Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/433

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different ways, and let the angels in the sky pour down a rain of flowers. No sooner, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, had the Bodhisattva Mahisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarcana made that vow of truth, than the whole triple macrocosm was shaken in six different ways, and from the sky aloft fell a great rain of flowers. The arm of the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Sarvasattvapriyadarrana became again as it was before, and that by the power of knowledge and by the power of pious merit belonging to that Bodhisattva Mahâsattva. Perhaps, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, thou wilt have some doubt, uncertainty or misgiving, (and think) that the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Sarvasattvapriyadanrana at that time, and that epoch, was another. But do not think so; for the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Bhaishagyarâga here was at that time, and that epoch, the Bodhisattva Mah&sattva Sarvasattvapriyadarcana. So many hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of difficult things, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, and sacrifices^[1] of his body does this Bodhisattva Mah&sattva Sarvasattvapriyadanyana accomplish. Now, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, the young man or young lady of good family striving in the Bodhisattva vehicle towards the goal and longing for supreme, perfect enlightenment, who at the Tathfigata-shrines shall burn a great toe, a finger, a toe, or a whole limb, such a young man or young lady of good family, I assure thee, shall produce far more^[2] pious merit, far more than results from giving up a king-

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1. Âtmabhâvaparityâgâms ka. The Phœnix in the poem, verse 364 seq., repeatedly, every thousand years, dies in the flames to arise anew from his ashes, and to be reborn.
2. Bahutaram khalv api.