PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto VI.
Psalms of Six Verses
CCXII
Mahā-nāga
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Sāketa as the son of a brahmin named Madhu-Vāseṭṭha, he was given the name of Mahā-nāga.[1] He saw the wonder wrought by Thera Gavampati,[2] while the Exalted One was staying in the Añjana Wood, and receiving faith, he entered the Order under the Thera, winning arahantship through his counsels.
Now while he abode in the bliss of emancipation, the Thera Mahā-nāga saw how the six bhikkhus[3] habitually failed to show respect to their co-religionists, and he admonished them in verses which became his confession of aññā:
[387] Who towards his fellows in the Rule
Showeth no reverence nor respect,
From the true Norm he wilts away,
Like fish where water runneth low.
[388] Who towards his fellows in the Rule
Showeth no reverence nor respect,
In the true Norm he doth not thrive,
Like rotten seed in furrow sown.
[389] Who towards, etc.
Far from Nibbāna standeth he
Within the Norm-Lord's cult and school.
[390] Who towards his fellows in the Rule
Showeth due reverence and respect,
From the true Norm falls not away,
Like fish where many waters be.
[391] [211] Who towards his fellows in the Rule
Showeth due reverence and respect,
In the true Norm he thriveth well
As seed benign in furrow sown.
[392] Who towards his fellows in the Rule
Showeth due reverence and respect,
He to Nibbāna's very near,
Within the Norm-Lord's cult and school.[4]
[1] Nothing else is known of this Brother. His namesake 'of the Black Creeper Pavilion' is a much later personage (Jāt., iv. 490; vi. 30 [text]; JRAS, 1901, p. 893). The name = great wondrous-being or spirit, applied equally to a serpent, an elephant, a thera, and to a class of fairies.
[3] A notorious group of intriguers, whose doings severely tested the organization of the Saṇgha. See Ps. V.; Vinaya Texts, i. 218 n.
[4] Who towards ... showeth (not) is, literally rendered: For whom with respect to his co-religionists reverence does (not) exist, or is not found, or seen (cf. Kathāvatthu Commentary on n'upalabbhati, p. 8; Dialogues, ii. 166, 'is [not] found'). The occasion of these verses as described by Dhammapāla above, let alone the religious consequences invoked, justify my differing hare from Dr. Neumann's rendering. For the similes, cf. CCVII. Cult and school = sāsana.
