In the city, Candavatī,
I was a servant-man back then.
Bound in the service of others
I could not renounce the world yet:

“Being shrouded in great blindness
I’m being scorched by the three fires.
By what strategy might I then
be set free from this samsara?

I lack the things to be given;
I am a miserable servant.
Why then don’t I guard and fulfill
the five basic moral precepts?

Nisabha is a follower
of the Sage, Anomadassi.
Having approached him I’ll adopt
the five moral training precepts.”

In those days the normal lifespan
was full one hundred thousand years.
For all that time I did protect
the five moral precepts fully.

When the time for my death arrived
the gods all then consoled me thus:
“Happy one, you will be served by
this one-thousand-horse chariot.”

In my heart, as I breathed my last,
I recalled those five moral rules.
Through that karma which was done well
I went on to Tāvatiṃsa.

Thirty times as the king of gods
I exercised divine rule there.
Anointed by celestial nymphs
I enjoyed much divine pleasure.

Fully five hundred times I ruled
as a monarch who turns the wheel,
and I did have much local rule
innumerable by counting.

Falling down from the world of gods,
incited by my wholesome roots,
I was born in a rich family
with a big house in Vesāli.

When the rainy season started,
the Victor’s dispensation shined.
My mother and my father too
took on the five moral precepts.

And I, hearing that word “moral”
recalled my past morality.
I sat down on a single seat
and attained my arahantship.

Though I was only five years old
I attained my arahantship.
Knowing virtue the Eyeful One,
the Buddha then ordained me there.

Having perfectly protected
those five basic moral precepts,
for aeons beyond measure I
went to no place of suffering.

That I experienced great fame
due to those five moral precepts.
Talking for ten million aeons
I still could tell but part of it.

Guarding the five moral precepts
I received the three good results:
I had long life, abundant food
and developed piercing wisdom.

My outstanding human action
is now proclaimed to everyone.
Transmigrating from birth to birth
I obtain those three good results.

If a pupil of the Victor
should thus delight throughout his lives
in the limitless moral rules,
what might his result then be like?

The five precepts were practiced well
by me, a wise servant-man then.
Due to that moral discipline
today I’m freed from every bond.

I guarded the five moral rules
uncountable aeons ago.
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of the five precepts.

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!

Thus indeed Venerable Pañcasīlasamādāniya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Pañcasīlasamādāniya Thera is finished.