Bodhisattva Mahisattva was being abused, but he was not angry at anybody, nor felt malignity, and to those who, when he addressed them in the said manner, cast a clod or stick at him, he loudly ex- claimed from afar : I do not contemn you. Those monks and nuns, male and female lay devotees, being always and ever addressed by him in that phrase gave him the (nick)name of Sadfiparibhftta 1 .
Under those circumstances, Mahdsthimapr&pta, the Bodhisattva Mahdsattva Sad&paribhtita happened to hear this Dharmaparydya of the Lotus of the True Law when the end of his life was impending, and the moment of dying drawing near. It was the Lord Bhtshmagar^itasvararfiga, the Tathfigata, &c, who expounded this Dharmaparydya in twenty times twenty hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of stan- zas, which the Bodhisattva Mah&sattva Sad&pari- bhflta heard from a voice in the sky, when the time of his death was near at hand. On hearing that voice from the sky, without there appearing a person speaking, he grasped this Dharmaparydya and obtained the perfections already mentioned : the perfection of sight, hearing, smell, taste, body, and mind. With the attainment of these perfections he at the same time made a vow to prolong his life for twenty hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of years, and promulgated this Dharmaparydya of the Lotus of the True Law. And all those proud beings, monks, nuns, male and female lay devotees to whom he had said: I do not contemn you, and who had given him the name of SadAparibhtita, became all his fol-
I.e. both 'always contemned' (sad& and paribhuta) and
'always not-contemned, never contemned' (sad& and aparibhuta).
