CHAPTER V.
ON PLANTS.
Thereupon the Lord addressed the venerable Mahâ-Kâsyapa and the other senior great disciples, and said: Very well, very well, Kâsyapa; you have done very well to proclaim the real qualities of the Tathâgata. They are the real qualities of the Tathâgata, Kâsyapa, but he has many more, innumerable, incalculable, the end of which it would be difficult to reach, even were one to continue enumerating them for immeasurable Æons. The Tathdgata, Kâsyapa, is the master of the law, the king, lord, and master of all laws. And whatever law for any case has been instituted by the Tathâgata, remains unchanged. All laws, Kâsyapa, have been aptly instituted by the Tathâgata. In his Tathâgata-wisdom he has instituted them in such a manner that all those laws finally lead to the stage of those who know all[1]. The Tathâgata also distinctly knows the meaning of all laws. The Tathâgata, the Arhat, &c. is possessed of the faculty of penetrating all laws, possessed of the highest perfection of knowledge, so that he is able to decide all laws, able to display the knowledge of the all-knowing, impart the knowledge of the all-knowing,
- ↑ 'All-knowing' is one of the most frequent euphemistic phrases to denote the state of the dead. Hence all-knowing (sarvagña) and knowing nothing (agña) virtually come to the same, and the commentator on Bhâgavata-Purâna X, 78, 6 could therefore aptly identify agña and sarvagña.
