Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/208

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160
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
vii.

sublime knowledge; let it shine in the world, including the gods.

16. Release us as well as these creatures; display the knowledge of the Tathâgatas, that we also and, further, these beings may obtain this supreme[1] enlightenment.

17. Thou knowest every course (of duty) and knowledge; thou knowest the (mental and moral) disposition and the good works done in a former state; the (natural) bent of all living beings. Move on the most exalted, sublime wheel!

Then, monks, as the Lord Mahâbhiâânâbhibhû, the Tathâgata, &c, reached supreme, perfect enlightenment, fifty hundred thousand myriads of kotis of spheres in each of the ten directions of space were shaken in six different ways and became illumined with a great lustre. And in the intervals between all those spheres, in the dreary places of dark gloom, where even the sun and moon, so powerful, mighty, and splendid, have no advantage of the shining power they are endowed with, have no advantage of the colour and brightness they possess, even in those places a great lustre arose instantly. And the beings who appeared[2] in those intervals behold each other, acknowledge each other, (and exclaim): Lo, there are other beings also here appearing! lo, there are other beings also here appearing! The palaces and aerial cars of the gods in all those spheres up to the Brahma-world shook in six different ways and became illumined with a


  1. Or, foremost; the word used being agra.
  2. Upapanna, by so-called aupapâduka (Pâli opapâtika), apparitional birth, birth by metamorphosis. Clouds e.g. are so born.