Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/377

 to another person, his mother, father, kinsman, friend, acquaintance, or any other person ; if the latter, after hearing, joyfully accepts, and, in consequence, communicates it to another; if the latter, after hearing, joyfully accepts, and communicates it to another; if this other, again, after hearing, joyfully accepts it, and so on in succession until a number of fifty is reached; then, Agita, the fiftieth person to hear and joyfully accept the law so heard, let it be a young man of good family or a young lady, will have acquired an accumulation of merit connected with the joyful acceptance, Agita, which I am going to indicate to thee. Listen, and take it well to heart; I will tell thee.

It is, Agita, as if the creatures existing in the four hundred thousand Asankhyeyas of worlds, in any of the six states of existence, born from an egg, from a womb, from warm humidity, or from metamorphosis, whether they have a shape or have not, be they conscious or unconscious, neither conscious nor unconscious, footless, two-footed, four-footed, or many-footed, as many beings as are contained in the world of creatures,—(as if) all those had flocked together to one place. Further, suppose some man appears, a lover of virtue, a lover of good, who gives to that whole body the pleasures, sports, amusements, and enjoyments they desire, like, and relish. He gives to each of them all Gambudvîpa for his pleasures, sports, amusements, and enjoyments; gives bullion, gold, silver, gems, pearls, lapis lazuli, conches, stones (?), coral, carriages yoked with horses, with bullocks, with elephants; gives palaces and