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Vimanavatthu http://www.mediafire.com/?oeshgdpxv8285du
(excerpts)Source: This anthology prepared by jtb for Access to Insight.
Access to Insight edition © 2005
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish,
however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and
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The Vimanavatthu of the Khuddaka Nikaya is a collection of 83 stories in verse
describing the vimana [vimaana] — a kind of personal heavenly mansion —
inhabited by beings reborn as gods or goddesses (devata [devataa]) as a reward
for meritorious deeds performed by them as human beings. All the stories follow
a similar pattern. They begin with an introductory verse (or verses) in which
the god or goddess is asked about the cause for his or her rebirth within that
particular mansion. The deva thereupon relates his or her previous good deeds.
— John D. Ireland, in Vangisa: An Early Buddhist Poet
In the passages listed below the translator appears in the square brackets [].
Vv 1.16: Sirima — Sirima's Mansion {Vv 137-49; No. 16} [Ireland]. The deva
Sirima, an entertainer in her previous birth as a human, explains to Ven.
Vangisa how she learned the Dhamma and became a stream-enterer.
Vv 3.7: Sesavati — Sesavati's Mansion {Vv 643-53; No. 35} [Ireland]. The deva
Sesavati tells Ven. Vangisa how paying her respects to Ven. Sariputta in her
previous birth was enough to ensure her rebirth in a glorious deva realm. This
is an example of early Buddhist poetry with a purely devotional message.
Vv 1.16
Sirima
Sirima's Mansion
Translated from the Pali by
John D. IrelandPTS: Vv 137-149 (No. 16)
Source: Vangisa: An Early Buddhist Poet, Buddhist Publication Society
Wheel Publication No. 417/418. Transcribed from a file provided by the
BPS.
Copyright © 1997 John D. Ireland.
Access to Insight edition © 2005
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish,
however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and
other derivative works be clearly marked as such.
[Vangisa:]
Your yoked and finely caparisoned horses, strong and swift, are heading downward
through the sky. And these five hundred chariots, magically created, are
following, the horses urged on by charioteers.
You stand in this excellent chariot, adorned, radiant and shining, like a
blazing star. I ask you of lovely slender form and exquisite beauty, from which
company of gods have you come to visit the Unrivalled One?
[Sirima:]
From those who have reached the heights of sensual pleasures, said to be
unsurpassed; the gods who delight in magical transformation and creation. A
nymph from that company able to assume any desired appearance has come here to
worship the Unrivalled One.
[Vangisa:]
What good conduct did you formerly practice here? How is it that you live in
immeasurable glory and have gained such pleasures? Due to what have you acquired
the unrivalled power to travel through the sky? Why does your beauty radiate in
the ten directions?
You are surrounded and honored by the gods. From where did you decease before
you came to a heavenly bourn, goddess? Or of what teaching were you able to
follow the word of instruction? Tell me if you were a disciple of the Awakened
One.
[Sirima:]
In a fine well-built city situated between hills, an attendant of a noble king
endowed with good fortune, I was highly accomplished in dancing and singing. As
Sirima I was known in Rajagaha.
But then the Awakened One, the leader among seers, the guide, taught me of
origination, of suffering and impermanence; of the unconditioned, of the
cessation of suffering that is everlasting; and of this path, not crooked,
straight, auspicious.
When I had learnt of the undying state (nibbana), the unconditioned, through the
instruction of the Tathagata, the Unrivalled One, I was highly and well
restrained in the precepts and established in the Dhamma taught by the most
excellent of men, the Awakened One.
When I knew the undefiled place, the unconditioned, taught by the Tathagata, the
Unrivalled One, I then and there experienced the calm concentration (of the
noble path). That supreme certainty of release was mine.
When I gained the distinctive undying, assured, eminent in penetrative insight,
not doubting, I was revered by many people and experienced much pleasure and
enjoyment.
Thus I am a goddess, knowing the undying, a disciple of the Tathagata, the
Unrivalled One; a knower of Dhamma established in the first fruit, a
stream-enterer. Henceforth there is no bad bourn for me.
I came to revere the Unrivalled One and the virtuous monks who delight in what
is skilled; to worship the auspicious assembly of ascetics and the respectworthy
Fortunate One, the Dhamma-king.
I am joyful and gladdened on seeing the sage, the Tathagata, the outstanding
trainer of men capable of being trained, who has cut off craving, who delights
in what is skilled, the guide. I worship the supremely merciful Compassionate
One.
Vv 3.7
Sesavati
Sesavati's Mansion
Translated from the Pali by
John D. IrelandPTS: Vv 642-653 (No. 35)
Source: Vangisa: An Early Buddhist Poet, Buddhist Publication Society
Wheel Publication No. 417/418. Transcribed from a file provided by the
BPS.
Copyright © 1997 John D. Ireland.
Access to Insight edition © 2005
For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted,
reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish,
however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and
other derivative works be clearly marked as such.
[Vangisa:]
I see this delightful and beautiful mansion, its surface of many a color, ablaze
with crystal and roofed with silver and gold. A well-proportioned palace,
possessing gateways, and strewn with golden sand.
As the thousand-rayed sun in the autumn shines in the sky in the ten directions,
dispelling the dark, so does this your mansion glow, like a blazing
smoke-crested fire in the darkness of the night.
It dazzles the eye like lightning, beautiful, suspended in space. Resounding
with the music of lute, drum, and cymbals, this mansion of yours rivals Indra's
city in glory.
White and red and blue lotuses, jasmine, and other flowers are there; blossoming
sal trees and flowering asokas, and the air is filled with a variety of
fragrances.
Sweet-scented trees, breadfruits, laden branches interlaced, with palm trees and
hanging creepers in full bloom, glorious like jeweled nets; also a delightful
lotus pool exists for you.
Whatever flowering plants there are that grow in water, and trees that are on
land, those known in the human world and heavens, all exist in your abode.
Of what calming and self-restraint is this the result? By the fruit of what deed
have you arisen here? How did this mansion come to be possessed by you? Tell it
in full, O lady with thick eyelashes.
[Sesavati:]
How it come to be possessed by me, this mansion with its flocks of herons,
peacocks, and partridges; and frequented by heavenly water-fowl and royal geese;
resounding with the cries of birds, of ducks and cuckoos;
containing divers varieties of creepers, flowers and trees; with trumpet-flower,
rose-apple, and asoka trees — now how this mansion came to be possessed by me, I
will tell you. Listen, venerable sir.
In the eastern region of the excellent country of Magadha there is a village
called Nalaka, venerable sir. There I lived formerly as a daughter-in-law and
they knew me there as Sesavati.
Scattering flower-blossoms joyfully I honored him skilled in deeds and
worshipped by gods and men, the great Upatissa1 who has attained the
immeasurable quenching.
Having worshipped him gone to the ultimate bourn, the eminent seer bearing his
last body, on leaving my human shape I came to (the heaven of) the thirty
(-three) and inhabit this place.
Notes
1. The personal name of Sariputta, who is said to have come originally from
Nalaka.
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