PSALMS OF THE BRETHREN
Canto II.
Psalms of Two Verses
CLXVII
Anūpama
Translated from the Pali by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids.
Public Domain
Reborn in this Buddha-age in a wealthy family at Kosala, his beauty obtained him the name of Anūpama - 'Peerless.' Come of age, he felt the working of the efficient cause, forsook the world, and dwelt in the forest, [155] practising for insight. But his mind hovered about external objects, revolving about his theme for meditation, so that he thus rebuked himself:
[213] O heart! gone gadding after things that please,
0 thou that shapest many a shaft of doom,
There and there only dost thou ever tend
Where block and stake rise at the bitter end.
[214] I call thee, heart, the breaker of my luck!
I call thee, heart, despoiler of my lot!
Lo! He whom many an age thou couldst not find,
The Master now is come - suffer it not
That I to wreck and ruin be consigned.[1]
Thus admonishing his own consciousness, the Thera developed insight, and won arahantship.
[1] This eloquent poem is a miniature version of. Tālaputa's long-drawn-out apostrophe to his chitta (CCLXII.). The Commentary identifies kaliɱ with Kālakaṇṇī, goddess of ill luck. The last words of the text should, of course, be understood as mā anatthe, etc.
