The prefatory verse to the Bojjhaṅga Paritta, calling the seven factors of awakening both a medicine and a spell.
- When chanted
- Chanted immediately before the Bojjhaṅga 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 seven factors of awakening have already appeared in this book as three discourses chanted at sickbeds. Here they return as a paritta, and the introduction explains the promotion.
Its last line is the most revealing phrase in the whole collection about what a paritta is taken to be.
Meaning and purpose
The claim made for the seven is soteriological before it is protective: for those wandering on in saṃsāra, in the destruction of all suffering, the seven states, crushers of Māra's army. Those who have awakened by them have gone to the unborn, the ageless and diseaseless, the deathless, the fearless.
Only after that does it turn to use. Endowed with such qualities as these, a collection of many virtues — and then the phrase: โอสะถัญจะ อิมัง มันตัง, a medicine and a spell.
The two words are set side by side without any attempt to reconcile them, and that is the tradition being honest about what it is doing. The same seven factors are a course of treatment and an incantation, and the chant that follows is used as both.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 97 →
page 97สังสาเร สังสะรันตานัง สัพพะทุกขะวินาสะเน
Saṃsāre saṃsarantānaṃ sabbadukkhavināsane
For those wandering on in saṃsāra, in the destruction of all suffering,
สัตตะ ธัมเม จะ โพชฌังเค มาระเสนัปปะมัททิโน.
Satta dhamme ca bojjhaṅge mārasenappamaddino.
the seven states, the factors of awakening, crushers of Māra's army.
พุชฌิต๎วา เยปิเม สัตตา ติภะวามุตตะกุตตะมา
Bujjhitvā yepime sattā tibhavāmuttakuttamā
Those beings who, having awakened by them, are freed from the three realms, supreme,
อะชาติง อะชะราพ๎ยาธิง อะมะตัง นิพภะยัง คะตา.
Ajātiṃ ajarābyādhiṃ amataṃ nibbhayaṃ gatā.
have gone to the unborn, the ageless and diseaseless, the deathless, the fearless.
เอวะมาทิคุณูเปตัง อะเนกะคุณะสังคะหัง
Evamādiguṇūpetaṃ anekaguṇasaṅgahaṃ
Endowed with such qualities as these, a collection of many virtues,
โอสะถัญจะ อิมัง มันตัง โพชฌังคันตัมภะณามะ เห.
Osathañca imaṃ mantaṃ bojjhaṅgantambhaṇāma he.
a medicine and a spell: that Bojjhaṅga let us now recite.