At that time I contemplated
birth and decrepitude and death.
Going out from the home alone,
I went forth into homelessness.In the course of wandering, I
came to the banks of a river.
There on the riverbank I saw
a piece of earth in all fullness.Fashioning a hermitage there,
I’m living in the hermitage.
My walkway is well-constructed,
housing flocks of various birds.Trustingly they come up to me,
and sing their lovely songs to me.
Delighting there along with them,
I’m living in the hermitage.Near that hermitage of mine were
wild beasts of four different kinds,
who came out of their forest haunts
and roared for me like the thunder.When those wild beasts were making sounds,
great mirth was then produced in me.
While searching for those animals,
I saw the Leader of the World.Then having seen the God of Gods,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
happy, and with a happy heart,
I offered ironwood pollen.I praised the Leader of the World,
like the sun when it is rising,
like a regal sal tree in bloom,
shining forth like the morning star:“Omniscient One, with your knowledge,
you light up this world with its gods.
After having made you happy,
they’re liberated from rebirth.Omniscient One, through not seeing
the Buddhas who see everything,
those obstructed by lust and hate
descend into avīci hell.Coming to take a look at you,
Omniscient One, O World-Leader,
they are freed from all existence,
and realize the deathless state.When the Buddhas, the Eyeful Ones,
the Light-Bringers are arising,
they display the light of the truth,
burning up all the defilements.”After praising the Sambuddha,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
happy, and with a happy heart,
I offered Arab jasmine blooms.Discerning what I was thinking,
Tissa, Chief Leader of the World,
sitting down there on his own seat,
spoke these verses about me then:“He who covered me with flowers,
feeling well-pleased by his own hands,
I shall relate details of him;
all of you listen to my words:Twenty-five times he’s going to
exercise rule over the gods,
and seventy-five times he’ll be
a king who turns the wheel of law.And there will be much local rule,
innumerable by counting,
as a result of his karma
of doing pūjā with flowers.When this person has bathed his head,
if he wishes for a flower,
then bound up with his good karma,
it will appear in front of him.Whatever’s wished for through desires,
that all is going to appear.
Having fulfilled his intentions,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.The eighteenth recitation portion
Having burnt up the defilements,
attentive and intelligent,
sitting down on a single seat,
he will attain arahantship.”Walking back and forth, lying down,
sitting down or else standing up,
remembering the Best Buddha,
I am living all of the time.There’s no deficiency for me
in robes and food that I beg for,
in requisites and bed-and-seat:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā.Now deathlessness has been attained,
the unsurpassed great state of peace.
Knowing well all the defilements,
I am living without constraint.In the ninety-two aeons since
I did pūjā to the Buddha,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā.My defilements are now burnt up;
all new existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.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!The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!
Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇasūlakachādaniya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Tiṇasūlakachādaniya Thera is finished.