58. Dhajadāyaka (THA-AP60)

Happy, and with a happy heart
I hoisted up a flag back then
at the stupendous Bodhi Tree
of Padumuttara Buddha.

Having picked up the fallen leaves
I threw them all away outside.
As though facing the Sambuddha,
the Fully Free One, Undefiled,
I worshipped the superb Bodhi,
clean inside and clean outside too.

Padumuttara, World-Knower,
Sacrificial Recipient,
standing in the monks’ Assembly
the Teacher spoke these verses then:

“Because of both this service and
this donation of a flag here,
for one hundred thousand aeons
he will go to no bad rebirth.
Among the gods he will enjoy
abundant divine happiness.

And various hundreds of times,
he’ll be king of a country.
He will be a wheel-turning king;
his name will then be Uggata.

Having enjoyed this happiness,
incited by his wholesome roots,
he will delight in the Teaching
of Gotama the Blessed One.”

I am one bent on exertion,
calmed, devoid of grounds for rebirth;
I am bearing my last body
in the Supreme Buddha’s teaching.

Fifty-one thousand aeons hence
I was known as King Uggata.
Fifty thousand aeons ago
I was the king known as Megha.

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!

Thus indeed Venerable Dhajadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Dhajadāyaka 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.

This is the first-ever complete translation of Apadāna into a Western language.

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