PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
XLVI
Samiddhi
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
[Pali]
He was reborn in this Buddha-age at Rājagaha,, in a clansman's family.[1] From the time he was born the wealth of his family increased, and he himself, handsome and virtuous, became known as Samiddhi (Prospero). He saw the power of the Buddha when the latter was met by Bimbisāra,[2] won faith in him, and left the world, abiding devoted to meditation. When the Exalted One was staying at the Tapoda Park,[3] Samiddhi one day was musing in exquisite joy on his good fortune as a bhikkhu. Then Māra the Evil One, unable to bear it, made a fearful noise near him, as if the very earth were splitting. The Thera told this to the Exalted One. The latter bade him persist where he was and think no more about it. He obeyed, and soon after won arahantship. Māra, unaware of it, once more created a fearful noise. But the Thera felt no fear: 'Undaunted by all such Māras, not once have I turned a hair!' And confessing aññā, he uttered this verse:
[46] In trust and hope forth from my home I came
Into the homeless life. And there in me
Have mindfulness and insight grown, and tense
And well composed my heart and mind. Make thou
Whatever shams thou list, thou'lt harm me not.
And Mara, thus rebuked, said, 'The recluse knows me,' and vanished from that place.
[1] Kulayehe. Cf. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 17-22.
[2] Vinaya Texts, i. 130.
[3] This episode is related in nearly the same words, and with the same gāthā, in the Māra-Saɱyutta (Saṅy., i. 119 f., p. 91), but the geography is a little halting. In the Nikāya the locality is Silāvatī of the Sākiyans; the Tapoda Park was on the river of that name at Rājagaha. Samiddhi, in the double rôle of Adonis and Galahad, is the subject of the 'Samiddhi-jātaka' (Jātaka ii., No. 167).
