Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/487

Rh wicked Mâra, move forward the wheel of the law, strike the drum of the law, blow the conch trumpet of the law, spread the rain of the law, and ascend the royal throne of the law. The monks who at the end of time, at the end of the period, in the second half of the millennium, keep this Dharmaparyâya, will not be covetous, nor greedy of robes or vehicles. Those preachers will be honest, and possessed of three emancipations; they will refrain from worldly business. Such persons as lead into error monks who know this Sûtrânta, shall be born blind; and such as openly defame them, shall have a spotted body in this very world. Those who scoff and hoot at the monks who copy this Sûtrânta, shall have the teeth broken and separated far from each other; disgusting lips, a flat nose, contorted hands and feet, squinting eyes; a putrid body, a body covered with stinking boils, eruptions, scabs, and itch. If one speaks an unkind word, true or not true, to such writers, readers, and keepers of this Sûtrânta, it must be considered a very heinous sin. Therefore then, Samantabhadra, people should, even from afar, rise from their seats before the monks who keep this Dharmaparyâya and show them the same reverence as to the Tathâgata.

While this chapter of the Encouragement of Samantabhadra was being expounded, hundred thousands of kotis of Bodhisattvas Mahâsattvas, equal to the sands of the river Ganges, acquired the talismanic spell Âvarta.