PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
C
Devasabha (2)[1]
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Kapilavatthu in the family of a Sākiyan rāja, he was named Devasabha. When grown up he believed when he saw the Master appeasing the quarrel between Sākiyans and Koliyans,[2] and was established in the Refuges. Again, he went when the Master was staying at the Banyan Park, this time entering the Order. He won arahantship, and dwelling on the bliss of his emancipation, he burst forth in rapture with this psalm:
[100] Whoso supreme endeavour doth put forth,
Whose range is in the fourfold heedfulness,[3]
He with fair flowers of Liberty enwreathed,
Sane and immune, will reach the perfect peace.[4]
Thus the Thera confessed aññā.
[2] See Kuṇāla-Jātaka, Introduction, Jātaka, v. 412 ff. and above, LXXIX.
[3] See Compendium, p. 179; Dialogues, ii. 327 ff.
[4] Lit., will parinibbān-ate void of āsava's. The Commentary says, perfected by both sa-upādiseaa and anupaditesa Nibbāna (cf. Compendium, p. 153, n. 5). 'Sane and immune' is used throughout these verses to express the awkward term an-āsavo.
