PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto I.
Psalms of Single Verses
Part XI
CI
Belaṭṭhakāni
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age at Sāvatthī in a brahmin's family, he was named Belaṭṭhakāni. When after hearing the Master teach he had entered the Order, and was practising calm and insight in a forest of Kosala, he grew very slothful and was also rough of speech. Hence he did not evoke the right state of mind for his exercises. Now the Exalted One considered his maturing insight, and stirred his heart by this admonitory verse:
[101] Though layman's life be left, yet if the task
Remain undone, the mouth harsh furrows plough,
The paunch be full, the mind all slack with sloth: -
Like a great hog with provender replete,
He cometh back, again, again to birth.[1]
Then he, seeing the Master as if seated before him, was thrilled with agitation at his discourse, and establishing insight, was not long in winning arahantship. And through the divers expressions of the psalm, he declared his aññā.
