Ekavihāriya Chapter, the Forty-Fourth
[428. {431.}[1] Ekavihāriya[2]]
In this [present] lucky aeon
Brahmā’s Kinsman, Greatly Famed One,
named Kassapa through [his] lineage,[3]
Best Debater, [Buddha] arose. (1) [4630]
Non-Delayed One,[4] Unsupported,[5]
Whose Mind is as Level as Space,[6]
Very Empty,[7] Neutral,[8] Not Fond
of Appearances,[9] the Master,[10] (2) [4631]
Heart Unattached,[11] Defilement-Free,[12]
Not Mixing in the clan [and] group,[13]
Greatly Compassionate, Hero,
Skilled in means of disciplining,[14] (3) [4632]
Active in duties to others,[15]
Training [the whole world] with [its] gods,[16]
Drying Up the muddiness on
road that leads to nirvana —
undying, supreme enjoyment,[17]
obstacle to old age and death[18] —
the One Who Helps the World Across[19]
was seated amidst a huge crowd. (4-5) [4633-4634]
Lord,[20] with the Voice of a Cuckoo,[21]
the Sound of Brahmā,[22] Thus-Gone-One,[23]
Lifting [those on] very bad roads[24]
who are lost[25] without a Leader,[26] (6) [4635]
preaching the stainless Teaching [then,]
the World-Leader was seen by me.
Having listened to his Teaching,
I went forth into homelessness. (7) [4636]
Going forth, I was then thinking
of the Victor’s dispensation;
weighed down by associations,
I lived alone in lovely woods. (8) [4637]
Physical solitude became
the great condition[27] [then] for me,
possessed of mental solitude,
looking at meetings fearfully.[28] (9) [4638]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (10) [4639]
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! (11) [4640]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (12) [4641]
Thus indeed Venerable Ekavihāriya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ekavihāriya 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. ↩︎
“”One Condition-er” ↩︎
gottena ↩︎
nippapañccha, lit., “One who Lacks the Delays,” i.e., the three characteristics (craving, delusion, pride) which delay progress toward nirvana. ↩︎
nirālambo ↩︎
ākāsa-sama-mānaso, following BJTS gloss (no gäṭena) ↩︎
lit., “possessing much emptiness,” reading suññatā with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS puññatā (“much merit-ness,” sic) ↩︎
tadī ↩︎
animittarato ↩︎
vasī ↩︎
asaṅga-cchitto ↩︎
nikleso ↩︎
asaŋsaṭṭho kule gaṇe ↩︎
vinayopāyakovido (cf. Skt. upāya kauśālya) ↩︎
uyyutto parakiccchchesu ↩︎
vinayanto sadevake ↩︎
param-assāda, BJTS Sinhala gloss paramāśvādaya ↩︎
jarāmaccchchunivāraṇaŋ ↩︎
lokatārano ↩︎
nātho ↩︎
karavīikarudo (BJTS [and PTS alt.] corrects to karavīika-ruto). RD Karavīika = the Indian cuckoo ↩︎
brahmaghoso ↩︎
tathāgato ↩︎
uddharanto mahāduggā; I follow BJTS gloss in supplying “people” as the object of the verbal noun. ↩︎
vipannaṭṭhe (PTS), vipannaddhe (BJTS) ↩︎
anāyake ↩︎
hetubhūto, i.e., the condition suitable to his attaining arahantship ↩︎
reading sakāyavūpakasso [corrected in BJTS alt. to vūpakāso] me hetubhūto mahābhavi with BJTS for PTS svakāūpakaṭṭho me hetubhūto mam āgami (“physical solitude came to me become the condition for me”) ↩︎