Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/95

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ii.
SKILFULNESS.
47

reaching the spotless eminent state of enlightenment, establish any one in the inferior vehicle. That would not beseem me.

57. There is no envy whatever in me; no jealousy, no desire, nor passion. Therefore I am the Buddha, because the world follows my teaching 1 .

58. When, splendidly marked with (the thirty-two) characteristics, I am illuminating this whole world, and, worshipped by many hundreds of beings, I show the (unmistakable) stamp of the nature of the law;

59. Then, ,S£riputra, I think thus : How will all beings by the thirty-two characteristics mark the self-born Seer, who of his own accord sheds his lustre all over the world ?

60. And while I am thinking and pondering, when my wish has been fulfilled and my vow accomplished, I no more 2 reveal Buddha-knowledge.

61. If, O son of .SSri 3 , I spoke to the creatures, 'Vivify in your minds the wish for enlightenment, they would in their ignorance all go astray and never catch the meaning of my good words.

62. And considering them to be such, and that they have not accomplished their course of duty in previous existences, (I see how) they are attached and devoted to sensual pleasures, infatuated by desire and blind with delusion.


Anubodht, which may be rendered otherwise, '(because the world) perceives me.'

  • One MS. reads £a, 'and,' for na, 'not'
  • Sdrisuta, otherwise Sdriputra. «S"driki or sdrikd is the Turdus

Salica, one of whose other names is dutt, masc. duta. It is hardly a mere play of chance that .S&riputra in Kullavagga VII, 4 is praised as being an excellent duta.