PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN

Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses

CXXVII.
Rādha

Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.

Public Domain

[Pali]

 

Reborn in the time of our Exalted One at Rājagaha, as a brahmin, he was in his old age unable to perform his various duties. Being passed over,^[1] he went to the Master and revealed his needs. The Master, contemplating his graduation in essential conditions, ordered Sāriputta to admit him. Soon after that he won arahantship. And thereafter, keeping near the Master, he became pre-eminent among those who, deriving from the Master's teaching,^[2] could speak impromptu.

[116] Now one day seeing how want of self-training occasioned governance by the passions, he exhorted thus:

[133] E'en as into an ill-roofed house the rain
Doth pierce and penetrate continually,
So into mind by exercise untrained
Doth passion ever pierce and penetrate.

[134] And as into a well-roofed house no rain
Doth pierce and penetrate continually.
So into mind by calm and insight trained
Doth passion never pierce and penetrate.^[3]

 

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^[1] Patikhitto.

^[2] The passage assigning him pre-eminence is then quoted from Ang., i. 25. Cf. with Vangīsa's similar but not identical pre-eminence, Ps. CCLXIV. This Thera is possibly identical with the 'venerable Rādha' addressed in many short discourses of the Saɱyutta (iii. 79, 188 ff.; iv. 48 f.).

^[3] 'Exercise,' 'calm and insight' - in the text bhāvanā - the collective name for the systematized effort in self training of the disciple who seeks perfection (Bud. Psy., p. 261, n. 2). Specified as 'calm and insight' in the Commentary. Cf. Compendium, p. 202 ff.