Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Theragatha · 5.3

Girimānanda

Girimānanda — The Book of the Fives · Chapter One · Poem 3 of 12

Setting
A sheltered hut in the rain, without a translated attribution
Speaker
Girimānanda, addressing the rain itself
Form
Five four-line verses, the opening couplet repeated in all five, only the closing description changing
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, an extended refrain

Why this text

‘The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind’ — five times over, Girimānanda invites the rain to fall as he wishes, each verse naming a different quality he meditates in: peaceful, at peace, free of greed, free of hate, free of delusion.

Reading guide

A refrain repeated five times, the most extensive yet

Every one of this poem's five verses opens with the identical couplet — ‘the heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind’ — and closes with the identical invitation, ‘so rain forth, heavens, if you wish’. Only the middle description of the meditator changes: peaceful, at peace, free of greed, free of hate, free of delusion. This is the most extensive refrain this reading guide has found in this collection, surpassing the triple refrains of Thag 3.4 and Thag 3.11.

The Pali abbreviates what the translation spells out

From the third verse onward, the Pali text itself elides the repeated material with peyyala (‘...pe...’, ‘and so on’), trusting the reader to supply the couplet already given twice. Sujato's translation spells the repeated lines out in full regardless, so the English text below reads as five complete verses even where the Pali itself does not.

This collection's most-repeated couplet, once again

‘Channā me kuṭikā sukhā nivātā’, ‘my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind’, is the same line that opened this collection at Thag 1.1 (Subhūti) and returned across Thag 1.51–1.54's cluster of rain-and-hut poems in the Book of the Ones. This poem's fivefold repetition brings the total count of this exact line, across this collection, to at least six occurrences spanning two different books.

A progression: general peace, then the three roots

The five changing descriptions move from the general (‘peaceful’, ‘mind at peace’) to the specific: free of greed, free of hate, free of delusion — the three roots of unwholesome action named in sequence, closing the poem on the most technical and complete formulation of the five.

Key terms

vassati devo — “the heavens rain” — opening every verse of the poem's refrain.
channā me kuṭikā sukhā nivātā — “my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind” — this collection's most-repeated single line, found six times across two books.
pe — “...and so on...” — the Pali abbreviation (peyyala) used from the third verse onward, though Sujato's translation spells the repeated lines out in full.
vītarāgo — “free of greed” — the first of the poem's three-roots sequence, in its third verse.
vītamoho — “free of delusion” — the poem's final description, closing its five-step progression.

The text

The text in full: five verses, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. The Pali abbreviates its repeated lines with peyyala from the third verse on; Sujato's translation, used here, spells them out in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind; I meditate there, peaceful: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.

§2The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind; I meditate there, my mind at peace: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.

§3The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind; I meditate there, free of greed: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.

§4The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind; I meditate there, free of hate: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.

§5The heavens rain like a sweet song; my hut is roofed and pleasant, sheltered from the wind; I meditate there, free of delusion: so rain forth, heavens, if you wish.

· · ·

Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
What does every verse of this poem open with?
Correct: C. The most extensive refrain this reading guide has found in this collection.
Question 2 of 10
How does this poem's refrain compare to Thag 3.4 and Thag 3.11's?
Correct: D. Surpassing this collection's previous triple refrains.
Question 3 of 10
How does the Pali text itself handle the repetition from the third verse onward?
Correct: B. Sujato's translation spells the lines out in full regardless.
Question 4 of 10
Where has 'channā me kuṭikā sukhā nivātā' appeared before in this collection?
Correct: C. Bringing the total count to at least six occurrences across two books.
Question 5 of 10
What five qualities does the meditator's description move through across the poem?
Correct: D. Moving from general peace to the three specific roots.
Question 6 of 10
What are 'the three roots' named in this poem's later verses?
Correct: A. Vītarāgo, vītadoso, vītamoho — named in sequence.
Question 7 of 10
What does the poem's closing line invite, in every verse?
Correct: B. Atha ce patthayasī pavassa deva.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'vītarāgo' mean?
Correct: A. The first of the three roots named in the poem's progression.
Question 9 of 10
Does the poem's sheltered contentment depend on the weather changing?
Correct: D. The invitation 'rain forth if you wish' implies indifference to the outcome.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in the Book of the Fives?
Correct: C. Following Rājadatta and Subhūta.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousThag 5.2 · Subhūta