The prefatory verse to the discourse on the ten states that make a person one who has a refuge.
- When chanted
- Chanted immediately before the Dasanāthakaraṇa Dhamma Sutta, 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
นาถะ is a refuge or protector, and นาถะกะระณะ are the things that make one. The introduction turns on a play between the two senses: the Buddha is a refuge, and he taught how to have one.
Like the other prefatory verses it states the occasion rather than the content, and hands over.
Meaning and purpose
It opens by naming him as what the sutta is about: being a refuge for the world with its devas, the bull among men. The word used of the Buddha is the same word the ten states are named for.
Then the purpose — seeking the welfare of his disciples, that they might be established as ones with a refuge. What is being taught is how not to be dependent on him, which is a delicate thing for a devotional introduction to say.
The last line makes the reciters the subject: let us recite that discourse, that we may be established as ones with a refuge. The chanting is not offered as homage but as a means to the same end.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 103 →
page 103สะเทวะกัสสะ โลกัสสะ นาถะภูโต นะราสะโภ,
Sadevakassa lokassa nāthabhūto narāsabho,
Being a refuge for the world with its devas, the bull among men,
สะนาถัตตัปปะสิทธัตถัง สาวะกานัง หิเตสะโก,
Sanāthattappasiddhatthaṃ sāvakānaṃ hitesako,
seeking the welfare of his disciples, that they might be established as ones with a refuge,
ทะสะ นาถะกะระเณ นามะ เย ธัมเม สะมุทีระยิ,
Dasa nāthakaraṇe nāma ye dhamme samudīrayi,
proclaimed the ten states called the makers of a refuge —
ตังสัมปะทาภิกามานัง สาธูนัง ธัมมะกามินัง,
Taṃsampadābhikāmānaṃ sādhūnaṃ dhammakāminaṃ,
for good people who love the Dhamma and long to attain them,
เตสัง สันทีปะกัง สุตตัง ยัง นาเถเนวะ ภาสิตัง,
Tesaṃ sandīpakaṃ suttaṃ yaṃ nāthenevabhāsitaṃ,
the sutta that sets those states out, spoken by the Refuge himself —
สะนาถัตตาตะสิทธัตถัง ตัง สุตตันตัง ภะณามะ เส.
Sanāthattātasiddhatthaṃ taṃ suttantaṃ bhaṇāma se.
let us recite that discourse, that we may be established as ones with a refuge.