Puṇṇikā

“I’m a water-carrier. Even when it’s cold,
I must always plunge into the water;
I fear I’ll get the stick from noble ladies,
harassed by fear of abuse and anger.

Brahmin, what are you afraid of,
that you always plunge into the water,
your limbs trembling
in the freezing cold?”

“Oh, but you already know,
Madam Puṇṇikā, when you ask me:
I am doing good deeds,
to ward off the wickedness I have done.

Whosoever young or old
performs a wicked deed,
by ablution in water they are
released from their wicked deed.”

“Who on earth told you this,
one fool to another:
‘Actually, by ablution in water one is
released from a wicked deed.’

Would not they all go to heaven, then:
all the frogs and the turtles,
gharials, crocodiles,
and other water-dwellers too?

Butchers of sheep and pigs,
fishermen, animal trappers,
bandits, executioners,
and others of evil deeds:
by ablution in water they too would be
released from their wicked deeds.

If these rivers washed away
the bad deeds of the past,
then they’d also wash off goodness,
and thereby you would be excluded.

Brahmin, the thing that you are afraid of,
when you always plunge into the water,
do not do that very thing,
don’t let the cold harm your skin.”

“I have been on the wrong path,
and you’ve guided me to the noble path.
Madam, I give to you
this ablution cloth.”

“Keep the cloth for yourself,
I do not want it.
If you fear suffering,
if you don’t like suffering,

then don’t do bad deeds
either openly or in secret.
If you should do a bad deed,
or you’re doing one now,

you won’t be freed from suffering,
though you fly away and flee.
If you fear suffering,
if you don’t like suffering,

go for refuge to the Buddha, the poised,
to his teaching and to the Sangha.
Undertake the precepts,
that will be good for you.”

“I go for refuge to the Buddha, the poised,
to his teaching and to the Sangha.
I undertake the precepts,
that will be good for me.

In the past I was related to Brahmā,
today I truly am a brahmin!
I am master of the three knowledges, accomplished in wisdom,
I’m a scholar and a bathed initiate.”


The Book of the Sixteens is finished.