The leader's invitation: having gone for refuge and made the offering, the assembly is called to praise the Blessed One and chant the salutation.
- When chanted
- Spoken by the leader of the assembly once the offering has been made, to bring the others into the preliminary salutation that follows 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
คำเชิญ means an invitation, and this is one of a family of lines in the book that belong to whoever is leading rather than to everyone. They are the joints of a service: one voice says what is about to happen, and the assembly takes up the chant named. This one is longer than most because it also gathers up what has just been done.
The wording places the speakers precisely. They are those who have gone for refuge, who have ปัพพะชิตา — gone forth, left the household life — for the Blessed One's sake, and who live the พ๎รัห๎มะจะริยัง, the holy life, under him as teacher. The chant is therefore phrased for a monastic assembly, which is worth knowing before it is read as everybody's words.
No Thai rendering is printed for this chant, so it stands at the Pali and an English translation written for this edition rather than taken from the book.
Meaning and purpose
The first two clauses say nothing about the Buddha and everything about the relation to him. He is the one they went to for refuge, the one for whose sake they went forth, their teacher, the one under whom the holy life is lived. Four descriptions, none of them a quality of his — each is a position the speakers themselves occupy.
The middle clauses then narrate the service back to itself: the offering made with these gifts, set out as befits them, and the respects paid. Only after that comes หันทะทานิ, now then, and with it the turn to what is next — to extol the Blessed One in words, and to make the ปุพพะภาคะนะมะการัง, the preliminary salutation, which is the chant printed immediately below.
What the invitation marks is a change of medium. Up to this point the service has been conducted with the hands and the body: gifts carried in, arranged, bowed to. From here it is carried in speech. A line that says so aloud keeps an assembly of many people moving together, and it gives the reason the book prints this text at all — it is not a chant to be meditated on, but the hinge that lets the next one begin.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 2 →
ยะมัมหะ โข มะยัง ภะคะวันตัง สะระณัง คะตา, อุททิสสะ ปัพพะชิตา
Yamamha kho mayaṃ bhagavantaṃ saraṇaṃ gatā, uddissa pabbajitā
That Blessed One to whom we have gone for refuge, for whose sake we have gone forth,
โย โน ภะคะวา สัตถา, ยัส๎มิง ภะคะวะติ พ๎รัห๎มะจะริยัง จะรามะ,
Yo no bhagavā satthā, yasmiṃ bhagavati brahmacariyaṃ carāma,
who is our Blessed Teacher, under whom we live the holy life,
ตัมมะยัง ภะคะวันตัง สะธัมมัง สะสังฆัง,
Tammayaṃ bhagavantaṃ sadhammaṃ sasaṅghaṃ,
to that Blessed One, with his Dhamma and his Sangha,
อิเมหิ สักกาเรหิ ยะถาระหัง อาโรปิเตหิ อะภิปูชะยิต๎วา
Imehi sakkārehi yathārahaṃ āropitehi abhipūjayitvā
having made offering with these gifts, set out as befits them,
อะภิวาทะนัง กะริมหา,
Abhivādanaṃ karimhā,
and having paid our respects,
หันทะทานิ มะยัง ตัง ภะคะวันตัง วาจายะ อะภิถุตุง,
Handadāni mayaṃ taṃ bhagavantaṃ vācāya abhithutuṃ,
let us now, in words, extol that Blessed One,
ปุพพะภาคะนะมะการัง กะโรมะ เส.
Pubbabhāga-namakāraṃ karoma se.
and make the preliminary salutation.