[400. {403.}[1] Mettagu[2]]
In the Himalayan region,
there’s a mountain named Asoka.[3]
In that place was my hermitage,
constructed by Vissakamma.[4] (1) [3935]
The Sambuddha named Sumedha,
Chief,[5] Compassionate One,[6] the Sage,[7]
dressing himself in the morning,
approached me [begging] for alms food. (2) [3936]
[Seeing] the Great Hero who’d come,[8]
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
taking a good alms-bowl, I
filled it with clarified butter.[9] (3) [3937]
Giving it to[10] the Best Buddha,
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
pressing both my hands together,
I brought pleasure to [my] heart [there]. (4) [3938]
Because of this ghee-offering,
[made] with intention and resolve,
[whether] born human or divine,
I obtain enormous comfort. (5) [3940]
Avoiding states of suffering,[11]
I transmigrate from birth to birth.
Having resolved [my] heart on it,[12]
I’m obtaining the deathless state. (6) [3941]
“This gain for you is well-received,
which is that you saw me, brahmin.
Having arrived to look at me,
you’re going to be an arahant. (7) [3942]
Be confident [and] have no fear,
after finding the Great-Famed One.
Having given [this] ghee to me,
you will be freed from being born. (8) [3943]
Because of this ghee-offering
and practicing with loving heart,[13]
for eighteen hundred aeons you
will delight in the world of gods. (9) [3944]
And eighteen times you [also] will
become the king of [all] the gods,
[and you will have] much local rule,
innumerable by counting. (10) [3945]
And fifty-one times you will be
a king who turns the wheel [of law],
lord of the grove of rose-apples,[14]
victorious on [all] four sides.[15] (11) [3946]
Unperturbed like the great ocean,
as hard to carry as the earth,
in just that way your possessions
are going to be immeasurable.”[16] (12) [3947]
I went forth after giving [up]
six hundred million [worth] of gold.
Seeking after what is wholesome,
I [first] went up to Bāvarī. (13) [3948]
[While] I studied the mantras there,
Vedic science[17] and [reading] marks,
you arose [in the world], Great Sage,
destroying that bewilderment.[18] (14) [3949]
Having a desire to see you,
I came [up to you], O Great Sage.
Having listened to your Teaching,
I [then] attained the deathless state. (15) [3950]
Thirty thousand aeons [ago]
I gave that ghee to the Buddha.
In the interval[19] I don’t know
[any] begging of ghee[20] by me. (16) [3951]
My intentions being discerned,
what I wish for [then] arises.
My heart discerned [I am] reborn,
[and] I gratify everyone. (17) [3952]
O! the Buddha! O! the Teaching!
O! our Teacher’s [great] achievement!
After giving a bit of ghee,
I receive immeasurably. (18) [3953]
The water in the great ocean,
the extent of Mt. Meru’s slope,
would not be[21] one half a quarter[22]
of the ghee arising for me. (19) [3954]
The universe’s full extent,
made into a [gigantic] pile
would not be able[23] [to fill the]
space of the clothing worn by me. (20) [3955]
Himalaya, king of mountains,
although it is the best mountain,
is not [even] comparable
to the perfumes anointing me. (21) [3956]
Clothes and perfumes and ghee and food,
or [everything] that’s in the world,
and nirvana, unconditioned:[24]
that is the fruit of giving ghee. (22) [3957]
[My] couch today is mindfulness,[25]
[my] pasture’s meditative states,[26]
[my] food is wisdom’s [seven] parts:[27]
that is the fruit of giving ghee. (23) [3958]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Knowing well all the defilements,
I am [now] living, undefiled. (24) [3959]
Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (25) [3960]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (26) [3961]
Thus indeed Venerable Mettagu Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Mettagu Thera is finished.
Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation. ↩︎
“Perfected in Loving-kindness” ↩︎
“Griefless.” This is the only reference to the mountain recorded in DPPN (I:220) ↩︎
Vishwakarma, “the divine architect” ↩︎
aggo ↩︎
kāruṇiko ↩︎
muni ↩︎
upāgataŋ, lit., “approached” ↩︎
sappitelaŋ, i.e., ghee ↩︎
lit., “for,” the expected datives here appear in the locative, presumably metri causa ↩︎
vinipātaŋ ↩︎
tattha cchittaŋ paṇidhitvā, also “having aspired,” “having wished,” “having intended” ↩︎
mettacchittavatāya ccha ↩︎
jambusaṇḍa = jambudīpa = India, the South Asian continent ↩︎
cchaturanto vijitāvi, “possessed of conquest of the four quarters,” a supreme imperial overlord ↩︎
contract to “immeas’rable” for chanting, to preserve the meter. ↩︎
chalaṅgaŋ, lit., “the six branches.” RD: “the set of six Vedāngas, disciplines of Vedic science, viz. 1. kappa, 2. vyākaraṇā, 3. nirutti, 4. sikkhā, 5. chando (vicchiti), 6. joti-sattha (thus enumd at VvA 265; at PvA 97 in sequence 4, 1, 3, 2, 6, 5): D iii.269; Vv 6316; Pv ii.613; Miln 178, 236.” BJTS understand this as an adjective modifying “[reading] marks,” i.e., “the six branches of the science (śāstraya) of marks,” but given the use of the term to refer to the six branches of Vedic science above ([3605] = Sela (#389 {392}), v. 24, ↩︎
andhakāra, lit., “blinder,” “[studies] that blind” ↩︎
etthantare, lit., “in the interval [up to] here” ↩︎
sappiŋ viññāpitaŋ mayā, lit., “ghee instructions from me” or (as in BJTS Sinhala gloss,) “not even a word about ghee” ↩︎
BJTS reads phassati, “would not touch” ↩︎
kalabhāgaŋ, i.e., a thirty-second part (this follows BJTS) ↩︎
na sammati, following BJTS gloss no pohotē = no häki ↩︎
asaṅkhataŋ ccha nibbānaŋ ↩︎
sati paṭṭhānasayano ↩︎
lit., “samādhi [and] jhāna,” meditative awareness and higher levels of consciousness” ↩︎
reading bojjhaṅga-bhojano with BJTS for PTS (typo) bhojjaṅgabhojano ↩︎