
and with the other Lords of the World.
"Great was our service for your sake, O Great Sage;
while you were in quest of the dhammas of Buddhahood, we were your attendant women.
"A hundred thousand aeons and four incalculables ago,
the Great Hero Dīpaṅkara, Leader of the World, arose.
"[The people] in a region of the border country, having invited the Tathāgata,
cleared the road for his coming, their hearts delighted.
"At that time he was the brahmin named Sumedha,
and he prepared the road for the All-Seeing One as he came.
"At that time we were all born of brahmin families;
we brought phaluka-blossoms to the gathering.
"On that occasion the Buddha Dīpaṅkara, of great fame,
the Great Hero, gave his declaration concerning the seer of exalted mind.
"The earth quaked and roared, trembling together with the world of devas,
as he proclaimed the deed of that seer of exalted mind.
"Deva maidens and human beings, and we too together with the devas,
having made offering of various articles worthy of offering, made [our] aspirations.
"To them the Buddha, he whose name is the Lamp of Light, declared:
'Those who this day have made aspiration shall be face to face [with him].'
"An immeasurable [aeon] from now [it was] that the Buddha made that declaration concerning us;
rejoicing at that utterance, we became doers accordingly.
"There we made our hearts serene toward that deed well done;
having passed through deva and human births beyond reckoning,
"having experienced happiness and suffering among devas and among humans,
when the last existence came round, we were born in the Sakyan family.
"Possessed of beauty, possessed of wealth, possessed then of fame and virtue,
endowed with every excellence, we were honored exceedingly in [our] families.
"Gain, renown, and honor, the concourse of worldly conditions [were ours];
there was no anguish of mind; we dwelt with no peril from any quarter.
"For this was said by the Blessed One at that time in the king's inner palace,
and he pointed out the helpfulness of those [women] in the city of the khattiyas (warrior-nobles):
"'The woman who is a helper, and the woman [who stands fast] in happiness and in suffering,
the woman who declares what is good, and the woman who is compassionate —
"'one should practice the Dhamma as good conduct, not practice it as misconduct;
one who lives by the Dhamma rests happily in this world and in the next.'
"Forsaking the household, we went forth into homelessness;
before half a month had passed, we realized the four truths.
"Robes and almsfood, requisites and lodging —
many bring these to us, like the waves of the ocean.
"Our defilements (kilesa) have been burnt away; all existences have been extirpated;
like a she-elephant that has burst her bond, we dwell without taints.
"Welcome indeed has it been for us, [our coming] into the presence of the best of Buddhas!
The three true knowledges have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
"The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā) and these eight liberations (vimokkha),
the six superknowledges (abhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
"Thus, [having known] suffering of many kinds and success of many kinds,
arrived at the state of purity, we obtain every excellence.
"Those who give their very selves to the Great Seer for the sake of merit
gain the excellence of companionship, [and] Nibbāna, the unconditioned state.
"The past is utterly exhausted, [and so are] the present and the future;
all our kamma is exhausted: O One with Vision, we venerate your feet."
[The Blessed One:]
"To you who speak of [your] Nibbāna, what more shall we say?
Whoever [among you] was a slave bound to beings and the conditioned — attain the deathless state!"
Thus indeed did the eighteen thousand bhikkhunīs headed by Yasodharā speak these verses face to face with the Blessed One.
The Apadāna of the Eighteen Thousand Therīs is concluded.
Summary (uddāna)
Kuṇḍalā and Gotamī, Dhammadinnā and Sakulā,
the excellent Nandā and Soṇā, Kāpilānī, Yasodharā;
the ten thousand bhikkhunīs, and those of the eighteen thousand;
and [the verses number] four hundred and seventy-eight.
The Kuṇḍalakesā Chapter, the third, [is concluded].
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The Fourth Chapter: the Chapter of the Khattiya Maidens (Khattiyakaññāvagga)
First: the Apadāna of the Eighteen Thousand Khattiya-Maiden Therīs (31)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.