In reading marks and history,
with glosses and ritual law,
I was learned, mantra-knowing,
a master of the three Vedas.Many students came to me then,
resembling a river stream.
I am teaching mantras to them,
night and day, I am not lazy.The Sambuddha named Siddhattha
arose in the world at that time.
Having driven out the darkness,
he displayed the light of knowledge.A certain one of my students
conversed with my other students;
having heard the fact he discussed,
they then announced the fact to me:“A Buddha’s risen in the world,
an Omniscient One, World-Leader.
The people are turning to him;
we’re not going to get anything.”“Buddhas are Born Spontaneously,
those Eyeful Ones, Greatly Famed Ones.
Why then don’t I also go see
the Best Buddha, the World-Leader?”Having taken my deer-leather,
my robes of bark, and water-pot,
departing from my hermitage,
I advised my students like this:“Like a glomerous fig tree bloom,
and like the rabbit in the moon,
and like the mother’s milk of crows,
a World-Leader’s hard to obtain.A Buddha’s risen in the world!
Even human birth’s hard to get,
and hearing’s very hard to get,
when both of them occur at once.A Buddha’s risen in the world!
We’ll get to see him in our lives.
Come, we will now all go into
the Sammāsambuddha’s presence.”They all were holding water-pots,
and dressed in rough bark and deer-hide.
They, bearing weights of matted hair,
then departed from the forest.Looking but a plough’s length ahead,
searching for ultimate meaning,
coming like baby elephants,
they were without fear, like lions.Free of cares and unwavering,
clever and living peacefully,
wandering about for gleaning,
they approached the Best of Buddhas.When a league and a half was left
to go, illness arose in me.
Remembering the Best Buddha,
I passed away right on the spot.In the ninety-four aeons since
I obtained that perception then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of perceiving Buddhas.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 Buddhasaññaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Buddhasaññaka Thera is finished.