PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN

Canto VII.
Psalms of Seven Verses

CCXXVI
Bhadda

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

Public Domain

[Pali]

 

He was reborn in this Buddha-age at Sāvatthī in a Councillor's family, as the child of hitherto childless parents, to [232] whom, after prayers to gods and the like, none had been born. They had gone to the Master saying, 'If, your reverence, we shall get a child we will offer him to you as your servant.' They named him Bhadda (Faustus), and when he was seven years old, they dressed him in his best, and led him to the Master, saying, 'This, your reverence, is the child we got after asking you; we deliver him to you.' The Master bade Ānanda ordain him, and withdrew to the Fragrant Chamber. And Ānanda instructed him, and so ripe was in him the efficient cause that, while studying, even as the sun rose, he conjured up contemplation, and acquired sixfold abhiññā.

Now the Exalted One knew what had happened, and called, 'Come, Bhadda!' So he went, saluting the Master with clasped hands. This was his ordination. And this Buddha-ordination,^[1] the Thera, beginning with his birth, magnified when thus confessing aññā:

[473] An only child was I, to mother dear
And to my father dear. By many a rite
And much observance was I gotten, ay,
And many prayers. To do me kindness they,

[474] My good desiring, and my happiness,
Conducted me - father and mother too -
Into the presence of the Buddha blest.

[475] 'Hardly hath he been gotten, this our child,
And he is delicate and softly reared.
Him do we give, O Lord, to thee, that he
May wait as servant on the Conqueror.'

[476] The Master took me unto Him and thus
To Ānanda did say: 'Quickly admit
This child, for he a thoroughbred shall be.'

[477] And then, thus sanctioning my coming forth,
The Conqueror withdrew to spend the night.
And as the sun rose up out of the dawn
Lo! then my heart was set at liberty.

[478] [233] Then to complete his work the Master, roused
From quietude: 'Come, Bhadda!' called to me;
Thereby to me was ordination given.

[479] Seven were my years when I was thus ordained.
The Threefold Wisdom have I made my own.
Hail to the seemly order of the Norm!

 

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^[1] Cf. CXVII.; Sisters, verse 109, n. 4.