Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 1679

I 22
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
III, 11.
'For like a king who rules all within the four seas, yet still seeks beyond for something more, (so is lust); like the unbounded ocean, it knows not when and where to stop. 842
'Mandha, the Kakravartin, when the heavens rained yellow gold, and he ruled all within the seas, yet sighed after the domain of the thirty-three heavens; 843
· Dividing with Sakra his seat, and so thro' the power of this lust he died; Nung-Sha (Nyâsa ?), whilst practising austerities, got power to rule the thirty-three heavenly abodes, 844
But from lust he became proud and supercilious, the Rishi whilst stepping into his chariot, through carelessness in his gait, fell down into the midst of the serpent pit. 845
Yen-lo (Yama ?) the universal monarch (Kakravartin) wandering abroad thro' the Trayastrimsas heaven, took a heavenly woman (Apsara) for a queen, and unjustly extorted the gold of a Rishi ; 846
“The Rishi, in anger, added a charm, by which the country was ruined, and his life ended. Po-lo, and Sakra king of Devas?, Sakra king of Devas, and Nung-sha (Nyasa), 847
'Nung-sha returning (or, restoring) to Sakra; what certainty (constancy) is there, even for the lord of heaven? Neither is any country safe, though kept by the mighty strength of those dwelling in it. 848
1 The literal translation of this line would be, Taxing the gold of Lim the Rishi;' or, of the harvest ingathered by the Rishi.'
These lines refer to the transfer of heavenly power from Sakra to others, but the myth is not known to me; and there is confusion in the text, which is probably corrupt.
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