The paṃsukūla verse for the living: that before long this body will lie on the earth like a useless log.
- When chanted
- Chanted at a paṃsukūla performed for somebody still alive, commonly at a long-life or life-extension ceremony.
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 book prints this immediately after the verse for the dead, and the pairing is the point. The same rite is performed for the living, with two lines changed.
A paṃsukūla for a living person is done at ceremonies for prolonging life or turning misfortune — the person lies under the cloth as a corpse would.
Meaning and purpose
อะจิรัง วะตะยัง กาโย — before long, alas, this body. The lament particle appears again, and the demonstrative is doing the work: this body, the one under the cloth, the one listening.
The image given is deliberately without dignity: cast aside, bereft of consciousness, like a useless log. กะลิงคะรัง is a piece of firewood — not a fallen tree, but the offcut nobody wants.
Chanted over somebody who has come to have their life extended, it is a startling thing to say. That is the tradition's answer to the occasion: the ceremony may be for long life, but the words used are the ones that describe what long life is postponing.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 252 →
page 252อะจิรัง วะตะยัง กาโย ปะฐะวิง อะธิเสสสะติ
Aciraṃ vatayaṃ kāyo paṭhaviṃ adhisessati
Before long, alas, this body will lie upon the earth,
ฉุฑโฑ อะเปตะวิญญาโณ นิรัตถังวะ กะลิงคะรัง.
Chuḍḍo apetaviññāṇo niratthaṃva kaliṅgaraṃ.
cast aside, bereft of consciousness, like a useless log.