{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/pos/pos07.htm","path":"bud/pos/pos07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/pos/pos07.htm","text":"BORN in the time of the Buddha Vipassi, in his native town of Bandhumat\u012b, as the daughter of a wealthy burgess, she became a pious lay-adherent, and at the Master's death she made an offering to the shrine of his ashes of a golden umbrella 117 surrounded with jewels. Reborn for this in various heavens, she was, in this Buddha-dispensation, reborn at Kapilavatthu as the daughter of the chief wife of Khemaka, the S\u0101kiyan, and named Nand\u0101. But because of her excessive beauty, charm, and loveliness, she was known as Nand\u0101 the Fair.\nNow, on the day when she was to choose among her suitors,118 Carabh\u016bta, her young S\u0101kiyan kinsman, died. Then her parents made her leave the world against her will. But she, even after she had entered the Order, was infatuated with her own beauty, and, fearing the Master's rebuke, avoided his presence. Now the Exalted One knew that she was ripe for knowledge, and directed the Great Paj\u0101jat\u012b to let all the Bhikkhun\u012bs come to him for instruction. Nand\u0101 sent another in her place. And the Exalted One said, 'Let no one come by proxy.' So she was compelled to come. And the Exalted One, by his mystic power, conjured up a beautiful woman, and showed her becoming aged and fading, causing anguish to arise in Nand\u0101. And he addressed her in these words:\n| Behold, Nand\u0101, the foul compound, diseased, Impure! Compel thy heart to contemplate What is not fair to view. So steel thyself And concentrate the well-compos\u00e8d mind. (19) That ponder where no Threefold Sign 119 is seen. Cast out the baneful bias of conceit. Hath the mind mastered vain imaginings, 120 Then mayst thou go thy ways, calm and serene. (20) | \nAnd when he had finished speaking, she attained Arahantship. Repeating to herself the verses, she made them the announcement of her A\u00d1\u00d1\u0100.\n 117 Or tee, surmounting the cupola. Vipassi was the first of the seven Buddhas of the Pitakas.\n \n 118 I read v\u0101reyyadivase (cf. p. 276, verse 464), which makes sense anyway. It would appear that Carabh\u016bta (pronounced Ch\u0103r\u0103-) would have been the object of her choice.\n \n 119 Animitta\u014b, ideals not depending on what is impermanent, or on what makes for sorrow, or on the presence of a persisting soul-entity (Rhys Davids, Yog\u0101vacara's Manual, xxvii., xxviii.).\n \n 120 M\u0101na, conceit, pride, vanity, one of the seven forms of bias. Majjh. Nik., i. 109, 110; Vibh., 340. Translator's Buddh. Psy., 298, n. 3.\n \nThe story of her past and present is like that of Nand\u0101 the Fair; but it was at Ves\u0101l\u012b, in the princely family of the Licchavis, that she was reborn. 121 There is this further difference: she attained Arahantship after hearing the Master preach the Dhamma, and it was when reflecting on the change that had come over her that she, in joy, uttered these verses:\n| The Seven Factors of the awakened mind 122\u2013 Seven ways whereby we may Nibbana win\u2013 All, all have I developed and made ripe, Even according to the Buddha's word. (21) For I therein have seen as with mine eyes The Bless'd, the Exalted One.123 Last of all lives Is this that makes up Me. The round of births Is vanquish\u00e8d\u2013Ne'er shall I be again! (22) | \n 121 Cf. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 25, 40.\n \n 122 The Bojjhangas or Sambojjhangas; lit., parts or limbs of Bodhi. They were mindfulness, research in the Dhamma, energy, joy, serenity, concentration, equanimity (B. Psy., 84, n. 2. Cf. Ps. xxxi.).\n \n 123 'For inasmuch as the Exalted One is the very Body of the Norm, to discern the Ariyan Dhamma which is His is to see Him. The Buddhas and other Ariyans are said to be seen, not only by the sight of their visible shape, but also by insight into the Ariyan Dhamma, according as He said: \"Verily, Vakkhali, he that seeth the Norm, he seeth me\"' (Sa\u014byutta Nik\u0101ya, iii., p. 120). '\"The Ariyan disciple who hears, brethren, is one who sees the Ariyans\"' (Commentary).\n \n| O woman well set free! how free am I, 125 How throughly free from kitchen drudgery! Me stained and squalid 'mong my cooking-pots My brutal husband ranked as even less Than the sunshades he sits and weaves alway.126 (23) Purged now of all my former lust and hate, I dwell, musing at ease beneath the shade Of spreading boughs\u2013O, but 'tis well with me! (24) | \n 124 This is the Elder Sumangala, who in his verse (Therag\u0101th\u0101, 43) celebrates his release from three 'crooked things' (supra, Ps. xi.)\u2013rom sickle, plough, and spade.\n \n 125 Expressed in the text by the representative drudgery of the 'mortar' (musala).\n \n 126 In the Pali the first two lines depart from the \u015bloka metre, being apparently a curious variety of some metre I cannot identify. See Introduction. The last two lines revert to the \u015bloka, sukhato being an obvious gloss. Quite literally, the quaint and elliptical passage runs: 'The shameless one me \"sunshade\" only,' which the Commentary explains as 'My husband calls me not even an umbrella which he makes for his livelihood.' There seems nothing in verses or Commentary to justify Dr. Neumann's inference that her husband lived on her adulterous earnings. Toil has spoilt her looks, and he takes no further pleasure in them.\n \nBorn of a respectable family, in the time of Kassapa Buddha, she won understanding, and became a Bhikkhun\u012b, established in the precepts. But she reviled an Arahant Elder Sister by calling her a prostitute,127 and for this she went to purgatory. In this Buddha-dispensation she was reborn in the kingdom of K\u0101s\u012b as the child of a distinguished and prosperous citizen. But because of the persistent effect of her former evil speech, she became herself a prostitute. How she left the world and was ordained by special messenger is related in the Culla Vagga. 128 For she wished to go to S\u0101vatth\u012b to be ordained by the Exalted One. But the libertines of Benares barred the ways, so she sent and asked the Exalted One's advice, and he permitted her to be ordained by a messenger. Then she, working at insight, not long after obtained Arahantship, with thorough knowledge of the Dhamma in form and meaning. Thereupon she exclaimed:\n 127 Cf. Ps. lxvi.\n \n 128 Vinaya Texts (S.B.E. xx.), iii., p. 360. (Pronounced 'Chul'la.') Benares was the capital of K\u0101s\u012b. On the name A\u1e0d\u1e0dha K\u0101s\u012b (lit., half-K\u0101s\u012b), see op. cit., ii. 195, n. 2.\n \n 129 Tisso vijj\u0101. The Brahmanic phrase, tevijjo, often recurring below \u2013e.g., Ps. xxxvii.\u2013and signifying 'versed in the three Vedas,' was, according to Anguttara-Nik\u0101ya, i. 163-5, adopted by the Buddha and applied to the three attainments of pa\u00f1\u00f1\u0101, entitled reminiscence of former births, the Heavenly Eye, and the destruction of the Asavas.\n \nShe, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this rebirth and that, was born in the 94th \u00e6on 130 as a fairy. She worshipped with offering of flowers a Silent (Pacceka) Buddha. 131 And after many other births among men and gods, she was, in this Buddha-dispensation, born at R\u0101jagaha in the family of a leading burgess. When she had come to years of discretion she heard the Master teaching at the gate of R\u0101jagaha, and, becoming a believer, she was ordained by the Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Gotamid. And at length, in her old age, when she had climbed the Vulture's Peak, and had done the exercises of a recluse, her insight expanded, and she won to Arahantship. Reflecting thereon, she gave utterance as follows:\n 130 I.e., before this present age.\t\n \n 131 Cf. Ps. iii.\n \nHeaping up merit under former Buddhas, she was born during the time of Siddhattha, 132 the Exalted One, in a burgess's family, and worshipped at his shrine by offering there a jewelled girdle. After many births in heaven and on earth, through the merit thereof, she became, in this Buddha-dispensation, the child of an eminent brahmin at R\u0101jagaha. In other respects her case is like the preceding one, save that it was another hill corresponding to Vulture's Peak up which she climbed. 133\nShe, too, reflecting on what she had won, said in exultation:\n| Though I be suffering and weak, and all My youthful spring be gone, yet have I come, Leaning upon my staff, and clomb aloft The mountain peak. (29) My cloak thrown off, My little bowl o'erturned: so sit I here Upon the rock. And o'er my spirit sweeps The breath 134 of Liberty! I win, I win The Triple Lore! The Buddha's will is done!(30) | \n 132 One of the (later elaborated) twenty-four Buddhas.\n \n 133 R\u0101jgir (the ancient burg) is surrounded by some seven hills. See Cunningham's Arch\u00e6ological Survey, iii., Pl. xli.\n \n 134 Lit., 'Now is my heart (or mind) set free!' For lovers of the mountain, the 'great air' and the sense of spiritual freedom will be tightly bound up. The age of the two climbers throws into relief the arduousness of their spiritual ascent.\n \n THE GIJJHAK\u016a\u1e6cI (VULTURE PEAK) RANGE ABOVE OLD R\u0100JAGAHA.\n To face p. 28.\n \nBorn in the time of Vipassi Buddha of a noble family, and become a lady of his father's court, she won meritorious karma by bestowing food and precious raiment on an Arahant Elder Sister. 136 Born finally, in this Buddha-dispensation, in the princely family of the S\u0101kiyas, at Kapilavatthu, she left the world together with Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Gotamid, and, going through the requisite training for insight, not long after won Arahantship.\nReflecting thereon, joy and gladness stirred her to say:\n 135 Mett\u0101 in the Commentary. Mitt\u0101=amica. Cf. Ps. viii. Both Mitt\u0101 and Mettik\u0101 (Ps. xxiv.) may be patronymics, derived ultimately from Mitra (Mithra), the Vedic propitious, friendly Day or Sun god.\n \n 136 In the Apad\u0101na it is 'a religieux' of no specified Order.\n \n 137 See Rhys Davids, Buddhism, 139-141.\n \n| 'Upward from sole of foot, O mother dear, Downward from crown of hair this body see. Is't not impure, the evil-smelling thing?' (33) This have I pondered. meditating still, Till every throb of lust is rooted out. Expunged is all the fever of desire. Cool am I now and calm\u2013Nibbana's peace. (34) | \n 138 One of the twenty-four. \n \n \n 139 I.e., she of the Lotus\n \n \n 140 Abhaya's verses (Th., 26, 98) do not refer to his mother. \n \nShe, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up merit of age-enduring efficacy in this and that state of becoming, was, in the time of Sikhi Buddha,142 reborn in a great noble's family, and became the chief queen of his father Aru\u1e47a. And one day she worshipped the Exalted One with offering of red lotuses given her by the King, when Sikhi Buddha, at alms-time, entered the palace. Reborn for this among gods and men, she was, in this Buddha-dispensation, born once more at Ujjen\u012b in a respectable family, and became the playmate of Abhaya's mother. And when the latter had left the world, Abhay\u0101, for love of her, also took orders. Dwelling with her at R\u0101jagaha, she went one day to Cool-Grove to contemplate on a basis of some foul thing.143 The Master, seated in his Fragrant Chamber, caused her to see before her the kind of object she had been directed to choose. Seeing the vision, dread seized her. Then the Master, sending forth glory, appeared as if seated before her, and said:\nAnd when he had finished speaking she attained Arahantship. Exulting herein, she turned the verses round into an address to herself.\n 141 Fearless.\n \n 142 Second of the Seven Buddhas.\n \n 143 B. Psy., p. 69. The 'foul things' were corpses or human bones, such as might be seen in any charnel field, where the dead were exposed and not cremated. I have before me a photograph of a Ceylonese bhikkhu seated in the cleft of a rock contemplating two skulls and other bones lying before him\u2013a modern snapshot of a scene that might be 2,500 years old instead of 250 days.\n \n 144 Lit. (as in many other verses), 'done is the will, or rather the system or teaching (s\u0101sana\u014b) of the Buddha.' Verses 36, 38, and 41 (except the last two lines) are in the text identical, though varied in translation.\n \nShe, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that state of becoming, being reborn in fortunate conditions, took birth, in this Buddha-dispensation, at Kosamb\u012b, in the family of an eminent burgess. When her dear friend, the lay-disciple S\u0101m\u0101vat\u012b, died, she, in her distress, left the world. But being unable to subdue her grief for her friend, she was unable to grasp the Ariyan Way. Now, while she was seated in the sitting-room, listening to Elder \u0100nanda preaching, she was established in insight, and, on the seventh day after, attained Arahantship, with thorough grasp of the Dhamma in form and meaning.\nAnd reflecting on what she had won, she expressed it in this psalm:\n 145 Cf. 2 Cor. x. 5.","title":"Psalms of the Sisters: Canto II. Psalms of Two Verses","type":"page"}