In deep forest which was crowded
with wild beasts there was a stupa
of Blessed Padumuttara,
the World’s Best One, the Neutral One.Nobody dared to travel there
to pay homage to the stupa.
The stupa was broken, in ruins,
covered in grasses, sticks and vines.I was then a forest-worker,
as were father and grandfathers.
I saw that stupa in the woods,
broken, tangled in grass and vines.Having seen the Buddha’s stupa,
I served it with a reverent heart:
“the Best Buddha’s stupa, broken,
is abandoned in the forest.
It’s not meet, not appropriate
for one who can tell right from wrong.
But I engage in other work,
not cleaning the Buddha’s stupa.”Cleaning off the grasses and sticks
and vines growing on the stupa,
after worshipping it eight times,
still bent over I then went off.Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.There my well-constructed mansion
was made of gold, brightly shining.
It rose up sixty leagues in height
and it was thirty leagues in width.And thirty different times did I
exercise rule over the gods.
And five and twenty times was I
a wheel-turning king with great strength.Transmigrating from birth to birth,
I’m receiving great possessions.
Possessions never lack for me:
that’s the fruit of cleaning stupas.When I’m going in the forest,
seated on an elephant’s back,
whichever direction I go,
the forest provides me refuge.I do not see with my two eyes
any tree-stump or thorn at all.
In accordance with my karma,
it gets removed all by itself.I do not get the itch, ringworm,
rashes, abscesses, leprosy,
epilepsy and scabies too:
that’s the fruit of cleaning stupas.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
I was not conscious of pimples
or spots produced on my body.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
I transmigrate in just two states:
that of a god, or of a man.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
every place where I am living
is gold-colored and very bright.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
displeasing things are avoided,
and things which are pleasing appear.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
my mind is always very pure,
one-pointed, very attentive.Another miracle for me:
after I had cleaned the stupa,
seated in a single sitting,
I achieved the arahant-state.In the hundred thousand aeons
since I did that good karma then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of cleaning stupas.The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!
Thus indeed Venerable Pabhaṅkara Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Pabhaṅkara Thera is finished.