Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/265

Rh food, soft and hard, with nourishment and drink, with vehicles, with heaps of choice and gorgeous jewels. That preacher of the law must be honoured by heaps of gorgeous jewels being presented to that preacher of the law. For it may be that by his expounding this DharmaparyAya, were it only once, innumerable, incalculable beings who hear it shall soon become accomplished in supreme and perfect enlightenment.

And on that occasion the Lord uttered the following stanzas:

1. He who wishes to be established in Buddhahood and aspires to the knowledge of the Self-born l , must honour those who keep this doctrine.

2. And he who is desirous of omniscience and thinks : How shall I soonest reach it ? must try to know this Sfttra by heart, or at least honour one who knows it.

3. He has been sent by the Lord of the world to convert (or catechise) men, he who out of compas- sion for mankind recites this Stitra 2.

4. After giving up a good position, that great man 8 has come hither, he who out of compassion for mankind keeps this Sfttra (in memory).

5. It is by force of his position, that in the last times he is seen preaching this unsurpassed Stitra.

6. That preacher of the law must be honoured Svayambhu^ndna, which, to my apprehension, is an alteration of brahmavidya From such a passage as this one might be tempted to believe that it had been the intention of the author of this verse to repre- sent Buddha as eternal; cf. Bumouf s remarks in his Introduction, p. 119. I. e. the preacher or catechiser.