Giving up the five sense pleasures,
forms which are dear and delightful;
giving up eight hundred million,
I went forth into homelessness.After going forth I gave up
bad karma done with the body.
Giving up bad conduct through words,
I dwelt upon a river’s banks.Then the Best Buddha approached me,
living alone near that river.
I did not know, “he’s the Buddha;”
I gave him a friendly welcome.Giving him that friendly welcome,
I then asked him his name and clan:
“Are you a god, a music-nymph,
or even generous Indra?Or else who are you? Son of whom?
Like God Himself has come here now,
you’re shining in all directions,
like the sun when it is rising.Marks of wheels with one thousand spokes
are seen on your foot, happy one.
Who then are you? The son of whom?
How then can we come to know that?
Please declare your name and your clan;
please do relieve me of my doubts!”“I’m not a god, a music-nymph,
nor even generous Indra,
and I do not exist as God:
I am superior to them.In the past I burst asunder
their sphere, the chains of sense pleasures;
having destroyed all defilements,
the best Awakening’s attained.After hearing those words of his,
I spoke these words to him back then:
“If you’re a Buddha, O Great Sage,
please sit down here, Omniscient One.
I am going to worship you;
you’re the Ender of Suffering.Spreading out my deer-hide leather,
I gave it to the Teacher then.
The Blessed One sat down there like
a lion in a mountain cave.Quickly ascending a mountain,
I gathered a mango tree’s fruit,
a beautiful sal flower and
some very costly sandalwood.Quickly taking all of that, I
approached the Leader of the World.
Giving the fruit to the Buddha,
I offered him that sal-flower.Anointing him with sandalwood,
I then worshipped him, the Teacher,
happy, with pleasure in my heart,
and with a huge amount of joy.Seated on my deer-leather robe,
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
then praised my karma at that time,
causing me to smile about that:“Due to this gift of mango fruit,
and of both perfume and flowers,
for twenty-five hundred aeons
he will delight in the gods’ world.
With intentions not lacking thought,
he will be very powerful.For twenty-six hundred aeons
he will delight in the gods’ world.
He’ll be a king who turns the wheel,
victorious on all four sides.The City known as Vebhāra,
constructed by Vissakamma,
will be entirely made of gold,
adorned with various gemstones.By means of that very method,
he’ll transmigrate judiciously.
Being happy in every place,
whether as a god or human,
when he obtains his last rebirth,
he will be born as a brahmin.Having departed from the house
he will be one without a home.
Mastering special knowledges,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.”Having said that, that Sambuddha,
Sumedha, Leader of the World,
while I meditated on him,
then departed into the sky.Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.Having fallen from Tusitā,
I was born in a mother’s womb.
There is no lack of possessions,
even when I am in the womb.Food and also drink are enjoyed,
even when I’m in mother’s womb;
due to my desire they’re produced
for my mother as she wishes.When I was only five years old,
I went forth into homelessness.
I attained my arahantship
while my hair was being cut off.Searching out my former karma,
I did not see it like a child;
I remembered karma for
the whole thirty thousand aeons.“Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person!
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
Coming in your dispensation,
I’ve attained the unshaking state.In the thirty thousand aeons
since I worshipped the Buddha then,
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 Candanamāliya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Candanamāliya Thera is finished.