On Mucalinda

^Kd.1.3.1 Then the Lord, at the end of seven days, having emerged from that contemplation, approached the Mucalinda (tree) from the foot of the Goatherds’ Banyan; having approached, he sat cross-legged in one (posture) for seven days at the foot of the Mucalinda experiencing the bliss of freedom.

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^Kd.1.3.2 Now at that time^[1] a great storm arose out of due season, for seven days there was rainy weather, cold winds and overcast skies. Then Mucalinda, the serpent king, having come forth from his own haunt, having encircled the Lord’s body seven times with his coils, having spread a great hood over his head, stood saying: “Let no cold (annoy) the Lord, let no heat (annoy) the Lord, let not the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind and heat or creeping things (annoy) the Lord.”

^Kd.1.3.3 Then Mucalinda, the serpent king, at the end of those^[2] seven days, having known that the sky^[3] was clear and without a cloud, having unwound his coils from the Lord’s body, having given up his own form and assumed a youth’s form, stood in front of the Lord honouring the Lord with joined palms.

^Kd.1.3.4 Then the Lord, having understood this matter, at that time uttered this (solemn) utterance:

^BD.4.5 “Happy his solitude who glad at heart
Hath dhamma learnt and doth the vision see!
Happy is that benignity towards
The world which on no creature worketh harm.
Happy the absence of all lust, th’ ascent
Past and beyond the needs of sense-desires.
He who doth crush the great ‘I am’ conceit—
This, truly this, is happiness supreme.”

Told is the Talk at the Mucalinda.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kd.1.3.2–Kd.1.3.4 = Ud.2.1, Mucalindavagga; verses quoted Kv.212, see Points of Controversy, 129, n.3 for further references.

[2]:

tassa, omitted at Vin.1.3, but found at Ud.10.

[3]:

deva.