Psalms of the Brethren CCLVI: Anuruddha

Forsaking mother, father, all his kin,
Sister and brother, quitting joys of sense,
Sits Anuruddha rapt in reverie.

By dance and song attended, by the sound
Of cymbals in the morn awaked: — not so
Were pure religion to be reached, too fain
Was I in Mara’s precincts to abide.

And now that all those things are left behind,
Fain with full heart to keep the Buddha’s Rule,
Yea, passing over all the mighty Flood,
Sits Anuruddha rapt in reverie.

Sights, sounds and tastes, odours and things to touch,
That please and charm, leaving all these behind,
Sits Anuruddha rapt in reverie.

From quest of alms he cometh back alone,
An unencumbered silent sage; from heap
Of rubbish to renew what garb he hath
Doth Anuruddha seek, sane and immune.

He seeketh, taketh, washeth, dyeth, wears
The shabby gear, this sage deliberate: —
For such is Anuruddha, sane, immune.

He who is big with wants and discontent,
Is puffed up and cleaveth to his kind,
Displayeth qualities corrupt and vile.

And is he mindful, having few desires,
Contentedly serene and ne’er upset,
Delighting in seclusion, blithe of heart,

Aye strenuous: — his qualities are good
And such as to enlightenment belong,
And he, sane and immune, — saith the Great Seer.

He knew my heart’s intent, the Master, he
Whose peer the world hath not, and came to me
By mystic power with body wrought of mind.

To me, when further truths I wished to learn,
The Wake, the Buddha [that last truth] revealed;
He who in freedom from obsessions joyed
That freedom from obsessions taught to me.

And I who heard the blessed Norm abode
Fain only and alway to keep his Rule;
The Threefold Wisdom have I made my own,
And all the Buddha’s ordinance is done.

Ne’er have I rested supine five and fifty years,
’Tis five and twenty years since sloth was overcome.

No heaving breath left as He lay;
The mind in Jhana’s steadfast stay,
With thought from every craving free,
Fixed on the Peace incessantly:
So passed the Man Who Saw away.

With mind unshaken, as they came,
He suffered pangs of death in peace;
Stole o’er His heart the last release:
Nibbana of the unfed flame.

The last things these that now we see of Him, —
Touch and the other senses of the Sage —
No other conscious states shall come to be,
When one that’s wholly Wake doth pass away.

Sojourn amid the company of gods
Never again, seducer, comes for me.
Destroyed is all renewal of rebirth.
Now is there no more coming back to be.

He who e’en in a moment by a thousand ways can take
Purview of all the world, he is for Brahma’s heaven fit.
But here’s a brother versed in power of magic who doth see
What time [both men and gods], thou goddess, die and come to be.

Lo! I was Annabhara long ago,
A poor man working for my daily bread,
Then to Uparittha, the recluse
Of holy fame, made humble offering.

Then was I born within the Sakiyan clan,
As Anuruddha known; by dance and song
Attended, and by clang of cymbals waked.

But I beheld the Buddha, the Awake,
The Master, for whom no whence cometh fear.
In him my heart believed and was at rest,
And from the home I sought the homeless life.

I know my former lives, and where and how
I lived in years gone by; among the gods
Thirty and Three I stood of Sakka’s rank.

Seven times a king of men I held my sway,
Lord of the earth from end to end foursquare,
A conqueror, of Jambudipa chief,
Using no force or arms I ruled by right.

Thence seven, and other seven spans of life,
E’en fourteen former births I recognize,
E’en then when in the world of gods reborn.

In fivefold concentrated ecstasy,
My heart goes up in peace and unity.
Serene composure have I made my own;
My vision as a god’s is clarified.

I know the destinies of other lives: —
Whence beings come and whither they do go;
Life here below, or other-where of life —
Steadfast and rapt, in fivefold Jhana sunk.

‘These be the thoughts that came to a Brother
Seated beneath the sal-forest’s fair blossoms,
Lone and aloof in deep contemplation
Low have I laid the heavy load I bore,
Cause for rebirth is found in me no more.

In Vejuva, in Vajjian land ’twill be
That life shall reach its final term for me;
And I ’neath bamboo-thicket’s shade that day,
Sane and immune, shall wholly pass away.