Therigatha14.1

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Therigatha >> Therigatha14.1

Adapted from Archaic Translation By Mrs. Rhys Davids 1909

Compared with the Pali Tipitaka at www.tipitaka.org

14.1 Subha Of Jivaka's Mango-Grove, Daughter Of A Brahmin Of Rajagaha

SHE too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and accumulating good karma(deeds) of age-enduring efficacy in many rebirths, developing the roots of goodness and perfecting the conditions for enlightenment(vimutti, vimukti) through the ripening of her knowledge, was in this Buddha-era, reborn at Rajagaha, in the family of a very eminent brahmin. Her name was Subha, and truly lovely was her body in all its members. It was for this reason that she came to be so called. While the Master(Buddha) stayed at Rajagaha, she received faith and became a lay-disciple. Later she grew anxious about the round of life(circle of rebirths), and saw the danger in the pleasures of senses, and decided that safety lay in renunciation. She entered the Order under the Great Pajapati the Gotami(Foster mother & the sister and co-wife of the Buddha's departed mother & Head of nuns), and exercising herself in insight meditation(Vipassana[1]), was soon established in the fruition of the State of No-return(Anagami[2]).

Now one day a certain unrestrained drunken person of Rajagaha, in the prime of youth, was standing in the Jivaka(physician to king) Mango-grove, and saw her going to meditate; and feeling attracted, he barred her way, soliciting her to lustful sensual pleasures. She declared to him by many instances the bane of sensuous pleasures and her own choice of renunciation, teaching him the Dhamma(path of eternal truth). Even then he was not cured, but persisted. The Theri, not stopping short at her own words, and seeing his passion for the beauty of her eyes, extracted one eye from her eyesocket,tore it apart, and handed it to him, saying: 'Come, then! take this offending eye!' Because of that the man was horrified and appalled and, his lust all gone, asked her forgiveness. Then the Theri went to the Master's(Buddha's) presence, and there, at sight of Him, her eye became as it was before. Because of that she stood shaking with unceasing joy at the Buddha. The Master(Buddha), knowing the state of her mind, taught her, and showed her exercise for reaching the highest. Repressing her joy, her insight meditation (Vipassana[1]) grew, and attained Arahantship(enlightenment equal to Buddha), together with thorough grasp of the Dhamma(path of eternal truth) in form and meaning. From that time on, abiding in the bliss and fruition of Nibbana, she, looking back at what she had won, uttered her dialogue with the unrestrained man who confronted her, in these verses:

In Jivaka's pleasant woodland walked Subha the Bhikkhuni(nun). A drunken unrestrained man met her there And barred the way. To him thus spoke Subha: 389 (368)

'What have I done to offend you, that thus in my path you come? No man, O friend, it seems to touch an ordained (nun). (369) So has my Master(Buddha) ordained me in the Moral Precepts(Sheel) we honour and follow; So has the Welcome One taught in the training in which they have trained me, Purified discipline holy. Why you stand blocking my pathway? (370) Me pure, unwavering mind; me passionless, you of vile passions; Me who as to the whole of me freed(vimutta/vimukta) am I and blameless, Me from where comes it that You do hinder, standing obnoxious?' (371)

The Man : 'Young are you, lady, and without sin–what you seek in the ordained life? Cast off that yellow-colored dress(of nuns) and come! in the blossoming woodland Seek we our pleasure. Filled with the incense of blossoms the trees waft (372) <p style="text-align:center;">Sweetness. See, the spring's at the prime, the season of happiness! <p style="text-align:center;">Come with me then to the flowering woodland, and seek we our pleasure. (373) <p style="text-align:center;">Sweet overhead is the sound of wind of the blossoming crests of the forest <p style="text-align:center;">Swayed by the Wind-gods. But you going alone in the jungle, <p style="text-align:center;">Lost in its depths, how will you find anything to delight or content you ? (374) <p style="text-align:center;">Haunted is the great forest with many a herd of wild creatures, <p style="text-align:center;">Broken its peace by the tramplings of elephants rutting and savage. <p style="text-align:center;">Empty of mankind and fearsome it is, there you should not go uncompanioned? (375)

<p style="text-align:center;">You like a gold-work statue, like nymph moving in celestial garden <p style="text-align:center;">O matchless creature. Radiant would shine your loveliness <p style="text-align:center;">Robed in dress of beauty, fine fabric(silk) of Benares. (376) <p style="text-align:center;">I would live but to serve you, and you staying in the woodland, <p style="text-align:center;">Dearer and sweeter to me than are you in the world is no creature, <p style="text-align:center;">You with the slow-moving eyes of an fairy of the forest. (377) <p style="text-align:center;">If you will listen to me, come where the joys of the sheltered life wait you <p style="text-align:center;">Dwell in a house of verandas and terraces, handmaidens serving you. (378) <p style="text-align:center;">Robe yourself in delicate gear of Benares(silk), wear garlands, use ointments. <p style="text-align:center;">Ornaments many and divers I give to you, fashioned with precious stones, <p style="text-align:center;">Gold work and pearls. And you shall mount on a couch fair and sumptuous, (379) <p style="text-align:center;">Carved in sandalwood, fragrant with essences, spread with new pillows, <p style="text-align:center;">Beds woolly and soft, and decorated with immaculate canopies. (380) <p style="text-align:center;">You are like a lotus on the bosom of water served by fairies, <p style="text-align:center;">You, who lives celibate life, will be going to age, your beauty is unmatched.' (381)

<p style="text-align:center;">Subha: <p style="text-align:center;">'What now to you, in this filth-filled, grave-filling carcass(body) so fragile <p style="text-align:center;">Seen by you, speaking this ill doctrine , infatuate?' (382)

<p style="text-align:center;">The Man : <p style="text-align:center;">Eyes have you like the gazelle's, like a fairy in the mountains– <p style="text-align:center;">It is those fairy eyes of you, sight of which feeds the depth of my passion. (383) <p style="text-align:center;">Shrined in your dazzling, immaculate face as in calyx of lotus, <p style="text-align:center;">It is those eyes of you, sight of which feeds the strength of my passion. (384) <p style="text-align:center;">Though you be far from me, how could I ever forget you, O lady, <p style="text-align:center;">You of the long-drawn eyelashes, you of the eyes so miraculous? <p style="text-align:center;">Nothing is dearer to me than those orbs, O you witching-eyed fairy!' (385)

<p style="text-align:center;">Subha: <p style="text-align:center;">'Lo! you are wanting to walk where no path is; you seek to capture <p style="text-align:center;">Moon from the skies for your play; <p style="text-align:center;">you would jump over the ridges of Meru(mountain), <p style="text-align:center;">You who presumes to lie in wait for a child of the Buddha! (386) <p style="text-align:center;">Nowhere in earth or in heaven lives now any object of lust for me. <p style="text-align:center;">This I know not now. What like is it? <p style="text-align:center;">Slain, root and branch, through the Noble Path. (387) <p style="text-align:center;">Hurled as live coal from the hand, and rated as deadly as poison-cup, <p style="text-align:center;">This I see not. What is it like? Slain, root and branch, through the Noble Path. (388) <p style="text-align:center;">Tempt you some woman who has not discerned what I say, or whose teacher <p style="text-align:center;">Is but a learner; Fortunately she will listen; tempt you not Subha; <p style="text-align:center;">She understands. And now it is yourself have annoyance and failure. (389) <p style="text-align:center;">For I have set my mind to be watchful in whatsoever falls on me– <p style="text-align:center;">Blame or honour, gladness or sorrow–and knowing the principle:– <p style="text-align:center;">'Foul are all material things,' nowhere the mind of me clings to them. (390)

<p style="text-align:center;">Yes, the disciple am I of the Buddha; onward the march of me <p style="text-align:center;">Riding the Car of the Road that is Eightfold. Drawn out are the arrows <p style="text-align:center;">from my wounds, and cleansed is my spirit of desires, Intoxicants. <p style="text-align:center;">So I am come to empty places(to meditate) in bliss. (391)

<p style="text-align:center;">Oh! I have seen it(the body)–a puppet well painted, with new wooden spindles, <p style="text-align:center;">Cunningly fastened with strings and with pins, and diversely dancing. (392) <p style="text-align:center;">But if the strings and the pins be all drawn out and loosened and scattered, <p style="text-align:center;">So that the puppet be made non-existent and broken in pieces, <p style="text-align:center;">Which of the parts will you choose and appoint to calm your mind? (393) <p style="text-align:center;">Such is the manner in which persist these poor little bodies: <p style="text-align:center;">Take away members and attributes–nothing survives in any wise. <p style="text-align:center;">Nothing survives! Which do you choose to calm your mind? (394) <p style="text-align:center;">Even as a painting one sees drawn on a wall, painted in orange, <p style="text-align:center;">[Gives us nothing of the true and the real, except in the false appearance ;] <p style="text-align:center;">You in this with vision perverted [can not distinguish; Judges with] <p style="text-align:center;">wisdom of average human, fallible, worthless. (395) <p style="text-align:center;">O you are blind! you chase a make-believe, deluded by puppet shows <p style="text-align:center;">Seen in the midst of the crowd; you knower of value and genuine <p style="text-align:center;">Conjurer's trickwork,like trees all of gold that we see in our dreaming. (396) <p style="text-align:center;">What is this eye but a little ball lodged middle of a hollow tree, <p style="text-align:center;">Bubble of film, anointed with tear-brine, exuding slime-drops, <p style="text-align:center;">Compost created in the shape of an eye of many aspects?' (397)

<p style="text-align:center;">At once Subha tore out her own eye (from eye-socket) and gave it to him: <p style="text-align:center;">'Here, then! take you your eye!' Nor sinned she, her mind without attachment. (398) <p style="text-align:center;">Straightway the lust in him ceased and he was begging for her pardon: <p style="text-align:center;">'O that you might recover your sight, you maid who is holy & celibate <p style="text-align:center;">Never again I will dare to offend you after this fashion. (399) <p style="text-align:center;">Much have you struck down my sin; blazing flames I have clasped to my heart; <p style="text-align:center;">Poisonous snake have I handled–but O! be you healed and forgive me!' (400) <p style="text-align:center;">Freed from molesting, the Bhikkhuni went on her way to the Saintly Buddha, <p style="text-align:center;">There in his presence, having seen his holy features <p style="text-align:center;">Born from utmost merit, straightway her sight was restored to her. (401)

[1] Vipassana : This refers to the foremost insight meditation called 'Vipassana'  taught by Buddha in which attention is focussed on inner phenomenon (breath,body,emotions, sensations & mind) with detachment (samata/equanimity) leading to self-awakening & enlightenment.

[2] Anagami - lit. non-returner, The state prior to nirvana , one who will be reborn in Brahmaloka (arch-angel world) and then from there one will achieve Nirvana.