Udāna
1 1: Muccalinda Suttaɱ

About Muccalinda

Translated from the Pali by John D. Ireland.
©1997 Buddhist Publication Society.
From The Udana: Inspired Utterances of the Buddha, (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1997). Copyright © 1997 Buddhist Publication Society. Used with permission.

 

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[II-1.1][than] Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying at Uruvela beside the river Nerañjara at the foot of the Mucalinda Tree, having just realized full enlightenment.

At that time the Lord sat cross-legged for seven days experiencing the bliss of liberation. Now it happened that there occurred, out of season, a great rainstorm and for seven days there were rain clouds, cold winds, and unsettled weather. Then Mucalinda the naga-king left his dwelling place and having encircled the Lord's body seven times with his coils, he stood with his great hood spread over the Lord's head (thinking) to protect the Lord from cold and heat, from gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and the touch of creeping things.

At the end of those seven days the Lord emerged from that concentration. Then Mucalinda the naga-king, seeing that the sky had cleared and the rain clouds had gone, removed his coils from the Lord's body. Changing his own appearance and assuming the appearance of a youth, he stood in front of the Lord with his hands folded together venerating him.

Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:

Blissful is detachment for one who is content,
For one who has learned Dhamma and who sees;
Blissful is non-affliction in the world,
Restraint towards living creatures;|| ||

Blissful is passionlessness in the world,
The overcoming of sensual desires;
But the abolition of the conceit "I am" —
That is truly the supreme bliss.|| ||