6. Ekapiṇḍadāyikā (THI-AP6)

In the city, Bandhumatī,
there was a king named Bandhuma.
I was then the wife of that king,
behaving in a certain way.

Gone off alone, having sat down,
I then reflected in this way:
“I’ve done no wholesome deeds that I
can take and go when I have died.

I have no doubt about the fact
that I’ll certainly go to hell,
blazingly hot, laden with grief,
of frightful form, and very cruel.”

After having approached the king,
I then spoke these words to him:
“O kṣatriyan, do give to me
one monk, whom I will thenceforth feed.”

That great king gave a monk to me,
with cultivated faculties.
After having taken his bowl,
I satisfied him with milk-rice.

Having filled it up with milk-rice,
I applied some scented ointment.
Covering it with some netting,
I closed it with a blue lotus.

Making that my object of thought
for as long as my life lasted,
bringing pleasure to my heart there,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.

I was fixed in the chief queen’s place
of thirty kings among the gods.
Whatever my mind wishes for
comes into being as desired.

I was fixed in the chief queen’s place
of twenty kings who turned the wheel.
With accumulated merit,
I transmigrated through lifetimes.

I am set free from every bond;
my substrata are gone away;
all defilements are extinguished;
now there will be no more rebirth.

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave that almsgiving back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of food that’s begged for.

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 Bhikkhunī Ekapiṇḍadāyikā spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekapiṇḍadāyikā Therī 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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