PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN

Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses

CXLIII
Sobhita

Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.

Public Domain

[Pali]

 

Reborn in this Buddha-age at Savatthī, in a brahmin's family, he was named Sobhita. And after he had heard the Master teach, had left the world and acquired sixfold abhiññā, he practised recollecting his former lives with such success that the Master ranked him foremost among those who could so remember.^[1] And he, reflecting on his pre-eminence in attainment, was filled with joy, and breathed forth this psalm:

[165] A bhikkhu mindful, gifted with insight,
With strenuous effort strongly set to work,
Have I [the infinite past] recalled to mind:
Five hundred ages in a single night.

[166] O let the Onsets Four of mindfulness^[2] My study be, the Seven,^[3] the (noble) Eight!^[4] For I [the infinite past] have called to mind:
Five hundred ages in a single night.

 

---

^[1] Ang., i. 25. Sister Bhadda Kapilani was also thus distinguished (Sisters, p. 47). Sobhita Thera (possibly this man) was the third in the apostolic succession of thirteen Abhidhammikas, who handed down this teaching till Mahinda conveyed it to Ceylon. Bhaddaji Thera was second. (Atthasālinī, p. 32).

^[2] See Dialogues, ii. 327 ff.; Compendium, p. 179. Bhāvayaṃ = bhāvanā hotu (Commentary).

^[3] Factors of Enlightenment, Wings of Wisdom (Compendium, p. 180).

^[4] The Eightfold Path (ibid.).