Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Therigatha >> Therigatha2.8
Adapted from Archaic Translation By Mrs. Rhys Davids 1909
Compared with the Pali Tipitaka at www.tipitaka.org
2.8 Abhaya's Mother, Padumavati, Ex-Courtesan Of Ujjeni
Accumulating merit under former Buddhas, she, in the time of Tissa Buddha, saw him going round for alms, and with glad heart took his bowl and placed in it a spoonful of food. Reborn for that among gods(angels) and among men, she was born also for that, in this Buddha-period, and became the town belle of Ujjeni, by name Padumavati.[1] And King Bimbisara (of Magadha) heard of her, and expressed to his priest the wish to see her. By the power of his spells, the priest summoned a Yakkha who, by his might, brought the King to Ujjeni. And when she afterwards sent word to the King that she was with child by him, he sent back word, saying: 'If it be a son, let me see him when he is grown.' And she bore a son and called him Abhaya. When he was seven years old she told him who was his father, and sent him to Bimbisara. The King loved the boy, and let him grow up with the boys of his court. His conversion and ordination is told in the Hymns of the Elders(Theragatha). And, later on, his mother heard her son preach the Dhamma, and she, too, renounced the world became nun and doing insight meditation (Vipassana[2]) and then attained Arahantship (enlightenment equal to Buddha), with thorough grasp of the Dhamma in form and meaning. She upon that recalled and repeated the verse by which her son had admonished her, and added her own to that:
'Upward from sole of foot, O mother dear,
Downward from crown of hair this body see.
Is it not impure, the evil-smelling thing?' (33)
This have I pondered. meditating still,
Till every throb of lust is rooted out.
Expunged is all the fever of desire.
Calm I am now and won Nibbana's peace. (34)
[1] I.e., like Lotus
[2] 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.