CHAPTER OF POEMS WITH ELEVEN VERSES

Verses 213-217 and 222-223: Kisāgotamī: ‘Lean Gotamī’

VERSE 213

Virtuous friendship in relation to the world [of beings] is praised by the Sage. Even a fool associating with virtuous friends becomes a wise man.

Kalyāṇamittatā muninā lokaṃ ādissa vaṇṇitā
Kalyāṇamitte bhajamāno api bālo paṇḍito assa

COMMENT

Verses 218-221 are Paṭācārā’s not Kisāgotamī’s. We divide the text accordingly.

COMMENT

Kisāgotamī was foremost amongst bhikkhunīs who are wearers of coarse robes (A.1.25). She came from a poor family in Sāvatthi, and was married into a rich family, by whom she was disdainfully treated. But when she bore a son she was shown respect. When the toddler died Kisāgotamī was distraught. When she asked for medicine for the child, the Buddha told her to bring him a mustard seed from a house where no one had yet died. During the course of this impossible search her natural mind was restored, and she realised that death was the natural law for the whole town (sakalanagare ayameva niyamo bhavissati). She laid the child in the charnel field and returned to the Buddha who asked: ‘Gotamī, have you got the mustard seed?’ She replied: ‘Completed is the work, bhante, of the mustard seed’ (Niṭṭhitaṃ bhante siddhatthakena kammaṃ). When she asked for further guidance (patiṭṭhā pana me hothā ti) the Buddha told her:

• As a great flood carries off a village asleep, so death carries off [spiritually asleep] the man who is besotted with children and cattle, whose mind is attached [to gold coins, bullion, and all kinds of possessions].
Taṃ puttapasusammattaṃ vyāsattamanasaṃ naraṃ;
Suttaṃ gāmaṃ mahogho va maccu ādāya gacchatī ti
(Dh.v.287).

On hearing this, she gained stream-entry and asked for ordination. Later, while she was meditating, the Buddha appeared before her via a psychically created image of himself and said:

• Better than the life of one who lives a hundred years not realising the Deathless State, is the life of a single day of one who realises the Deathless State.
Yo ca vassasataṃ jīve apassaṃ amataṃ padaṃ
Ekāhaṃ jīvitaṃ seyyo passato amataṃ padaṃ
(Dh.v.114).

On hearing this she became enlightened.

COMMENT

Kalyāṇamittatā: ‘virtuous friendship.’ See IGPT sv Kalyāṇa.

COMMENT

Lokaṃ: ‘the world [of beings].’ See IGPT sv Loka. Commentary: sattalokaṃ uddissa.

 

VERSE 214

Spiritually outstanding people should be followed. In this way the wisdom of followers increases. In following spiritually outstanding people one is released from all suffering.

Bhajitabbā sappurisā paññā tathā vaḍḍhati bhajantānaṃ
Bhajamāno sappurise sabbehipi dukkhehi pamucceyya

COMMENT

Sappurisā: ‘spiritually outstanding people.’ See IGPT sv Sappurisa.

 

VERSE 215

One should penetrate suffering, the origin of suffering, the ending [of suffering], the eightfold path, in all, the four noble truths.

Dukkhañca vijāneyya dukkhassa ca samudayaṃ nirodhaṃ
Aṭṭhaṅgikañca maggaṃ cattāripi ariyasaccāni

COMMENT

Vijāneyya: ‘one should penetrate.’ Commentary: vijāneyya paṭivijjheyyā ti.

 

VERSE 216-217

Womanhood has been deemed suffering by the [unexcelled] trainer of men to be tamed. Being a co-wife is also truly suffering. Some having given birth just once slit their throats. Some with delicate constitutions take abortifacients. Some having penetrated the uterus are murderers. Both meet with misfortune.

Dukkho itthibhāvo akkhāto purisadammasārathinā
Sapattikampi hi dukkhaṃ appekaccā sakiṃ vijātāyo
Galake api kantanti sukhumāliniyo visāni khādanti
Janamārakamajjhagatā ubho pi vyasanāni anubhonti

COMMENT

Purisadammasārathinā: ‘the [unexcelled] trainer of men to be tamed.’ Parenthesis from anuttaro purisadammasārathī (S.5.390).

COMMENT

Appekaccā... sukhumāliniyo visāni khādanti: ‘Some with delicate constitutions take abortifacients.’ Commentary: Sukhumāliniyo visāni khādant īti sukhumālasarīrā attano sukhumālabhāvena khedaṃ avisahantiyo visānipi khādanti.

COMMENT

Appekaccā... janamārakamajjhagatā: ‘Some having penetrated the uterus are murderers.’ Commentary: Janamārakamajjhagatā ti janamārako vuccati mūḷhagabbho. Mātugāmajanassa mārako majjhagatā janamārakā kucchigatā mūḷhagabbhāti attho.

 

VERSE 222

I have developed the noble eightfold path that leads to the Deathless. I have realised the Untroubled. I have looked in the righteous mirror [of reflectiveness for the sake of attaining knowledge and vision of things according to reality].

Bhāvito me maggo ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko amatagāmī
Nibbānaṃ sacchikataṃ dhammādāsaṃ apekkhihaṃ

COMMENT

Dhammādāsaṃ: ‘the righteous mirror [of reflectiveness for the sake of attaining knowledge and vision of things according to reality].’ Parenthesis in accordance with the following quotes:

1) Having taken up the righteous mirror [of reflectiveness] for the sake of attaining knowledge and vision [of things according to reality].
Dhammādāsaṃ gahetvāna ñāṇadassanapattiyā (Th.v.395).

2) Commentary to Th.v.395: Yathā hi sattā adāsena attano mukhe kāye vā guṇadose passanti, evaṃ yogāvacaro yena attabhāve saṅkilesavodānadhamme yāthāvato passati taṃ vipassanāñāṇaṃ idha dhammādāsan ti vuttaṃ.

3) Dassana: ‘vision [of things according to reality].’ See IGPT sv Dassana.

COMMENT

Nibbānaṃ: ‘the Untroubled.’ See IGPT sv Nibbāna.

 

VERSE 223

I have my arrow [of craving] cut out. The burden [of the five grasped aggregates] is laid down. I have done what needed to be done. The bhikkhunī Kisāgotamī whose mind is liberated [from perceptually obscuring states] said this.

Ahamamhi kantasallā ohitabhārā kataṃ hi karaṇīyaṃ
Kisāgotamī therī vimuttacittā imaṃ bhaṇī ti

COMMENT

Sallā: ‘arrow [of craving].’

• Craving has been called the arrow by the Ascetic.
Taṇhā kho sallaṃ samaṇena vuttaṃ (M.2.259).

COMMENT

Ohitabhārā: ‘The burden [of the five grasped aggregates] is laid down.’

• And what is the burden? The five grasped aggregates, one should reply
Katamo ca bhikkhave bhāro pañcupādānakkhandhātissa vacanīyaṃ (S.3.26).

COMMENT

Vimuttacittā: ‘mind is liberated [from perceptually obscuring states].’ See IGPT sv Vimutta.

 

Verses 218-221: Paṭācārā: ‘One who goes with her clothes on’

VERSE 218

Nearing childbirth, walking [on a forest path], having not arrived at my own [family’s] house, I saw my husband [lying] dead [of a snake bite], [watched both my children being killed, and heard of the death of my parents and brother in Sāvatthī].

Upavijaññā gacchantī addasāhaṃ patiṃ mataṃ
Panthamhi vijāyitvāna appattāva sakaṃ gharaṃ

COMMENT

Paṭācārā was foremost of bhikkhunīs who are experts in the discipline. Her marriage ended in tragedy, with the death in the course of a single day of her husband, parents, brother, and two sons. This drove her to madness. Because she wandered naked at this time she was called Paṭācārā (‘One who goes with her clothes on’). Either this is a euphemism, or during that period she was called Apaṭācārā. The Buddha gave two teachings that touched her heart. One is given in verse 220. The other is this:

• One’s children are not a shelter [against death], nor is one’s father, nor are one’s [other] relatives. For one who is seized by death, [even] while amidst his relatives there is no shelter [against death].
Na santi puttā tāṇāya na pitā na pi bandhavā
Antakenādhipannassa natthi ñātisu tāṇatā
(Dh.v.288).

Established now in stream-entry, Paṭācārā became a bhikkhunī. The commentary says she was enlightened while still in her training period (sekkhakāle), implying her two sikkhamānā years. This fits with the account she gives of her enlightenment in verse 221.

 

VERSE 219

Two dead children and a husband [lying] dead on the path for a wretched woman, with her mother, father, and brother burning [together in Sāvatthī] on the same funeral pyre.

Dve puttā kālakatā patī ca panthe mato kapaṇikāya
Mātā pitā ca bhātā ḍayhanti ca ekacitakāyaṃ

 

VERSE 220

[The Buddha:]

‘O wretched woman with your family destroyed, you have met with immeasureable suffering [in this long time, roaming and wandering the round of birth and death], and you have shed tears for many thousands of lives, [more than the water in the four great oceans]. [For such a long time you have met with suffering, anguish, and misfortune. The cemeteries are crammed with your bodies. It is time enough to be disillusioned with all originated phenomena, to be unattached to them, to be liberated from them.]

Khīṇakulīne kapaṇe anubhūtaṃ te dukkhaṃ aparimāṇaṃ
Assū ca te pavattaṃ bahūni ca jātisahassāni

COMMENT

Dukkhaṃ aparimāṇaṃ: ‘immeasureable suffering [in this long time, roaming and wandering the round of birth and death].’ Our parentheses are based on the following quotes:

1) The tears that you have shed and dripped in this long time as you roamed and wandered the round of birth and death, weeping and wailing because of being united with the displeasing and separated from the pleasing is greater than the water in the four great oceans.
Etadeva bhikkhave bahutaraṃ yaṃ vo iminā dīghena addhunā sandhāvataṃ saṃsarataṃ amanāpasampayogā manāpavippayogā kandantānaṃ rudantānaṃ assu pasannaṃ paggharitaṃ na tveva catusu mahāsamuddesu udakaṃ (S.2.179).

2) For such a long time, bhikkhus, you have met with suffering, anguish, and misfortune. The cemeteries are crammed [with your bodies]. It is time enough, bhikkhus, to be disillusioned with all originated phenomena, to be unattached to them, to be liberated from them.
Evaṃ dīgharattaṃ vo bhikkhave dukkhaṃ paccanubhūtaṃ tibbaṃ paccanubhūtaṃ vyasanaṃ paccanubhūtaṃ vyasanaṃ paccanubhūtaṃ kaṭasi vaḍḍhitā. Yāvañcidaṃ bhikkhave alameva sabbasaṅkhāresu nibbindituṃ alaṃ virajjituṃ alaṃ vimuccitunti (S.2.178).

Commentary: Anubhūtaṃ te dukkhaṃ aparimāṇanti imasmiṃ attabhāve ito purimattabhāvesu vā anappakaṃ dukkhaṃ tayā anubhavitaṃ. Idāni taṃ dukkhaṃ ekadesena vibhajitvā dassetuṃ ‘‘assū ca te pavatta’’ntiādi vuttaṃ.Tassattho imasmiṃ anamatagge saṃsāre paribbhamantiyā bahukāni jātisahassāni sokābhibhūtāya assu ca pavattaṃ, avisesitaṃ katvā vuttañcetaṃ, mahāsamuddassa udakatopi bahukameva siyā.

 

VERSE 221

I dwelt in the middle of the charnel ground and my children’s bodies were consumed [by animals]. With my family destroyed, being criticised by all, and widowed, I attained the Deathless.

Vasitā susānamajjhe athopi khāditāni puttamaṃsāni
Hatakulikā sabbagarahitā matapatikā amataṃ adhigacchiṃ

COMMENT

Sabbagarahitā: ‘being criticised by all.’ Paṭācārā was likely criticised since the day she eloped with one of her wealthy father’s servants, the husband mentioned in verse 218. Presumably the tragedy of her life was thereafter endlessly blamed on her own recklessness, ‘by all.’