Aṅgaṇikabhāradvāja (THAG3.1)

Verses of the Senior Monks 3.1

The Book of the Threes

Chapter One

Aṅgaṇikabhāradvāja

Seeking purity the wrong way,

I served the sacred fire in a grove.

Not knowing the path to purity,

I practiced endless mortification.

I’ve gained this happiness by means of happiness:

behold the clear rightness of the teaching!

I’ve attained the three knowledges

and fulfilled the Buddha’s instructions.

I used to be brahmin only by kin,¹

but now I really am a brahmin!

I am master of the three knowledges, I’m a bathed initiate,

I’m a scholar and a knowledge master.