Theragatha
    The Quadruple Verses
    Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

     

    IV.8 — Rahula

    In both ways consummate, [1]
    I’m known as Rahula the Fortunate:
    because I’m the son of the Buddha,
    because I’ve the eye that sees Dhammas,
    because my fermentations are ended,
    because I’ve no further becoming.
    I’m deserving of offerings,
    a worthy one
    a three-knowledge man, [2]
    with sight of the Deathless.

    Those
    blinded by sensuality
    covered by the net,
    veiled by the veil of craving,
    bound by the Kinsman of the heedless, [3]
    are like fish in the mouth of a trap.

    Throwing that sensuality aside,
    cutting through Mara’s bond,
    pulling out craving, root & all,
    cooled am I,
    Unbound.

     

    Notes:

    1. This phrase can be taken in two ways: (a) consummate in that he has a pure lineage on both his mother’s and his father’s side; and (b) consummate in that he belongs both to a well-born lineage in the worldly sense and, by means of his meditative attainments, to the lineage of the noble ones.

    2. One with knowledge of past lives, knowledge of the passing away and rearising of living beings, and knowledge of the ending of mental fermentations.

    3. Mara.