Samyuttanikaya 22.10.4: 4-6. Gomayapiṇḍasuttādivaṇṇanā

In the fourth: "equal to the eternal" (sassatisamaṃ) means equal to eternal things such as Mount Sineru, the great earth, the moon, and the sun. "A tiny lump of cow dung" means a small piece of cow dung the size of a madhuka flower. But from where did he obtain this? Some say he took it from what had been brought to make a floor plastering. However, it should be understood that, in order to make the meaning clear, he created it by psychic power and placed it in his hand. "Acquisition of individual existence" (attabhāvapaṭilābho) means individual existence that has been acquired. "This holy life would not be discerned": this so-called holy life of the path would not be discerned. For the path arises unwinding the formations belonging to the three planes. And if an individual existence even of this size were permanent, the path, even having arisen, would not be able to unwind the round of formations, and so the holy life would not be discerned.

Now, to show that "If any formation were permanent, the fortune experienced by me at the time of King Mahāsudassana would be permanent, but even that was impermanent," he said "Formerly, monks, I was a king," and so on. There, "chief among which was the royal city of Kusāvatī" means the royal city of Kusāvatī was the chief of those cities, the best of all—this is the meaning. "Made of heartwood" means made of the heartwood of red sandalwood. But the pillows of all of them were simply made of cotton thread. "Covered with long-fleeced rugs" (goṇakatthatāni) means covered with black woollen rugs whose fleece is more than four finger-breadths long, which they call rugs with a great back. "Covered with white woollen blankets" (paṭakatthatāni) means covered with woollen white blankets having fleece on both sides. "Covered with embroidered spreads" (paṭalikatthatāni) means covered with woollen spreads thick with flowers. "With excellent spreads of kadali-deer hides" (kadalimigapavarapaccattharaṇāni) means covered with excellent coverings made of kadali-deer hide. They make that covering, it is said, by spreading the kadali-deer hide over white cloth and stitching it. "With canopies above" (sauttaracchadāni) means together with an overhead canopy; together with a red canopy fastened above is the meaning. "With red pillows at both ends" means with head-pillows and foot-pillows—with red pillows at both ends of the couches. "Chief among which was the chariot Vejayanta": here, Vejayanta was the name of that king's chariot, the wheels of which had hubs made of sapphire, spokes made of the seven jewels, rims made of coral, an axle made of silver, carriage equipment made of sapphire, and a pole made of silver. It was the chief, the best of those chariots. "With bindings of fine silk" (dukūlasandānāni) means with spreads of fine silk. "With bronze milk-pails" (kaṃsūpadhāraṇāni) means with silver milking vessels. "A hundred thousand crores of garments": this was said with reference only to garments brought at the time he stood after bathing, so that he would use whatever he pleased. "A presentation of food" (bhattābhihāro) means food to be presented.

“Which I inhabited at that time”: wherever I lived, that was just a single city; in the remainder, sons, daughters, and so forth, as well as slave folk, lived. In the case of mansions, peaked roof houses, and so on, the method is just the same. Among couches and so forth, he himself used just one; the remainder were the possessions of his sons and others. Among women, only one attended [him]; the remainder were mere attendants. “Velāmikā”: born from the womb of a khattiya father and a brahmin mother, or of a brahmin father and a khattiya mother. “I wore”: I wore just one pair of cloths; he shows that the remainder were for the one million six hundred and eighty thousand men who moved about surrounding him. “I ate”: at most, I ate only a measure of a nāḷi of boiled rice; he shows that the remainder was for the eight hundred and forty thousand men who moved about surrounding him. For a cooking in a single vessel suffices for ten people.

Having thus shown the glory at the time of Mahāsudassana, now, in showing its impermanence, he said, “So, bhikkhus,” and so on. There, “altered”: having lost their natural state, like an extinguished lamp, they reached the state of being non-designable. “So impermanent, bhikkhus, are conditioned phenomena”: impermanent in the sense of having come to be and then ceasing to exist. To this extent, just as a man, having tied a ladder to a campaka tree a hundred cubits high, having climbed up and taken a campaka flower, might descend while untying the ladder, even so the Blessed One, as if tying a ladder, ascended the glory of Mahāsudassana, which was hundreds of thousands of crores of years high, and having taken the characteristic of impermanence standing at the peak of that glory, descended as if untying the ladder. “So unstable”: thus devoid of stability, like water bubbles and the like. “So unreliable”: thus devoid of reassurance, like water drunk in a dream or like sandalwood smeared on in a dream. Thus in this discourse the characteristic of impermanence was stated. In the fifth, everything is according to the method already stated. The sixth was spoken according to the disposition of one capable of understanding in that way. The fourth and following discourses.