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tha-ap.501 Thera Apadana

Naḷakuṭikadāyaka

In the Himalayan region,
there’s a mountain named Bhārika.
The Self-Become One, Nārada,
dwelt at the roots of a tree then.

Having fashioned a house of reeds,
I covered it with grass as thatch,
and clearing a walkway I then
gave them to the Self-Become One.

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,
fashioned as a little reed hut,
measured sixty leagues in length, and
it measured thirty leagues in width.

I delighted in the gods’ world
throughout fourteen aeons back then,
and later seventy-one times,
I exercised divine rule there.

And thirty-four times after that,
I was a king who turns the wheel.
There was also much local rule,
innumerable by counting.

Ascending the Teaching-palace,
in all ways a fine metaphor,
I would live there where I’m wishing,
in the Buddha’s dispensation.

In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that good karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of a little reed hut.

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 Naḷakuṭikadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Naḷakuṭikadāyaka Thera is finished.

- Translator: Jonathan S. Walters

- Editor: Ayya Vimala