Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/428

 is the sublimest gift, higher than the abandoning of royalty, the abandoning of beloved children and wife. Sacrificing one s own body, young man of good family, is the most distinguished, the chiefest, the best, the very best, the most sublime worship of the law. After pronouncing this speech, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, those Lords Buddhas were silent.

The body of Sarvasattvapriyadarrana continued blazing for twelve thousand years without ceasing to burn. After the expiration of those twelve thousand years the fire was extinguished. Then, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, the Bodhisattva Mahisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarrana, having paid such worship to the Tath&gata, disappeared from that place, and (re)appeared under the (spiritual) reign of that very Lord Aandravimalasfiryaprabh&sa^rf, the Tathagata, &c, in the house of king Vimaladatta, by apparitional birth, and sitting cross-legged. Immediately after his appearance the Bodhisattva Mahisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarrana addressed his father and mother in the following stanza:

1. This, O exalted king, is the walk in which I have acquired meditation; I have achieved a heroical feat, fulfilled a great vote by sacrificing my own dear body.

After uttering this stanza, Nakshatrarâgasaṅkusumitâbhigña, the Bodhisattva Mahdsattva Sarvasattvapriyadarcana said to his father and mother: Even now, father and mother, the Lord Aandravimalastiryaprabh&sairi, the Tathdgata, &c, is still living, existing, staying in the world, the Lord by worshipping whom I have obtained the spell of