knowing all sounds[1] and this Dharmaparyâya of the Lotus of the True Law, consisting of eighty hundred thousand myriads of £otis of stanzas, of a hundred Niyutas[2], of Vivaras[3], of a hundred Vivaras, which I have heard from that Lord. Therefore, father and mother, I should like to go to that Lord and worship him again. Instantaneously, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, the Bodhisattva Mahsattva Sarvasattvapriyadarcana rose seven tilas[4] high into the sky and sat cross-legged on the top of a tower of seven precious substances. So he went up to the presence of that Lord, and having approached him humbly saluted him, circumambulated him seven times from left to right, stretched the joined hands towards the Lord, and after thus paying his homage addressed him with the following stanza:
2. O thou whose face is so spotless and bright; thou, king and sage! How thy lustre sparkles in all quarters! After having anciently paid thee homage, O Sugata, I now come again to behold thee, O Lord.
Having pronounced this stanza, the Bodhisattva Mahsattva Sarvasattvapriyadanrana said to the
- ↑ This comes rather unexpected; of the Phœnix in the Old English poem, verse 131, we read that 'the sound of the bird's song is sweeter and more beautiful than all other singer-craft, and more delicious than any other tune.'
- ↑ Equal to a thousand billions. The cyphers being noughts, the whole number=1. Eighty is the number of intermediate kalpas in one Mahâkalpa or Great Æon, i. e. one day and night. The turn (paryâya) of the True Law is the regular revolution of the sun.
- ↑ Equal to a hundred thousand billions. As cyphers must be left out of account, all the numbers specified come to one.
- ↑ The height of a palm-tree, or a span.
