PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
III
Kankhā-Revata
(Revata the Doubter)
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
He was reborn in the days of our Exalted One in a wealthy family of Sāvatthī. And as he stood in the outermost ring of those who went after dinner to hear Him-of-the-Ten-Powers preach, he believed, and thereupon entered the Order. And he attained arahantship by way of practising jhāna; and so proficient in jhāna did he become, that the Master pronounced him chief of the bhikkhus who practised it.
[1] [8] His task accomplished thus, this great Brother reflected on the inveterate tendency of his mind to doubt,[2] now wholly overcome, and praised the might and wisdom of the Exalted One, whereby his mind was now calm and steadfast, saying:
[3] Behold how great the wisdom is of Them
Who Thus-have-come![3] As fire at midnight hour,
Givers of light, givers of sight are they
To those that pass, subduing all their doubt.
Thus verily did the venerable Brother Kankhā-Revata utter his psalm.
[2] This tendency is mentioned in the Apadāna. The soubriquet it earned may have been maintained undeservedly to distinguish Revātā from the more distinguished Mahā-Thera Revata, co-Director of the Council of Vesālī (Vinaya Texts, ii. 317; cf. 67).
[3] Tathāigatā. For a full exposition of this famous term, the Comy, refers to the Udāna and Iti-Vuttaka Commentaries Cf. J. H. Moore, Sayings of Buddha, p. 131; Sir R. Chalmers, JRAS, 1898, 108.
