6.2. Vasitthi the Madwoman (THIG6.2)

Overwhelmed with grief for my son —
naked, demented,
my hair dishevelled
my mind deranged —
I went about here & there,

living along the side of the road,
in cemeteries & heaps of trash,
for three full years,
afflicted with hunger & thirst.

Then I saw
the One Well-gone,
gone to the city of Mithila:
tamer of those untamed,
Self-Awakened,
with nothing to fear
from anything, anywhere.

Regaining my mind,
paying him homage,
I sat myself down.
He, Gotama, from sympathy
taught me the Dhamma.

Hearing his Dhamma,
I went forth into homelessness.
Applying myself to the Teacher's words,
I realized the state of auspicious bliss.

All griefs have been cut off,
abandoned,
brought to this end,
for I've comprehended
the grounds from which griefs
come into play.

Translated from the Pali by: Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

©2005 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The text of this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.

Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, www.accesstoinsight.org

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Kathrin Vimalañāṇī.