In the city, Bandumatī,
I was one who worked for others.
Though bound in service to others,
I looked not for another’s rice.Gone off alone and sitting down,
I thought it out in this way:
“The Buddha’s risen in the world
and I’ve provided no service.It is time to clean up my life;
the moment is prepared for me.
Suffering is a taste of hell
for creatures devoid of merit.Having thought it out in this way,
I approached the labor foreman.
After begging him for some work,
I entered into the forest.Having gathered at that time some
grass and sticks and also some vines,
and having put three poles in place,
I constructed a grass hut there.After I dedicated that
hut for the Assembly of monks,
I came back on that very day
and approached the labor foreman.Due to that karma done very well,
I then went to Tāvatiṁsa.
My mansion there, very well made,
was created by a grass hut.The mansion that appeared for me,
a mil-kaṇḍa cent-bheṇḍu large,
made of gold, covered in flags,
contained a hundred thousand doors.In whichever womb I’m reborn,
whether it’s human or divine,
recognizing what I’m thinking,
a palace comes to be for me.I do not experience fear,
get stupefied, horripilate;
I do not know those things in me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.Lions and tigers and leopards,
bears and wolves, kara bānā bears—
all of them stay away from me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.Vipers and ghosts, cobras as well,
kumbhaṇḍa, rakkhasa-demons;
they too are all avoiding me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.I do not remember seeing
my dreams when they are of evil.
Mindfulness arises for me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.Just because of that grass-hut-gift,
I have experienced success.
I have witnessed the Teaching of
Gotama Buddha, Blessed One.In the ninety-one aeons since
I did that good karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!
Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇakuṭidāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Tiṇakuṭidāyaka Thera is finished.