431. {434.} Ñāṇathavika (THA-AP436)

I saw the Ultimate Biped,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,
blazing forth like a tree of lamps,
glittering as though made of gold.

Putting aside my water-pot,
my robes of bark and my ewer,
placing deer-hide on one shoulder,
I then praised him, the Best Buddha:

“Great Sage, shedding the knowledge-light,
which dispels confusion-darkness
produced by the delusion-web,
you’re the One who has Crossed Over.

O Unexcelled One, you lift up
this world in its entirety;
there is not in its whole extent
a simile for your knowledge.

Due to that knowledge, the Buddha
is known as “the Omniscient One.”
Great Hero, I’m worshipping him,
the Unobstructed, All-Knower.”

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I praised the Best of Buddhas,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of praising knowledge.

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 Ñāṇathavika Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ñāṇathavika Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

Legends of the Buddhist Saints (Apadāna) is released under the Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license.

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