Thig 6:2 Vāsiṭṭhī the Madwoman

Overwhelmed with grief for my son—

naked, demented,

my hair disheveled

my mind deranged—

I went about here & there,1

living along the side of the road,

in cemeteries & heaps of trash,

for three full years,

afflicted with hunger & thirst.

Then I saw

the One Well-Gone,

gone to the city of Mithilā:

tamer of those untamed,

Self-Awakened,

with nothing to fear

from anything, anywhere.

Regaining my mind,

paying him homage,

I sat myself down.

He, Gotama, from sympathy

taught me the Dhamma.

Hearing his Dhamma,

I went forth into homelessness.

Applying myself to the Teacher’s words,

I realized the state of auspicious bliss.

All griefs have been cut off,

abandoned,

brought to this end,

for I’ve comprehended

the grounds from which griefs

come into play.

Note

1. Reading tena tena vicāri’ham with the Burmese, Sinhalese, and PTS editions. The Thai edition has rodaṁ tena vicāri’ham, “I went there crying.”