361. {364.} Kesarapupphiya

I was a sorcerer back then,
on a Himalayan mountain.
I saw the Spotless One, Buddha,
Great Famed One, walking back and forth.

At that time I having placed
three kesara flowers on my head,
I approached him, the Sambuddha,
and did pūjā to Vessabhu.

In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that good karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Kesarapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.