5.4. Vijaya (SN5.4)

At Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the bhikkhuni Vijaya dressed … she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day’s abiding.

Then Mara the Evil One, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in the bhikkhuni Vijaya, desiring to make her fall away from concentration, approached her and addressed her in verse:

“You are so young and beautiful,
And I too am a youth in my prime.
Come, noble lady, let us rejoice
With the music of a fivefold ensemble.”

Then it occurred to the bhikkhuni Vijaya: “Now who is this…? This is Mara the Evil One … desiring to make me fall away from concentration.”

Then the bhikkhuni Vijaya, having understood, “This is Mara the Evil One,” replied to him in verses:

“Forms, sounds, tastes, odours,
And delightful tactile objects—
I offer them right back to you,
For I, O Mara, do not need them.

“I am repelled and humiliated
By this foul, putrid body,
Subject to break up, fragile:
I’ve uprooted sensual craving.

“As to those beings who fare amidst form,
And those who abide in the formless,
And those peaceful attainments too:
Everywhere darkness has been destroyed.”

Then Mara the Evil One, realizing “The bhikkhuni Vijaya knows me,” sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.

© Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)

This excerpt from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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