In this present lucky aeon
Brahmā’s Kinsman, Greatly Famed One,
known by the name of Kassapa,
Best Debater, Buddha, arose.Possessing Eighty Lesser Marks,
Bearing the Thirty-Two Great Marks,
Having a Fathom-Wide Aura,
Gone into a Net of Light-Rays,as Comforting as is the moon,
Maker of Light just like the sun,
Quenching just as does a raincloud,
a Mine of Gems like the ocean,Through morals like earth; through wisdom
like the sky; through meditation
like Himalaya; like the wind
he does not stick to anything.At that very time I was born
in Benares, in a big clan,
rich in grain and abundant wealth,
with heaps of various gemstones.Approaching the Leader, who was
seated with a large retinue,
I heard him preaching the Dhamma,
undying, delighting the mind.Bearing the Thirty-Two Marks like
the moon with the constellations,
Possessing Eighty Lesser Marks,
like a regal sal tree in bloom,Encircled by a Net of Rays,
like a shining mountain of gold,
Having a Fathom-Wide Aura,
like the sun shining on a lake,Excellent Golden-Faced Victor,
like a mountain made of gemstones,
with a Heart Full of Compassion,
like the ocean through his virtue.The Ultimate Man, like Mt. Meru,
his Praises are Famous World-wide;
Widespread with Fame, the Great Hero,
the Sage, who is the Same as Space,Heart Unattached in every place,
the Leader is thus like the wind;
Support for all living beings,
the Seventh Sage is like the earth.Kassapa, Unsoiled by the World
like a pink lotus by water,
shines forth like a mountain of fire
Burning the Bad-Speech Undergrowth.Everywhere, like an antidote,
he Destroys the Defilement-Poison,
Adorned with the Scent of Virtue,
like Gandhamādana Mountain.The Hero’s a Mine of Virtues
like the ocean is of gemstones;
Thoroughbred Man like a Sindh horse,
he Carries Off Defilement’s Filth.Like a champion great soldier,
he Crushes the Army of Death;
he is like a wheel-turning king,
Lord of Wisdom’s Seven Gems.Just like a man of medicine,
he Doctors the Illness called Faults;
just like the very best surgeon,
he Drains the Abscess called False Views.At that time, the Torch of the World,
Honored by Gods along with Men,
the Sun among Men, the Victor,
preached Dhamma to his retinue.“Giving alms one becomes wealthy,
through morals one gains well-being,
through meditation, nirvana:”
thus indeed he gave instruction.Everyone in the retinue
hears that, his very sweet preaching,
pure in beginning, middle, end,
very tasty, like ambrosia.Having heard his honeyed Teaching,
pleased in Victor’s dispensation,
going to Buddha for refuge,
I praised him as long as I lived.At that time, for eight days each month,
I covered over the ground of
the perfumed hut where lived the Sage
with the four types of fragrant things,
out of my wish for that good smell
for my own odor-free body.
Then the Victor prophesied that
I’d attain that fragrant body:“He who covered over the ground
of my own perfumed hut with scents,
as the result of that karma,
while being reborn here and there,
this man will be one who has a
good-smelling body everywhere.
Having the fragrance of virtue,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.”Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.And now in my final rebirth,
I’m born in a clan of brahmins.
When I was dwelling in the womb,
my mother’s body was fragrant.And when I was departing from
my mother’s womb, then the city,
Śrāvasti, was diffused with good
scents, as though it had been perfumed.And a perfumed rain of flowers,
divinely-scented, delightful,
and very costly incense too,
was wafted about all that time.And the gods rained down on that house,
the house in which I had been born,
a perfumed rain with all good-scented
types of incense and flowers too.And while I, a lucky young man,
remained in the prime of my youth,
then the Charioteer of Men
guided Sela with retinue.I too, along with all of them,
came to the city, Śrāvasti.
Seeing the Buddha’s majestic
power, I went forth at that time.Morals, meditation, wisdom
and the freedom that’s unsurpassed;
cultivating those four things,
I attained my arahantship.And when I was a renouncer,
and when I was an arahant,
and when I attained nirvana,
there was then a good-smelling rain.The fragrance of my body is always blowing
costly sandalwood, champaka and blue lotus.
In just that way, gone here and there I’m perfuming,
suppressing all different scents in every respect.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 Cūlasugandha Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Cūlasugandha Thera is finished.
The Summary:
Bhaddiya, Elder Revata,
and Sīvalī, the great getter,
Vaṅgīsa, also Nandaka,
Kāḷudāyi, thus Ābhaya,
Lomasa and Vanavaccha,
and Sugandha done as the tenth.
There are three hundred verses here,
and also sixteen more than that.
Then there is the Summary of Chapters:
The chapter called Kaṇikāra,
Phalada, Tiṇadāyaka,
Kaccāna, Bhaddiya chapter;
the verses that are counted here
are nine hundred in this grouping
and exactly eighty-four more.
Five times one hundred plus fifty
apadānas are explained here.
Along with summary verses
these are six thousand verses here
and two hundred verses as well
plus eighteen verses more than that.
To that extent the Buddhāpadāna, Paccekabuddhāpadāna and Therāpadāna are finished. Let it be the basis for nirvana!
The Bhaddiya Chapter, the Fifty-Fifth