[172]
Eighty-four thousand of us, born in brahmin families, delicate of hands and feet, were formerly yours, O Great Sage.
Women born in vessa [merchant] and sudda [worker] families, devas, nāgas, and kinnaras, and many maidens from the four continents, were formerly yours, O Great Sage.
Some of them have gone forth; many have seen all [the Dhamma]; devas, kinnaras, and nāgas will awaken in time to come.
Having enjoyed all glory, having attained every excellence, having gained confidence in you, they will awaken in time to come.
But we, daughters of brahmins, sprung from brahmin families, endowed with the auspicious marks, O Great Hero, worship your feet, O One with Vision.
All existences have been demolished; craving (taṇhā), the root, has been extirpated; the latent tendencies (anusaya) have been wholly severed; the volitional formations (saṅkhāra) of merit have been shattered.
All of us have concentration (samādhi) as our pasture, and likewise are masters of the attainments (samāpatti); with jhāna and with delight in the Dhamma we shall ever dwell.
The conduit to existence (bhavanetti), ignorance (avijjā), and the volitional formations too have been exhausted; having reached the state so hard to see, we have come to know it, O Leader.
[The Blessed One replied:]
"For a long time you have been of service to me, who have completed the journey; having cut off the doubt of the four [assemblies], go, all of you, to quenching (nibbuti)."
Having worshiped the Sage's feet and wrought miraculous transformations of psychic power (iddhi-vikubbana), some display light, and others likewise darkness.
They display the moon and the sun, and the ocean together with its fish; they display Sineru and its encircling range; they display the Pāricchattaka tree.
By psychic power they display the abode of Tāvatiṃsa and the Yāma [heaven]; [some appear as] Tusita devas, Nimmita devas, and the Vasavattī devas, great lords.
Some display Brahmās, and a walking-path of great price; and having conjured the form of Brahmā, they teach the Dhamma of emptiness (suññata).
Having wrought manifold transformations and shown their psychic power to the Teacher, they all displayed their strength and worshiped the Teacher's feet.
We have mastery of the psychic powers and of the divine ear element (dibbā sotadhātu); we have mastery of the knowledge penetrating the minds of others (cetopariyañāṇa), O Great Sage.
We know our former abodes (pubbenivāsa); the divine eye (dibbacakkhu) has been purified; all our taints (āsava) are utterly destroyed; now there is no renewed existence.
Knowledge (ñāṇa) of meaning, of dhamma, of language, and likewise of ready exposition (paṭibhāna) arose for us, O Great Hero, in your presence.
Through [our] meetings with the Buddhas, the protectors of the world, it has been shown: many were the services (adhikāra) we performed for your sake, O Great Sage.
Whatever former wholesome deed was ours, recall it, O Sage: for your sake, O Great Hero, were our merits accumulated.
A hundred thousand eons from now, [there lived] the Great Sage Padumuttara; the city named Haṃsavatī was the home of the Sambuddha's family.
Past the gate of Haṃsavatī the Gaṅgā flowed at all times; harassed by the river, the bhikkhus could not make the crossing.
For one day, for two and three, for a week, and then for a month, even for a full four months, they could not make the crossing.
Then there was a man of the realm named Jajjiya, a man of eminent substance; seeing the bhikkhus on the near bank, he had a bridge built over the Gaṅgā.
Then with hundreds of thousands [of coins] he had the bridge built over the Gaṅgā, and on the farther bank he had a monastery built for the Saṅgha.
Women and men, families high and low — they made themselves equal sharers in his bridge and monastery.
We and other human beings, in the city and in the country districts, with hearts full of confidence, became heirs in his righteous works.
Women, men, boys, and many girls too strewed sand upon the bridge and at the monastery.
Having swept the streets, with plantain-stems, brimful pots, and banners [raised], having done honor to the Teacher with incense, scented powder, and garlands,
having completed the bridge and the monastery, having invited the Guide and given a great gift, he aspired to full awakening (sambodhi).
Padumuttara, the Great Hero, honored by all living beings, the Great Sage, having spoken the blessing of appreciation (anumodana), prophesied:
"When a hundred thousand [eons] have passed, there will be a Fortunate Eon; having obtained happiness in existence after existence, [this man] will attain awakening (bodhi).
Whatever men and women have done work with their hands, all of them, in the time to come, will be in [his] presence."
Through the ripening of that kamma, and through their intention and aspiration, arisen in the abode of the devas, they became attendants of yours.
Divine happiness beyond reckoning, and human happiness beyond count, they experienced for a long time, wandering on through existence after existence.
Through the hundred thousand eons from that time — such the excellence of the deed well done — among delicate human beings, and likewise in the excellent city of the devas,
beauty, wealth, and fame, and likewise the dear happiness of renown: we obtained it all continually — the excellence of the deed well done.
When our last existence came round, we were born in brahmin families, delicate of hands and feet, in the household of the son of the Sakyans.
At no time did we ever see the earth unadorned; never did we see muddy ground for walking, O Great Sage.
While we dwelt in the home life, honor was brought to us at all times, always and in full, through the fruit of our former kamma.
Having forsaken the house, having gone forth into homelessness, we crossed beyond the road of saṃsāra; now there is no renewed existence.
Robes, almsfood, the requisite [of medicine], and lodging — thousands from here and there ever bring these to us.
Our defilements (kilesa) have been burned away; all existences have been rooted out; like she-elephants that have burst the bond, we dwell without taints.
Welcome indeed was our coming into the presence of the Best of Buddhas! 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 (abhiññā), have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Thus indeed did the eighty-four thousand bhikkhunīs, [formerly] brahmin maidens, recite these verses face to face with the Blessed One.
The Apadāna of the Eighty-Four Thousand Brahmin-Maiden Therīs is concluded.
Third: the Apadāna of the Therī Uppaladāyikā (33)
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.