Wishing to make a sacrifice
I had a meal prepared back then
and stood in a large mālaka
venerating the brahmins there.And then I saw the Sambuddha,
Piyadassi, Greatly Famed One,
who was the Tamer of All Worlds,
the Self-Become, the Neutral One.Standing before his followers
that Blessed One, really shining,
was blazing forth just like the sun
when entering its chariot.Pressing my hands together then
and bringing my own heart pleasure,
I invited him with my mind:
“Let the Great Sage come to me now.”Discerning what I was thinking,
he who was Peerless in the World,
Teacher, with a thousand arahants
came right up to my doorway then.“Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person!
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
Ascending into my palace
please sit upon the lion-throne.”The Tame One, with Tamed Retinue,
Crossed Over, the Best Ferryman
ascending into my palace
sat down upon that seat superb.Foodstuffs which had been presented
that still remained in my own house
I then gifted to the Buddha
feeling well- pleased by my own hands.With a pleased heart and happy mind,
joyful, with hands pressed together,
I worshipped the Best of Buddhas:
“O! The Buddha’s great eminence!Many arahants are among these
nobles being served and eating.
That is your majestic power;
I too go for refuge in you.”Piyadassi the Blessed One
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
sat down in the monks’ Assembly
and uttered these verses aloud:Of he who fed the Assembly
which is upright and attentive
and the Sambuddha, Thus-Gone-One,
all of you listen to my words:Twenty-seven times a god-king
he will exercise divine rule.
With pleasure in his own karma
he’ll delight in the world of gods.And also eighteen times he’ll be
a king who turns the wheel of law.
He will reside upon the earth
and have five hundred earthly reigns.”Plunged into the woods, the forest,
a tiger-frequented jungle,
having put forth great exertion
I destroyed all the defilements.In the eighteen hundred aeons
since I gave him that gift back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth;
that is the fruit of giving food.The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!
Thus indeed Venerable Sumaṅgala Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Sumaṅgala Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Sīhāsani and Ekatthambhi,
Nanda and Culla-Panthaka,
Pilinda and also Rāhula,
Vangata, Raṭṭhapālaka,
Sopāka and also Maṅgala,
ten are in the second chapter
and a hundred and thirty-seven
verses are related here.
The Sīhāsani Chapter, the Second.