power, mighty keepers[1] of Sûtrântas of great extension.
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 Æons, and that with the aid of divine knowledge.
9. He himself shall stay twelve intermediate kalpas, and his true law twenty complete Æons; the counterfeit is to continue as many Æons, in the domain of Rasmiprabhâsa.
Thereupon the venerable senior Mahâ-Maudgalyâyana, the venerable Subhûti, and the venerable Mahâ-Kâtyâyana, 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, Sâkya-lion, most high of men! out of compassion to us speak the Buddha-word.
11. The highest of men, the Gina, 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
- ↑ Vaipulyasûtrântadharâna tâyinâm. Here the word tâyin would seem to be used in the sense of 'able,' agreeing with the meaning of tâyana in Pânini I, 3, 38.
- ↑ Durbhiksha âgatah kaskin naro labdhvâ subhoganam, 'pratîksha' bhûya ukyeta hastaprâptasmi bhogane. The Prâkrit underlying this literary dialect is easily reconstrued.
