Taking someone unknown to me,
I went to a village back then.
Seeing a very full river,
I approached a monastery.

Forest-dwellers, punctilious,
meditators, clad in coarse robes,
wise, lovers of seclusion, were
living in that monastery.

Their destinies had been cut off,
well-liberated, neutral ones;
they did not go begging for alms
if the river obstructed them.

Happy, with pleasure in my heart,
awe-struck, with hands pressed together,
taking some rice-grain that I had,
I made a gruel-donation then.

Giving gruel to those monks five times,
feeling well-pleased by my own hands,
satisfied with my own karma,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa then.

A mansion made of gems was born
for me in the group of thirty.
I joyed with a group of women
in that superb mansion of mine.

Thirty-three times the lord of gods,
I exercised divine rule there.
Thirty times a wheel-turning king,
I exercised overlordship.

There was also much local rule,
innumerable by counting.
In the world of gods or humans,
I always enjoyed great fame.

When my last rebirth was attained,
I went forth into homelessness.
As soon as my hair was cut off,
I realized complete success.

Due to decay, due to old age,
contemplating this corpse of mine,
before the training rules were taught,
I attained my arahantship.

Well-given was my superb gift;
my trade was very well-applied.
Because of that very gruel-gift,
I’ve attained the unshaking state.

I have no experience of
sorrow and wailing and illness,
nor distress that torments the mind:
that is the fruit of giving gruel.

O! that gruel was very well spent!
Giving the monks’ Assembly gruel,
in the unsurpassed merit-field,
I enjoy these five good results:

I don’t get ill, I’m beautiful,
the Teaching quickly is observed,
I receive lots of food and drink,
and my long lifespan is the fifth.

Whoever struck by awe would give
gruel to the Assembly of monks,
that wise person would also get
these five most welcome benefits.

What should be done has all been done;
I have put an end to rebirths.
All defilements are exhausted;
now there will be no more rebirth.

I am wandering from village
to village, city to city,
extolling him, the Sambuddha,
and Buddha’s virtuous Teaching.

In the thirty thousand aeons
since I gave that gift at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving gruel.

My defilements are now burnt up;
all new existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.

Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
I have done what the Buddha taught!

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

Thus indeed Venerable Yāgudāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Yāgudāyaka Thera is finished.