of hearers, who are striving for the vehicle of Bodhisattvas, and I, staying in another world, Bhaisha^yar&fa, will by means of fictious creatures[1] make the minds of the whole congregation favourably disposed to that young man of good family, and I will send fictious monks, nuns, male and female lay devotees in order to hear the sermon of the preacher, who are unable to gainsay or contradict him 2 . If afterwards he shall have retired to the forest, I will send thither many gods, Nâgas, goblins, Gandharvas, demons, Garudas, Kinnaras, and great serpents to hear him preach, while I, staying in another world, Bhaishafyar&^a, will show my face to that young man of good family, and the words and syllables of this Dharmapary&ya which he happens to h&ve forgotten will I again suggest to him 8 when he repeats his lesson.
And on that occasion the Lord uttered the following stanzas :
16. Let one listen to this exalted Sfltra, avoiding all distractedness; for rare is the occasion (given) for hearing it, and rare also the belief in it.
I cannot tell what real phenomena are underlying these creations of the Buddha after his Nirvana; but this much seems clear, that we have in this piece a description of the practical course a young preacher has to go through in order to become fit for his task.
Pratyukkarayishy&mi, literally, I will cause him to re-utter. The real purport, unless I am much mistaken, is : on a following day (Buddha) will restore what the student has forgotten from his lesson, provided he reads the passage again ; or, if we take the
words in a spiritual sense, the mental light of the student will again supply what he has forgotten of his lesson. Cf. stanza 31.
- ↑ Nirmitaih; the word is masculine, as appears from the sequel.
