The Victor, Padumuttara,
was a Master of Everything.
He rose in the space of the world,
like the sun in the autumn sky.

With his word-rays he awakens
the lotuses called things to know.
With his thought-rays the Leader cleans
the muck known as the defilements.

The fame of the rivals is slain,
like firefly-light by the sun;
he sheds the light of truthfulness
like a gem reflects the sunlight.

Like the ocean for gems, he is
the future for the virtuous;
like a rain-cloud for living things,
he rains by the cloud of Teaching.

I was a magistrate back then,
in the city named “Haṃsa;”
approaching I heard the Teaching,
of the one named “Superb Lotus,”
who was purifying my mind
while explaining the virtue of
a follower who’d done the deed,
the admonisher of the monks.

Delighted, happy, having heard,
then inviting the Thus-Gone-One,
having fed him with his students,
I aspired to attain that place.

Then the Greatly Fortunate One,
loudly as a swan or drum, said,
“look at him, a great minister,
skilled in examining cases,
fallen down in front of my feet,
his body hair growing upward,
rain-cloud-colored and broad-shouldered,
with pleasant-looking eyes and face,

with an extensive entourage,
bound for kingship, very famous.
With kindliness he is wishing
for the place of this deed-doer.

Because of this alms-giving done
with intention and firm resolve,
for one hundred thousand aeons
he won’t be born in a bad state.

Divine fortune among the gods;
greatness when born among humans:
having enjoyed that, through the rest,
he will attain his nirvana.

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

Worthy heir to that one’s Dhamma,
Dhamma’s legitimate offspring,
the one whose name is Kappina
will be the Teacher’s follower.”

And so, having performed good deeds,
in the Victor’s dispensation,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṃsa then.

Having commanded righteously
both divine and human kingdoms,
I was born close to Benares,
in a clan of servants who weave.

With a following of thousands,
together with my chief queen, I
then attended on five hundred
Buddhas enlightened by themselves.

Having fed them for three months, we
afterward gave them the three robes.
Fallen from there we all of us
arose among the thirty gods.

Fallen from there we all came back
to human existence again.
We’re born in Kukkuṭa city,
to the side of Himalaya.

My name at birth was Kappina;
son of the king, very famous.
The rest were born in a clan of
ministers; they waited on me.

The comfort of kingship attained,
I was rich in every pleasure.
Told by merchants, I got to know,
that the Buddha had arisen:

“A Buddha’s risen in the world;
Unequaled, the Single Person,
he’s declaring the great Teaching:
ultimate, deathless comfort.

And his students are well-engaged,
well-liberated, undefiled.”
After hearing that good word, and
paying respect to the merchants,

quitting kingship, with ministers,
I left, devoted to Buddha.
Seeing the great Canda River—
full of water with level banks,
a little rough, without supports,
a rushing current hard to cross—
recalling the Buddha’s virtue,
I got across it in safety.

“If he Crossed the stream of being,
Buddha, Knower, World’s-End-Goer,
due to the truthfulness of that,
let my journey be a success!

If the Path is going to peace,
and release is peaceful comfort,
due to the truthfulness of that,
let my journey be a success!

If the monks have crossed the wasteland,
the unsurpassed field of merit,
due to the truthfulness of that,
let my journey be a success!”

When that truth-wish had been performed,
the water went off from the road.
Thus in safety I crossed over
to the river’s beautiful bank.

I saw the Buddha sitting down,
like the sun when it is rising,
blazing like a mountain of gold,
shining forth like a tree of lamps,

surrounded by his followers
like the moon along with the stars,
like the king of gods raining forth
the gladdening sermon-water.

Worshipping with the ministers,
I went up to him on one side,
and then, discerning what we wished,
the Buddha preached the Dhamma there.

Having heard the stainless Teaching,
we then said this to the Victor:
“O Great Sage, please now ordain us,
we’re disgusted with existence.”

“Well-preached, O monks, is the Dhamma,
for you to make suffering end;
wander forth in celibacy,”
thus indeed spoke the Seventh Sage.

When that was spoken, all of us
took on the appearance of monks;
we were all then fully ordained
stream-enterers in the teachings.

Then going to Jetavana,
the Guide gave instruction to us.
Thus instructed by the Victor,
I attained my arahantship.

Thereafter I admonished them,
the thousand monks along with me.
Then, because of my instruction,
they too were freed from defilements.

The Victor, pleased by that virtue,
then placed in that foremost place,
“Among the monk-admonishers,
Kappina’s top,” he told the folk.

Karma done a hundred thousand
aeons hence showed me its fruit here:
well-liberated, arrow-quick,
I have destroyed my defilements.

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 Mahākappina Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Mahākappina Thera is finished.