Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/197

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vi.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUTURE DESTINY.
149

expiration he shall build Stûpas, worshipping them with flowers and perfumes.

27. In his last bodily existence he shall be a Gina, in a thoroughly pure field, and after acquiring full knowledge he shall preach to a thousand kotis of living beings.

28. He shall be a mighty Buddha and illuminator, highly honoured in this world, including the gods, under the name of Gâmbunada-prabhâsa[1], and save kotis of gods and men.

29. Many Bodhisattvas as well as disciples, beyond measure and calculation, will in that field adorn the reign of that Buddha, all of them freed from existence and exempt from existence[2].

Again the Lord addressed the complete assembly of monks: I announce to you, monks, I make known, that the senior Mahâ-Maudgalyâyana here present, my disciple, shall propitiate twenty-eight thousand Buddhas[3] and pay those Lords homage of various kinds; he shall show them respect, &c, and after their expiration build Stûpas consisting of seven precious substances, to wit, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, red pearl, emerald, and, seventhly, coral; (Stûpas) a thousand yoganas in height and five hundred yoganas in circumference, which Stûpas he shall worship in different ways, with flowers, incense, perfumed wreaths, ointments, powder, robes, umbrellas, banners, flags, and triumphal streamers.


  1. One MS. has a second-hand reading, °dâbhâsa.
  2. Vibhava; Burnouf must have read vibhaya, 'exempts de terreur.'
  3. The number of twenty-eight — the cyphers not being taken into account—probably indicates the number of days (Buddhas) during which the planet is standing in some stage of its course.