21. The Tathāgata (UV-KG21)

In this world I know all, I have conquered all, I am free from all conditions (dharma), I have cast away everything; having put an end to all desires, perfectly emancipated, manifestly wise, by whom can I be taught?

I am the Tathāgata, the highest teacher; I am almighty, omniscient, and have obtained perfect wisdom (bodhi), which I fathomed by myself; incomparable and unequalled, by whom can I be taught?

I am the Arhat of the world; in this world I am unequalled; (alone) among gods and men I have conquered the hosts of Māra. As there is none other like me, no one can be my master; all alone in the world I have found perfect and unsurpassable wisdom (samyaksambodhi).

I have found the cessation of the āsravas; like unto me are (all) Djinas, who have found this out. I have overcome all states of sinfulness, therefore am I a Djina.

As I am the conqueror of all that is like (sin), I the all-wise, perfectly enlightened one, who have crossed over from the region of desire, I who have attained nirvāṇa, I am not to be taught by any one in the world.

I am going to Vāraṇasi to sound the Drum of the Law for those who until now have known naught of it, to turn the Wheel of the Law that has been turned by no one in the world.

The mighty Tathāgatas do instruct here by the law; they who have learnt the law, there is no one that can look down on them.

Both gods and men delight in him who is steadfast, who is given to meditation, delighting in the peace of salvation, who has reached the end of corporeal existence, who is Perfectly Enlightened, glorious, and who is in the enjoyment of Wisdom (pradjnā).

They who have been Buddhas, the future Buddhas, and the present perfect Buddha, do liberate (mankind) from many sorrows. To reverence the law, for all those who have been, who are, and who shall be, this is the great law of all Perfectly Enlightened ones. He, therefore, who in this world cares about himself, and who wishes to arrive at greatness, let him remember the commandment of the Buddhas and reverence the law.

The man who has no faith in the doctrine of the Buddha is a fool; he will finally come to grief, as did the merchants with the Rākshasīs (female demons).

The man who has faith in the doctrine of the Buddha, and who is wise, will arrive at felicity in the other world, like the merchants (carried off) by “Might of a Cloud.”

It is by perfect understanding of happiness and of the value of seclusion, and by living according to both of these, that the unequalled and incomparable Tathāgatas, the perfectly enlightened, dispel darkness, pass over to the other side, and acquire glory (among men).

Their minds all-powerful by having obtained what was to be obtained, perfectly free, having put an end to the āsravas, completely emancipated, mercifully longing to deliver (mankind), without wickedness or āsrava, they show the beings of the universe what is beneficial to them.

They who are on the summit of a mountain can see all men; in like manner they who are intelligent and free from sorrow are enabled to ascend above the paradise of the gods; and when they there have seen the subjection of man to birth and death and the sorrows by which he is afflicted, they open the doors of the immortal. Let those who will listen free themselves of all distrustfulness.

Chapter of the Tathāgata, the Twenty-First.

Translated by Woodville Rockhill.

1975, Udânavarga: a collection of verses from the Buddhist canon compiled by Dharmatrâta, Oriental Press, Amsterdam (reprint of original from 1883).

Translated (into Tibetan) by the Indian Pandit Vidyaprabhakara and the Lotsāva Bande-rin-tchen-mtchog; revised and arranged by the corrector, the Lotsāva Bande-dpal-brtsegs.

Original taken from University of Oslo, faculty of humanities.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Yasoj and Ayya Vimala.