The prefatory verse to the paritta against fear, on a text said to have arisen for the good of self and others alike.
- When chanted
- Chanted immediately before the Abhaya Paritta, introducing it.
A note on this chant. The book prints this chant in Pali only, with no Thai translation. The English here is a working translation prepared for this edition — it is not the book's own, and has not yet been checked by a teacher.
Historical background
The shortest introduction in the collection, at three lines. By this point in a paritta service the assembly has been chanting for a long while, and the introductions have grown briefer as the service has gone on.
What it promises is worldly and it does not disguise that: gain of merit, great majesty, beauty, fame and great renown.
Meaning and purpose
The list of benefits is the sort a modern reader may expect a religious text to be embarrassed by, and this one is not. Beauty and fame are named alongside merit, in the same breath and with the same weight.
The second line then widens it past the reciter — arisen for the welfare of all beings — and asks that every one of them, without exception, should listen.
The last line puts the two together in a single phrase: อัตตัปปะระหิตัง, arisen for the good of self and others. That balance is the tradition's usual answer to the charge that asking for beauty and renown is self-serving, and it is made here without argument, as though obvious.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 98 →
page 98ปุญญะลาภัง มะหาเตชัง วัณณะกิตติมะหายะสัง
Puññalābhaṃ mahātejaṃ vaṇṇakittimahāyasaṃ
Gain of merit, great majesty, beauty, fame and great renown —
สัพพะสัตตะหิตัง ชาตัง ตัง สุณันตุ อะเสสะโต.
Sabbasattahitaṃ jātaṃ taṃ suṇantu asesato.
arisen for the welfare of all beings: let them listen to it, every one, without exception.
อัตตัปปะระหิตัง ชาตัง ปะริตตันตัมภะณามะ เห.
Attapparahitaṃ jātaṃ parittantambhaṇāma he.
Arisen for the good of self and others: let us now recite that paritta, friends.