337. {340.} Ukkhittapadumiya

In the city, Haṁsavatī,
I was a florist at that time.
Plunging into a lotus lake,
I gathered some lotus blossoms.

The Victor Padumuttara
was the Master of Everything.
Along with one hundred thousand
such-like ones whose minds were peaceful,
pure ones with defilements destroyed,
six special knowledge-possessors,
the Ultimate Person approached
desirous of my improvement.

Having seen him, the God of Gods,
the Self-Become One, World-Leader,
breaking off the stems I tossed those
lotuses into the air then.

“If you are a Buddha, Hero,
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
let these lotuses by themselves
go and be carried on your head.”

The World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
the Great Hero then wishing so,
through the power of the Buddha,
those blooms were carried on his head.

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.

There my well-constructed mansion
was known as “One Hundred Petals.”
It rose up sixty leagues in height;
and it was thirty leagues in width.

A thousand times the lord of gods,
I exercised divine rule then.
And seventy-five times I was
a king who turned the wheel of law.

There was also much local rule,
innumerable by counting.
I experienced own-karma,
formerly well done by myself.

Due to just that single lotus,
experiencing good fortune,
I realized the Teaching of
the Blessed Buddha, Gotama.

My defilements are now burnt up;
all new existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I offered him that flower,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of a single lotus.

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!

Thus indeed Venerable Ukkhittapadumiya Thera spoke these verses.

The Summary:

Gandhodaka and Pūjani,
Punnāga, Ekadussika,
Phusita and Pabhaṇkara,
Kuṭida, Uttarīyaka,
Savani, Ekapadumi:
the clump of verses there numbers
one hundred verses and also
forty-four additional ones.

The Gandhathūpiya Chapter, the Thirty-Fourth