The World’s Great Lord, surrounded by
a thousand arahants undefiled,
being one bound to solitude
went off into seclusion then.

I was dressed in deer-leather clothes,
carrying a triple rod there.
Then I saw the Chief of the World
encompassed by the Assembly.

Placing deer-hide on one shoulder,
hands pressed together on my head,
having worshipped the Sambuddha,
I praised the World-Leader kindly:

“Just as all birds, crows and so on,
hatched from eggs or born out of sweat,
born in wombs or viviparous,
always travel across the sky;

Whatever creatures may exist,
those with and without consciousness,
are all of them included in
the great knowledge that you possess.

Whatever mountain scents there are
in the supreme Himalaya
they all can’t match even a bit
the scent of your morality.

This world together with its gods
is grasped by the darkness-makers.
When your knowledge is shining forth
the darkness-makers are destroyed.

Just as creatures are in the dark
when the sun has set for the day,
this world’s enshrouded in darkness
when a Buddha has not appeared.

Just as the sun when it rises
drives away darkness every day,
so too do you, O Best Buddha,
destroy the darkness every day.

You are one bent on exertion,
Buddha in the world with its gods.
Through their delight in your karma
you satisfy many people.”

Then giving thanks for all of that,
the Great Sage Padumuttara,
the Hero, flew into the sky
just like a swan-king in the air.

Having flown off, the Sambuddha,
the Great Sage Padumuttara,
the Teacher, standing in the sky,
spoke these verses about me then:

“I shall relate details of him
who has made this praise of knowledge,
combined with good analogies;
all of you listen to my words:

Eighteen different times he will be
the king over all of the gods.
He will reside upon the earth
and have three hundred earthly reigns.

Full five hundred times he will reign,
a king who turns the wheel of law,
and he will have much local rule
innumerable by counting.

In one hundred thousand aeons,
arising in Okkāka’s clan,
the one whose name is Gotama
will be the Teacher in the world.

Having fallen from Tusitā,
incited by his wholesome roots,
a low ascetic with dreadlocks,
he will be known as Upāli.

And afterwards, having gone forth,
driving away every evil,
knowing well all the defilements,
he’ll reach nirvana, undefiled.

And the Śākyas’ Son, Greatly Famed,
the Buddha known as Gotama,
pleased by his Vinaya knowledge
will place him in that foremost place.”

I, after going forth with faith,
did my duty, am undefiled.
Knowing well all the defilements,
without defilements I now live.

The Blessed One did pity me;
I am skilled in the Vinaya.
Delighted by my own karma
I’m living without defilements.

Self-controlled in monastic rules
and in the five organs of sense,
I carry all the Vinaya
entirely, that gemstone-mine.

And then, discerning my virtue,
the Teacher, the Best in the World,
seated in the monks’ Assembly,
did place me in that foremost place.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Upāli Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Upāli Thera is finished.