[79]
When Dīpaṅkara the Buddha, the Victor, made the prediction concerning Sumedha:
"Incalculable aeons from now, this one will become a Buddha.
"His birth-mother will be Māyā by name;
his father, Suddhodana by name; and this one will be Gotama.
"Having exerted the exertion and performed the practice of austerities,
at the foot of the assattha tree he will awaken as a Fully Awakened One of great renown.
"Upatissa and Kolita will be his chief disciples;
the attendant named Ānanda will attend upon this Victor.
"Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā will be his chief female disciples;
and Citta and Āḷavaka will be his chief laymen followers;
"Khujjuttarā and Nandamātā will be his chief laywomen followers;
the Bodhi tree of this wise one is called the assattha" —
having heard this word of the peerless Great Seer,
men and gods, delighted, paid homage with joined palms.
At that time I was a young brahmin named Megha, well trained;
having heard the supreme prediction concerning Sumedha, O Great Sage,
I became intimate with Sumedha, that abode of compassion,
and when that hero went forth, I went forth after him in his company.
Restrained with regard to the Pātimokkha and the five faculties (indriya),
pure of livelihood, mindful, steadfast, I was one who carried out the Victor's teaching.
While I was dwelling thus, incited to misconduct by a certain evil friend,
I was cast down from the good path.
Fallen under the sway of [wayward] thoughts, I departed from the teaching (sāsana);
afterwards, by that false friend I was set upon the murder of my mother.
I committed the deed of immediate retribution (ānantariya): with corrupted mind I slew her;
passing away from there, I arose in the great Avīci, utterly dreadful.
Gone to the downfall (vinipāta), I wandered on long in misery;
I did not see again the steadfast Sumedha, bull among men.
In this aeon I was a timiṅgala fish in the ocean;
seeing a ship upon the sea, I drew near in search of prey.
Seeing me, the merchants, terrified, recollected the supreme Buddha;
hearing the great cry "Gotama!" that they raised,
I remembered the perception of old, and thereupon I died;
I was born at Sāvatthī, in a prosperous family, of brahmin birth.
I was Dhammaruci by name, one who loathed every evil;
at seven years from birth I saw the Lamp of the World,
went to the Great Jetavana, and went forth into homelessness;
three times in the night and in the day I would go into the Buddha's presence.
Then, on seeing me, the Sage said to me, "Remember, Dhammaruci."
Thereupon I told the Buddha of my former deeds, set forth in full:
"For a very long time in the past — there being no conditions of purity — [I beheld it] not;
today indeed I behold your incomparable form,
so fair to gaze upon,
bearing the marks of a hundred merits.
"For a very long time, indeed, was [my aspiration] toward you sustained by me;
by the long-[exercised] eye [the river of craving (taṇhā)] has been dried up without remainder;
for a very long time, O Great Sage,
the stainless eye made of knowledge (ñāṇa) has been purified.
"Joined with you [once] for a long age,
not lost through yet another long interval,
today I have come together with you again:
deeds done, O Gotama, do not perish."
My defilements (kilesa) have been burned up; all existences (bhava) have been extirpated;
like an elephant that has sundered its bonds, I dwell without taints (āsava).
Welcome indeed was my coming into the presence of my Buddha:
the three true knowledges (vijjā) have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
The four analytic insights (paṭisambhidā) and also these eight liberations (vimokkha),
the six superknowledges (chaḷabhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
Thus indeed did the Venerable Dhammaruci the Elder utter these verses.
The Apadāna of Dhammaruci the Elder is concluded.
The Tenth: The Apadāna of the Elder Sālamaṇḍapiya (490)
[Variant readings in the Siam Raṭṭha apparatus — on the title: Ma. "Dhammaruciyatthera…"; "nāmupaṭṭhāko": Ma., Yu. "nāma nāmena"; "karuṇālaye": Ma., Yu. "karuṇāsaye"; "sahā ca": Ma. "sahāva," Yu. "saheva"; "akariṃnantariyañca": Ma. "akariṃ ānantariyaṃ," Yu. "akarimanantariyañca"; "iddhe": Yu. "ucce"; "tadā": Yu. "disvā"; "sara": Ma., Yu. "ciraṃ"; "vibhāvitaṃ": Ma., Yu. "pabhāvitaṃ"; "visuddhipaccayā": [v.l.] "visuddhipaccayaṃ"; "vihitaṃ nu te": Ma., Yu. "vihatattamo"; "niravisositā": Ma., Yu. "nadīvisositā." (Ma. = Burmese edition; Yu. = European edition.)]
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.