40. (But) the many Bodhisattvas who, thoughtful and wise, go their way all over the triple world, striving after supreme enlightenment, they continue increasing in growth like trees.
41. Those who, endowed with magical powers and being adepts in the four degrees of medita¬ tion, feel delight at hearing of complete voidness 3 and emit thousands of rays, they are called the great trees on earth.
42. So then, Klsyapa, is the preaching of the law, like the water poured out by the cloud everywhere alike; by which plants and men(?) thrive, endless (and eternal) blossoms (are produced) 4.
1 The term used might be rendered by ‘ gospel.’
2 PratyekabuddhS vanashawrfaHrirao, &c. Burnouf must have had quite a different reading.
3 Or unreality, jftnyata.
1 Yehi (the Sanskrit would require the dual) vivarddhanti V.
43. I reveal the law which has its cause in itself; at due time I show Buddha-enlightenment; this is my supreme skilfulness and that of all leaders of the world.
44. What I here say is true in the highest sense of the word; all my disciples attain Nirvana; by following the sublime path of enlightenment all my disciples shall become Buddhas.
And further, Kasyapa, the Tathagata, in his edu¬ cating 1 creatures, is equal (i.e. impartial) and not unequal (i. e. partial). As the light of the sun and moon, Klyyapa, shines upon all the world, upon the virtuous and the wicked, upon high and low, upon the fragrant and the ill-smelling; as their beams are sent down upon everything equally, without inequality (partiality); so, too, Kayyapa, the intel¬ lectual light of the knowledge of the omniscient, the Tathagatas, the Arhats, &c., the preaching of the true law proceeds equally in respect to all beings in the five states of existence, to all who according to their particular disposition are devoted to the great vehicle, or to the vehicle of the Pratyekabuddhas, or to the vehicle of the disciples. Nor is there any defi¬ ciency or excess in the brightness of the Tathagata- knowledge 2 up to one’s becoming fully acquainted with the law. There are not three vehicles, Kasyapa; there are but beings who act differently; therefore it is declared that there are three vehicles.
When the Lord had thus spoken, the venerable (Sansk. °nte) mahoshadhiyo manushya (Sansk. manushyit^?) pushp&wi anantakani.
1 And removing.
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ON PLANTS.
MaM-Kasyapa said to him: Lord, if there are not three vehicles, for what reason then is the designa¬ tion of disciples (.Sravakas), Buddhas, and Bodhisat- tvas kept up in the present times?
On this speech the Lord answered the venerable Mahd-Ka^yapa as follows: It is, Kcbyapa, as if a potter made different vessels out of the same clay. Some of those pots are to contain sugar, others ghee, others curds and milk; others, of in¬ ferior quality, are vessels of impurity. There is no diversity in the clay used; no, the diversity of the pots is only due to the substances which are put into each of them. In like manner, Ktbyapa, is there but one vehicle, viz. the Buddha-vehicle; there is no second vehicle, no third.
The Lord having thus spoken, the venerable Mahi-Kasyapa said: Lord, if the beings are of different disposition, will there be for those who have left the triple world one Nirvana, or two, or three? The Lord replied: Nirvana, Ktbyapa, is a consequence of understanding that all laws (things) are equal. Hence there is but one Nirvfbza, not two, not three 1. Therefore, Kcbyapa, I will tell thee a parable, for men of good understanding will generally readily enough catch the meaning of what is taught under the shape of a parable.
It is a case, Kasyapa, similar to that of a certain blind-born man, who says: There are no handsome or ugly shapes; there are no men able to see hand¬ some or ugly shapes; there exists no sun nor moon; there are no asterisms nor planets; there are no 1 Cf. Ecclesiastes ix. 2: ‘ All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean.’
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men able to see planets. But other persons say to the blind-born: There are handsome and ugly shapes; there are men able to see handsome and ugly shapes; there i s a sun and moon; there are asterisms and planets; there are men able to see planets. But the blind-born does not believe them, nor accept what they say. Now there is a physician who knows all diseases. He sees that blind-born man and makes to himself this reflection: The disease of this man originates in his sinful actions in former times. All diseases possible to arise are fourfold: rheumatical, cholerical, phlegma- tical, and caused by a complication of the (corrupted) humours. The physician, after thinking again and again on a means to cure the disease, makes to him¬ self this reflection: Surely, with the drugs in common use it is impossible to cure this disease, but there are in the Himalaya, the king of mountains, four herbs, to wit: first, one called Possessed-of-all-sorts- of-colours-and-flavours; second, Delivering-from-all- diseases; third, Delivering-from-all-poisons; fourth, Procuring-happiness-to-those-standing-in-the-right- place. As the physician feels compassion for the blind-born man he contrives some device to get to the Himalaya, the king of mountains. There he goes up and down and across to search. In doing so he finds the four herbs. One he gives after chewing it with the teeth; another after pounding; another after having it mixed with another drug and boiled; another after having it mixed with a raw drug; another after piercing with a lancet some¬ where a vein 1; another after singeing it in fire; 1 SarirastMna;» viddhvd, var. lect. sarasthdnaw v., with a marginal correction sarirasthlnaw v. I consider the original reading to have been sirasthanaw.
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ON PLANTS.
another after combining it with various other sub¬ stances so as to enter in a compound potion, food, &c. Owing to these means being applied the blind- born recovers his eyesight, and in consequence of that recovery he sees outwardly and inwardly 1, far and near, the shine of sun and moon, the asterisms, planets, and all phenomena. Then he says: O how foolish was I that I did not believe what they told me, nor accepted what they affirmed. Now I see all; I am delivered from my blindness and have recovered my eyesight; there is none in the world who could surpass me. And at the same moment Seers of the five transcendent faculties 2, strong in the divine sight and hearing, in the knowledge of others’ minds, in the memory of former abodes, in magical science and intuition, speak to the man thus: Good man, thou hast just recovered thine eyesight, nothing more, and dost not know yet anything. Whence comes this conceitedness to thee? Thou hast no wisdom, nor art thou a clever man. Further they say to him: Good man, when sitting in the interior of thy room, thou canst not see nor distinguish forms 1 Bahir adhyatmam, (the things) external and in relation to one’s own self.
2 I. e. simply the five senses. The term Abhi^wfi can hardly originally have meant ‘ transcendent faculty or knowledge,’ because it is a derivation from a compound abhi^anati. Neither in Sanskrit nor in Prakrit can abhig’M denote anything else but perception, acknowledgment, recognition. Yet it cannot be denied that those who used it intended by it to convey the meaning of something grand and imposing, especially the senses of a spiritual man, as distinguished from the profanum vulgus. As to the Seers, AYshis, here mentioned, I think that they are the senses per¬ sonified, otherwise called dev as, gods. Deva, to denote an organ of sense, occurs frequently, e. g. Mmz^aka Upanishad III, 1, 8.
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outside, nor discern which beings are animated with kind feelings and which with hostile feelings; thou canst not distinguish nor hear at the distance of five yofanas the voice of a man or the sound of a drum, conch trumpet, and the like; thou canst not even walk as far as a kos without lifting up thy feet; thou hast been produced and developed in thy mother’s womb without remembering the fact; how then wouldst thou be clever, and how canst thou say: I see all? Good man, thou takest 1 darkness for light, and takest light for darkness.
Whereupon the Seers are asked by the man: By what means and by what good work shall I acquire such wisdom and with your favour acquire those good qualities (or virtues)? And the Seers say to that man: If that be thy wish, go and live in the wilderness or take thine abode in mountain caves, to meditate on the law and cast off evil passions. So shalt thou become endowed with the virtues of an ascetic 2 and acquire the transcendent faculties. The man catches their meaning and becomes an ascetic. Living in the wilderness, the mind intent upon one sole object, he shakes off worldly desires, and acquires the five transcendent faculties. After that acqui¬ sition he reflects thus: Formerly I did not do the right thing; hence no good accrued to me 3 * * * * 8. Now, 2 Dhutagu»a, Pali the same, besides dhfitaguraa. In F&li the dhutangas or d h u° denote thirteen ascetic practices; see Childers, Pali Diet. s. v. The Dhutagimas are, according to the same author’s statement, other names for the Dhutangas, but I venture to think that they are the twenty-eight virtues of a Dhutanga, as enumerated in Milinda Pawho (ed. Trenckner), p. 351.
8 Purvam anyat karma kn'tavan, tena me na kas/iid gu«o ’dhigata^.
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ON PLANTS.
however, I can go whither my mind prompts me; formerly I was ignorant, of little understanding, in fact, a blind man.
Such, Kisyapa, is the parable I have invented to make thee understand my meaning. The moral to be drawn from it is as follows. The word ‘ blind- born,’ Kasyapa, is a designation for the creatures staying in the whirl of the world with its six states; the creatures who do not know the true law and are heaping up the thick darkness of evil passions. Those are blind from ignorance 1, and in consequence of it they build up conceptions 2; in consequence of the latter name-and-form, and so forth, up to the genesis of this whole huge mass of evils 3.
So the creatures blind from ignorance remain in the whirl of life, but the Tathigata, who is out of the triple world, feels compassion, prompted by which, like a father for his dear and only son, he appears in the triple world and sees with his eye of wisdom that the creatures are revolving in the circle of the mundane whirl, and are toiling without finding the right means to escape from the rotation. And 1 Or, false knowledge, avidya, which in the Chain of Causation (pratityasamutpSda, P&li patiHasamutpada) occupies exactly the same place as in other systems of Indian philosophy. In reality the avidya was not only the origin of all evils, but also the remedy, the panacea. It was, however, thought convenient to veil that conclusion and to call the future state of complete ignorance ‘ all-knowingness.’
2 Rather, products (sawzskara) of the imaginative power, of fancy. These form the second item in the enumeration of Causes and Effects.
3 The genesis of diseases, death, &c. The merely ideal nature of this genesis is proved by the fact that the sage who has overcome avidya is just as liable to diseases and death as the most ignorant creature.
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on. seeing this he comes to the conclusion: Yon beings, according to the good works they have done in former states, have feeble aversions and strong attachments; (or) feeble attachments and strong aversions; some have little wisdom, others are clever; some have soundly developed views, others have unsound views. To all of them the Tathagata skilfully shows three vehicles *.
The Seers in the parable, those possessing the five transcendent faculties and clear-sight, are the Bodhi- sattvas 1 2 who produce enlightened thought, and by the acquirement of acquiescence in the eternal law 3 awake us to supreme, perfect enlightenment.
The great physician in the parable is the Tatha¬ gata. To the blind-born maybe likened the creatures 1 With this we may compare the term trivartman (of three paths), applied to the individual or living being, AveUuvatara Upa- nishad V, 7..Sankara explains it by devayanadi; in the more ancient and natural meaning, the word may have been applied to the three divisions of time. Cf. the same Upanishad I, 4, where the brahma/lakra, the brahma-wheel, is said to be trivrz't, threefold.
2 In the Yoga called buddhisattva, the reasoning faculty. The Bodhisattvas are the five Dhyani-Bodhisattvas Samantabhadra, &c., who do no more differ from the five Dhyani-Buddhas Vai- rokana, &c., than the balas do from the indriyas. Cf. Burnouf, Introd. p. 118.
3 Anutpattikadharmakshintim pratilabhya,var.lect.anut- pattikiw ksh&ntim p. Anutpattika, being a Bahuvrihi, neces¬ sarily means ‘having no origin, no beginning,’ alias anadi. The eternal law is that of rise and decay, and in so far the purport of the phrase seems not materially to differ from the translation in Goldstiicker’s Diet., ‘ enduring conditions which have not yet taken place.’ The word ‘ acquiescence ’ in my version gives but one side of the meaning, for it also denotes ‘undergoing.’ In reality the sanctimonious phrase comes to this: every thinking being suffers the eternal law, i. e. he must die.
V.
ON PLANTS.
V.
ON PLANTS.
blind with infatuation. Attachment, aversion, and infatuation are likened to rheum, bile, and phlegm. The sixty-two false theories also must be looked upon as such (i. e. as doshas, ‘humours and cor¬ rupted humours of the body,’ ‘faults and corrup¬ tions’). The four herbs are like vanity (or voidness), causelessness (or purposelessness), unfixedness, and reaching Nirvdwa. Just as by using different drugs different diseases are healed, so by developing the idea of vanity (or voidness), purposelessness, unfixed- ness, (which are) the principles of emancipation, is ignorance suppressed; the suppression of ignorance is succeeded by the suppression of conceptions (or fancies); and so forth, up to the suppression of the whole huge mass of evils. And thus one’s mind will dwell no more on good nor on evil.
To the man who recovers his eyesight is likened the votary of the vehicle of the disciples and of Pra- tyekabuddhas. He rends the ties of evil passion in the whirl of the world; freed from those ties he is released from the triple world with its six states of existence. Therefore the votary of the vehicle of the disciples may think and speak thus: There are no more laws to be penetrated; I have reached Nir- v&na. Then the Tathagata preaches to him: How can he who has not penetrated all laws have reached Nirvana? The Lord rouses him to enlightenment, and the disciple, when the consciousness of en¬ lightenment has been awakened in him, no longer stays in the mundane whirl, but at the same time has not yet reached Nirvana 1. As he has arrived at 1 I. e. he is not yet actually dead, but dead to the world; he is a (rivan-mukta.
V.
true insight, he looks upon this triple world in every direction as void, resembling the produce of magic, similar to a dream, a mirage, an echo. He sees that all laws (and phenomena) are unborn and unde¬ stroyed, not bound and not loose, not dark and not bright. He who views the profound laws in such a light, sees, as if he were not seeing, the whole triple world full of beings of contrary and omnifarious fancies and dispositions.
And on that occasion, in order to more amply explain the same subject, the Lord uttered the fol¬ lowing stanzas: 45. As the rays of the sun and moon descend alike on all men, good and bad, without deficiency (in one case) or surplus (in the other); 46. So the wisdom of the Tathagata shines like the sun and moon \ leading all beings without partiality.
47. As the potter, making clay vessels, produces from the same clay pots for sugar, milk, ghee, or water; 48. Some for impurities, others for curdled milk, the clay used by the artificer 2 for the vessels being of but one sort; 49. As a vessel is made to receive all its dis¬ tinguishing qualities according to the quality of the substance laid into it 3, so the Tath&gatas, on account of the diversity of taste, 1 Tathagatasya pragma ka bhasad’ aditya/Sandravat. Bhasad’ stands for bhasadi, Sansk. bhasate. Avar. lect. has Tathagatasya pra^di&bhi sama hy a., i. e. ‘the lustre of the TatMgata’s wisdom is equal (to all), like the sun and moon.’
2 Bhargava, to which we may assign the meaning of‘a skilful workman, artificer,’because it is one of the synonyms of tvash tri.
3 Yadrfk prakshipyate dravyam bh%unaw tena labhyate (read, V.
ON PLANTS.
50. Mention a diversity of vehicles, though the Buddha-vehicle be the only indisputable one. He who ignores the rotation of mundane existence, has no perception of blessed rest; 51. But he who understands that all laws are void and without reality (and without individual character) penetrates the enlightenment of the perfectly en¬ lightened Lords in its very essence.
52. One who occupies a middle position of wisdom 1 is called a Pratyeka^ina (i. e. Pratyekabuddha); one lacking the insight of voidness 2 is termed a disciple.
53. But after understanding all laws one is called a perfectly-enlightened one; such a one is assiduous in preaching the law to living beings by means of hundreds of devices.
54. It is as if some blind-born man, because he sees no sun, moon, planets, and stars, in his blind ignorance (should say): There are no visible things® at all.
55. But a great physician taking compassion on the blind man, goes to the Himalaya, where (seeking) across, up and down, 56. He fetches from the mountain four plants; lambhyate) sarva(n) vireshe ’pi (Prakrit for vireshan api, though the stanza bears the traces of having originally been in Sanskrit) tatha ru/£ibhedat Tathagat&A. A var. lect. has k s h a t e (one syllable wanting) instead of la(m)bhyate; what is intended is rakshate, it keeps.
2 I am at a loss to explain how this statement is to be recon¬ ciled with the bearings of the passage in prose before, unless we assume that the philosophers here alluded to are followers of other creeds, who believe in the existence of a soul. Their views are in opposition to those of the Buddha; yet they are to be spoken of with moderate respect, because they do not belong to the profanum vulgus.
8 Rather here, phenomena.
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the herb Of-all-colours-flavours-and-cases 1, and others. These he intends to apply.
57. He applies them in this manner: one he gives to the blind man after chewing it, another after pounding, again another by introducing it with the point of a needle into the man’s body.
58. The man having got his eyesight, sees the sun, moon, planets, and stars, and arrives at the conclusion that it was from sheer ignorance that he spoke thus as he had formerly done.
59. In the same way do people of great ignorance, blind from their birth, move in the turmoil of the world, because they do not know the wheel of causes and effects, the path of toils 2.
60. In the world so blinded by ignorance appears the highest of those who know all, the Tathagata, the great physician, of compassionate nature.
61. As an able teacher he shows the true law; he reveals supreme Buddha-enlightenment to him who is most advanced.
62. To those of middling wisdom the Leader preaches a middling enlightenment; again another enlightenment he recommends to him who is afraid of the mundane whirl.
63. The disciple who by his discrimination has escaped from the triple world thinks he has reached pure, blest Nirvana 3, but it is only by knowing all 1 The reading is doubtful: sarvavaraarasasthanan nagal labhata oshadhiM, evamadtf £atasro ’tha, &c.; var. lect. °sthananuga;» 1., &c. This may mean, fit for all colours, flavours, and cases.
3 In other words, he has indeed attained a qualified (sopadhi- jesha, Pali up&disesa or sa-upadiresha) Nirvana, or as non- Buddhists say, ^-tvanmukti.
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ON PLANTS.
laws (and the universal laws) that the immortal 1 Nirvana is reached.
64. In that case it is as if the great Seers, moved by compassion, said to him: Thou art mistaken; do not be proud of thy knowledge.
65. When thou art in the interior of thy room, thou canst not perceive what is going on without, fool as thou art.
66. Thou who, when staying within, dost not perceive even now what people outside are doing or not doing, how wouldst thou be wise, fool as thou art?
67. Thou art not able to hear a sound at a dis¬ tance of but five yo^anas, far less at a greater distance.
68. Thou canst not discern who are malevolent or benevolent towards thee. Whence then comes that pride to thee?
69. If thou hast to walk so far as a kos, thou canst not go without a beaten track 2; and what hap¬ pened to thee when in thy mother’s womb thou hast immediately forgotten.
70. In this world he is called all-knowing who possesses the five transcendent faculties, but when thou who knowest nothing pretendest to be all¬ knowing, it is an effect of infatuation.
71. If thou art desirous of omniscience, direct thy attention to transcendent wisdom; then betake thy- 1 I. e. eternal, because in this system the dead is dead for ever. This immortal, everlasting Nirvana is, of course, the anupadhi- jesha, Pali anup&disesa N.
2 Or, perhaps, without a guide, padavtn tu vina ’gatiA. This does not agree with the prose version, but it is not rare to meet with such discrepancies.
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self to the wilderness and meditate on the pure law; by it thou shalt acquire the transcendent faculties.
72. The man catches the meaning, goes to the wilderness, meditates with the greatest attention, and, as he is endowed with good qualities, ere long acquires the five transcendent faculties.
73. Similarly all disciples fancy having reached Nirvana, but the Crina instructs them (by saying): This is a (temporary) repose, no final rest.
74. It is an artifice of the Buddhas to enunciate this dogma \ There is no (real) Nirvd^a without all-knowingness; try to reach this.
75. The boundless knowledge of the three paths (of time), the six utmost perfections (Paramitis), voidness, the absence of purpose (or object), the absence of finiteness 1 2; 76. The idea of enlightenment and the other laws leading to Nirvana, both such as are mixed with imperfection and such as are exempt from it, such as are tranquil and comparable to ethereal space; 77. The four Brahmavihdras 3 and the four San- grahas 4, as well as the laws sanctioned by eminent sages for the education of creatures; 78. (He who knows these things) and that all phenomena have the nature of illusion and dreams, 1 Of temporary repose, it would seem.
2 Or, absence of fixed purpose, prawidhanavivargitam.
3 Otherwise termed AppamanSa in Pali; they are identical with the four bhivan&s, or exercises to develop benevolence, com¬ passion, cheerful sympathy, and equanimity, well known from the Yoga; see Yogarastra I, 33.
4 Commonly called sangrahavastuni, Pdli sangahavatthuni, articles of sociability, viz. liberality, affability, promoting another’s interest, and pursuit of a common aim; see e. g. Lalita-vistara, V.
ON PLANTS.
that they are pithless as the stem of the plantain 1, and similar to an echo; 79. And who knows that the triple world through¬ out is of that nature, not fast and not loose, he knows rest.
80. He who considers all laws 2 to be alike, void, devoid of particularity and individuality, not derived from an intelligent cause; nay, who discerns that nothingness is law 3; 81. Such a one has great wisdom and sees the whole of the law entirely. There are no three vehicles by any means; there is but one vehicle in this world.
82. All laws (or the laws of all) are alike, equal, for all, and ever alike. Knowing this, one under¬ stands immortal, blest N irva/za.
1 Cf. the words of the funeral song in Ya^wavalkya III, 8: ‘ Foolish is he who would seek pithfulness in humanity, which is pithless as the plantain’s stem and resembling a water bubble.’
2 Or all things; or the laws of all things.
8 Sarvadharman sama(ft)/! Munya(n) nirnanakara«atmaka»2 (r. °kan), na £aitan (I think /laittan) prekshate napi Wmkid dharmaw (sic) vip&jyate. The other MS. has sarvadharmam (r. °man) samS(n) funyan nirnanakarawatmikan, na ket irn prekshate napi ki»2&d dharmaw vinaryati. The great difficulty lies in the second half verse, which is evidently corrupt and wrongly Sanskritised, so that the correctness of the translation in this respect is pro¬ blematical.
SADDH ARM A-P LWDARIKA.
VI.
CHAPTER VI.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUTURE DESTINY.
After pronouncing these stanzas the Lord addressed the complete assembly of monks: I announce to you, monks, I make known to you that the monk Kai-yapa, my disciple, here present, shall do homage to thirty thousand ko/is of Buddhas; shall respect, honour, and worship them; and shall keep the true law of those Lords and Buddhas. In his last bodily existence 1 in the world Avabhasa (i. e. lustre), in the age (zEon) Mahavyuha (i.e. great division) he shall be a Tathagata, an Arhat, &c. &c., by the name of R&smiprabhasa (i.e. beaming with rays). His lifetime shall last twelve intermediate kalpas, and his true law twenty intermediate kalpas; the counterfeit of his true law shall last as many inter¬ mediate kalpas. His Buddha-field will be pure, clean, devoid of stones, grit, gravel; of pits and precipices; devoid of gutters and dirty pools 2; even, pretty, beautiful, and pleasant to see; consist¬ ing of lapis lazuli, adorned with jewel-trees, and looking like a checker-board with eight compart¬ ments set off with gold threads. It will be strewed 1 Pa.?/Sima samuH'/Sraya, which also means western rise, elevation.
2 Apagatasyandanikaghtho<filla,var.lect.°tho(figalla. My rendering of the last part of the compound is conjectural.
VI.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUTURE DESTINY. I43 with flowers, and many hundred thousand Bodhi- sattvas are to appear in it. As to disciples, there will be innumerable hundred thousands of myriads of koris of them. Neither Mdra the evil one, nor his host will be discoverable in it, though Mara and his followers shall afterwards be there; for they will apply themselves to receive the true law under the command of that very Lord Ra^mi- prabhasa.
And on that occasion the Lord uttered the fol¬ lowing stanzas: 1. With my Buddha-eye, monks, I see that the senior Kasyapa here shall become a Buddha at a future epoch, in an incalculable PEon, after he shall have paid homage to the most high of men.
2. This Kdvyapa shall see fully thirty thousand ko/is of (Pinas, under whom he shall lead a spiritual life for the sake of Buddha-knowledge.
3. After having paid homage to those highest of men and acquired that supreme knowledge, he shall in his last bodily existence be a Lord of the world, a matchless, great Seer.
4. And his field will be magnificent, excellent, pure, goodly, beautiful, pretty, nice, ever delightful, and set off with gold threads.
5. That field, monks, (appearing like) a board divided into eight compartments, will have several jewel-trees, one in each compartment, from which issues a delicious odour.
6. It will be adorned with plenty of flowers, and embellished with variegated blossoms; in it are no pits nor precipices; it is even, goodly, beautiful.
7. There will be found hundreds of ko/is of Bo- dhisattvas, subdued of mind and of great magical VI.
power, mighty keepers 1 of Sutrantas of great ex¬ tension.
8. As to disciples, faultless, princes of the law, standing in their last period of life, their number can never be known, even if one should go on counting for ALons, and that with the aid of divine knowledge.
9. He himself shall stay twelve intermediate kalpas, and his true law twenty complete /Eons; the counterfeit is to continue as many ASons, in the domain of Rasmiprabhasa.
Thereupon the venerable senior Maha-Maudga- lyayana, the venerable Subhftti, and the venerable Mah 4 -Katyayana, their bodies trembling, gazed up to the Lord with unblenching eyes, and at the same moment severally uttered, in mental concert, the following stanzas: 10. O hallowed one (Arhat), great hero, Aakya- lion, most high of men! out of compassion to us speak the Buddha-word.
11. The highest of men, the Gma, he who knows the fatal term, will, as it were, sprinkle us with nectar by predicting our destiny also.
12. (It is as if) a certain man, in time of famine, comes and gets good food, but to whom, when the food is already in his hands, they say that he should wait 2.
13. Similarly it was with us, who after minding 1 VaipulyasutrantadharSwa tayinam. Here the word tayin would seem to be used in the sense of ‘ able,’ agreeing with the meaning of tdyana in Pawini I, 3, 38.
2 Durbhiksha agataA kar&n naro labdhva subho^anawz, 1 pratiksha ’ bhuya u/^yeta hastapraptasmi bho^ane. The Prakrit underlying this literary dialect is easily reconstrued.
VI.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUTURE DESTINY. 145 the lower vehicle, at the calamitous conjuncture of a bad time 1, were longing for Buddha-knowledge.
14. But the perfectly-enlightened great Seer has not yet favoured us with a prediction (of our des¬ tiny), as if he would say: Do not eat the food that has been put into your hand.
15. Quite so, O hero, we were longing as we heard the exalted voice (and thought): Then shall we be at rest 2, when we shall have received a prediction.
16. Utter a prediction, O great hero, so benevo¬ lent and merciful! let there be an end of our feeling of poverty!
And the Lord, who in his mind apprehended the thoughts arising in the minds of those great senior disciples, again addressed the complete assembly of monks: This great disciple of mine, monks, the senior Subhuti, shall likewise pay homage to thirty hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of Buddhas; shall show them respect, honour, reverence, venera¬ tion, and worship. Under them shall he lead a spiritual life and achieve enlightenment. After the performance of such duties shall he, in his last bodily existence, become a Tathagata in the world, an Arhat, &c. &c., by the name of -Saxiketu 3.
His Buddha-field will be called Ratnasambhava and his epoch Ratnaprabhasa 4. And that Buddha- field will be even, beautiful, crystalline, variegated with jewel-trees, devoid of pits and precipices, devoid 2 And felicitous, blest, beatified (nirvnta).
3 I. e. moon-signal, or having the moon for ensign.
4 Var. lect. Ratndvabhdsa.
VI.
of sewers 1, nice, covered with flowers. And there will men have their abode in palaces (or towers) given them for their use. In it will be many disci¬ ples, innumerable, so that it would be impossible to terminate the calculation. Many hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of Bodhisattvas also will be there. The lifetime of that Lord is to last twelve inter¬ mediate kalpas; his true law is to continue twenty intermediate kalpas, and its counterfeit as many. That Lord will, while standing poised in the firma¬ ment 2, preach the law to the monks, and educate many thousands of Bodhisattvas and disciples.
And on that occasion the Lord uttered the fol¬ lowing stanzas: 17. I have something to announce, monks, some¬ thing to make known; listen then to me: The senior Subhfiti, my disciple, shall in days to come be a Buddha.
18. After having seen of most mighty Buddhas thirty myriads of ko/is in full, he shall enter upon the straight 3 course to obtain this knowledge.
19. In his last bodily existence shall the hero, possessed of the thirty-two distinctive signs, become a great Seer, similar to a column of gold, beneficial and bounteous to the world.
20. The field where that friend of the world 4 shall save myriads of ko/is of living beings will be most beautiful, pretty, and delightful to people at large.
1 Doubtful, the MSS. having gfithorfigilla and gfttho</igalla.
2 Properly, standing as a great meteor, mahavaihayasawz sthitva; vaihayasa is exactly the Greek /xercapos.
3 Anuloma, direct, straight; the reverse of vakragati, the retrograde motion of planets, &c.
4 Lokabandhu.
VI. ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUTURE DESTINY. 1 47 21. In it will be many Bodhisattvas to turn the wheel that never rolls back (or never deviates); en¬ dowed with keen faculties they will, under that Crina, be the ornaments of the Buddha-field.
22. His disciples are so numerous as to pass cal¬ culation and measure; gifted with the six trans¬ cendent faculties, the triple science and magic power; firm in the eight emancipations.
23. His magic power, while he reveals supreme enlightenment, is inconceivable. Gods and men, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, will always reverentially salute him with joined hands.
24. He shall stay twelve intermediate kalpas; the true law of that most high of men is to last twenty intermediate kalpas and the counterfeit of it as many.