Vatthugāthā

From the delightful Kosalan city
he went the Southern Road,
a brahmin, master of the hymns,
aspiring to the state of having nothing.
In Assaka’s realm,
in the vicinity of Aḷaka,
he lived on the bank of the Godhavārī,
off of gleanings and fruit.
Living just on that,
he prepared a great sacrifice
with the income from
a prosperous village.
Having performed his great sacrifice
he entered his hermitage again.

When he had just returned,
another brahmin came —
footsore and thirsty,
with muddy teeth and dusty head,
he approached him
and asked for five hundred.
Bāvari, upon seeing him,
invited him to a seat.
He asked whether he was well and happy,
and said these words:
“What there was for me to give,
all that I have given away.
Do excuse me, brahmin.
I do not have five hundred.”

“If, even when begged,
the sir will not give it to me,
on the seventh day
may his head burst in seven!”
Having performed a ritual,
the fraud proclaimed this terrible thing.

Hearing that utterance,
Bāvari was distraught.
Not eating, he withered away,
struck with the dart of grief.
Thus, with such a state of mind,
in contemplation his intellect found no delight.

Seeing him suffering distraught,
a goddess desiring his welfare
approached Bāvari
and said these words:
“He does not understand the head,
that fraud, he just wants wealth;
as regards the head or its destruction
there is no knowledge for him.”

“Do you know then, my lady?
Please tell me, I ask you
of the head and its destruction.
I shall heed your word.”

“I too do not know this,
no knowledge is to be found here.
As regards the head and its destruction,
this is for the victors to see.”

“Then just who
in this great land
knows the head and its destruction?
Do tell me that, goddess.”

“From the city of Kapilavatthu
the world-guide has come forth,
descendant of King Okkāka,
Sakyan son, light-maker.
He, brahmin, is fully awakened,
gone beyond all things,
attained to all higher knowledge and power,
in all phenomena vision-possessed,
attained to the exhaustion of all action,
freed in the erosion of dependence.
That Auspicious One is awakened in the world.
The eye-possessed one proclaims the order.
Go to him and ask,
and he will explain it to you.”

Having heard the phrase ‘awakened’
Bāvari was elated;
his grief grew thin,
he gained vast joy.
Bāvari, pleased and elated,
asked the goddess, inspired:
“In what village or town,
in what country is the world-protector?
Where can we go to see
the Awakened One, best of bipeds?”

“At Sāvathi, home of the Kosalas, is the victor,
abundant of understanding, most vastly intelligent.
That Sakyan son, rid of the yoke, without inundations,
the bull among men — he knows the destruction of the head.”

Then he addressed his disciples,
brahmins, masters of the hymns:
“Come, pupils, I will speak.
Listen to what I say.
One whose appearance in the world is hard to get again
has arisen in this world today,
renowned as an ‘Awakened One.’
Make haste to Sāvatthi and see the best of bipeds.”

“But how, when we see him,
would we know he is awakened, brahmin?
Tell us, who know not,
how we could know that.”

“Come down to us in the hymns
are the marks of a great man.
Thirty-two are spoken of,
complete and in order.
He who has these on his limbs,
these marks of a great man,
for him there are only two ways it can go,
there is no third.
Should he live at home,
he would conquer this earth
without rod or sword;
he would govern by righteous principle.
But if he goes forth
from home into homelessness,
fully awakened, he rolls back the veil;
worthy will he be, unsurpassed.
Of my birth, clan and mark,
of the hymns, and my disciples furthermore,
of the head and its destruction
ask, but only with the mind.
If he is awakened,
an unobstructed seer,
then questions asked by mind
he will answer with his voice.”

Having heard the word of Bāvari,
sixteen brahmin disciples;
Ajita, Tissametteya,
Puṇṇaka and Mettagū,
Dhotaka and Upasīva,
Nanda and Hemaka,
Todeyya and Kappa both,
and Jatukaṇṇī the wise,
Bhadrāvudha and Udaya,
and Posala the brahmin,
and Mogharājā the incisive,
and Piṅgiya the great seer,
each one with an individual following,
heard of by the whole world,
contemplatives, enjoying contemplation, steadfast,
perfumed with the perfume of deeds of the past;
having paid respects to Bāvari
and keeping him to their right,
each one wearing matted hair and antelope hides,
set out facing north.

To Aḷaka’s Patiṭṭhāna,
then to the stronghold of Māhissati;
to Ujjeni and Gonaddha,
Vedisa and Vanasa,
Kosambī and Saketā,
and Sāvatthi, the greatest city;
Setavyā and Kapilavatthu
and the abode of Kusinārā,
Pāva and Bhoganagara,
Vesāli and the Magadhan city,
and Pāsāṇaka shrine,
delightful to the mind.
Like a thirsty man to cool water,
like a merchant to great profit,
like a heat-scorched man to shade,
hurriedly they climbed the mountain.

At that time the Auspicious One,
at the fore of the community of bhikkhus,
was teaching them the order
like a lion roars in the woods.
Ajita saw the Awakened One
like the shining sun with its hundred rays,
like the moon on the fifteenth,
when it has come to fulfillment.
Then having seen his limbs,
replete in the marks,
excited, he stood to one side
and asked the questions by mind.

“First, speak of the brahmin’s birth.
Speak of his clan and mark.
Speak of his perfection in hymns.
How many does that brahmin teach to recite?”

“He is one hundred and twenty years old,
and by clan he is a Bāvari.
He has three marks on his body
and is a master of the three Vedas —
the marks, the histories,
lexicography and ritual.
He teaches five hundred to recite,
a master in his own system.”

“Shine forth an analysis
of Bāvari’s marks.
O supreme man, sunderer of doubt,
let there be no doubt for us.”

“He can cover his face with his tongue.
There is a tuft of hair between his eyebrows.
His private parts are in a sheath.
Know it to be so, pupil.”

Not hearing anything asked,
yet hearing questions answered,
the whole crowd wondered,
awed, with joined palms:
“Who, god or Brahmā,
or else Indra, Sujā’s lord,
asked the questions by mind?
To whom does he reply?”

“Of the head and its destruction
Bāvari asks.
Do describe that, Auspicious One.
Dispel our doubt, O seer.”

“Know ignorance as the head
and knowledge as its destroyer,
by means of faith, recollection, composure,
will and vigour.”

Then, greatly stirred,
the pupil steadied himself.
Arranging his antelope hide over one shoulder,
he fell down at his feet:
“Bāvari the brahmin —
along with his disciples, good man —
elated and content,
worships the sir at his feet, O seeing one.”

“May Bāvari the brahmin be at ease,
along with his disciples.
You too, be at ease.
Live long, pupil.
As to all your doubts —
Bāvari’s, yours, everyone's —
you have the opportunity. Ask
whatever your mind's wish.”

Given the opportunity by the Awakened One,
he sat down with palms joined in front.
There, Ajita asked
the first question to the One Thus-Gone.