PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
XXIV
Sugandha
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
[Pali]
He was reborn in this Buddha-age of wealthy parents at Sāvatthī. And because of his aspiration in the past, when he presented Kassapa Buddha with a Fragrant Chamber of sandal-wood, that he might in one life be reborn with a fragrant body, he, on the day of his birth — and his mother before that day — filled the house with fragrance. Then said his parents: 'Our son is come bringing his own name!' and they called him Sugandha (Aroma). When grown up, he was induced to leave the world by the preaching of the Thera Mahā-Sela.[1] And within seven [29] days he attained arahantship. Confessing aññā he uttered this verse:
[24] Scarce have the rains gone by since I went forth,
Yet see the seemly order of the Norm!
The Threefold Wisdom[2] I have I gotten now
And done all that the Buddha bids us do.[3]
[1] This Thera ('Great-rock') is probably the brahmin teacher of the Sela-Sutta in the Sutta-Nipāta, who was converted by the Buddha, became an arahant, and would naturally continue to exercise his oratorical gifts. Cf. Milinda, i. 253; Sum. V., i. 276.
[2] Tevijjo, lit., 'thrice wise.' This brahminist phrase, referring to one who had learnt the three Vedas, was adopted by the Buddha, and transferred to one who had the three kinds of paññā, vijjā, or ābhiññā (intuition, insight), entitled reminiscence of former lives, the heavenly eye, and the destruction of the āsava's, or intoxicants - sensuality, lust of life, opinions, ignorance (Ang. Nik., i. 163-165). Cf. p. 14, n. 3.
Gen. 8.22: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." - K.J.V.
— p.p.
[3] The phrase anuvassika-pabbajito is, according to the Commentary, capable of more than one interpretation. If it means 'renounced the world a year ago' (vide Neumann), it is curious that Dhammapāla does not paraphrase by the term saṇvacchara. Is it not perhaps permissible, in view of the strong emphasis on the order (lit., 'Normity') of the Norm, to see a parallel between two strands of the fivefold order (niyama) of the universe: - the seasons and the Norm (utu-niyama, dhamma-niyama)? (Cf. Dialogues of the Buddha, ii 8, n. 3, and my Buddhism, 118 f.) The fruition-namely, of his moral and spiritual evolution - was as certain and inevitable as that 'seedtime and harvest, ... summer and winter shall not cease' (Gen. viii. 22). The phrase, however, recurs frequently with no such point.
