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VII.
ANCIENT DEVOTION.
155
universe to atoms of dust took one atom to deposit it a thousand regions farther on;
3. If he deposited a second, a third atom, and so proceeded until he had done with the whole mass of dust, so that this world were empty and the mass of dust exhausted;
4. To that immense mass of the dust of these worlds, entirely reduced to atoms, I liken the number of Æons past.
5. So immense is the number of kotis of Æons past since that extinct Sugata; the whole of (existing) atoms is no (adequate) expression of it; so many are the Æons which have expired since.
6. That Leader who has expired so long ago, those disciples and Bodhisattvas, I remember all of them as if it were to-day or yesterday. Such is the knowledge of the Tathagatas.
7. So endless, monks, is the knowledge of the Tathagata ; I know what has taken place many hundreds of Æons ago, by my precise and faultless memory.
To proceed, monks, the measure of the lifetime of the Tathagata Mahâbhigñagñanabhibhū, the Arhat, &c. was fifty-four hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Æons.
In the beginning when the Lord had not yet reached supreme, perfect enlightenment and had just occupied the summit of the terrace of enlightenment, he discomfited and defeated the whole host of Mara, after which he thought: I am to reach
* Bodhimandavarágragata eva; var. lect. bodhimandavarâgata eva, i.e. just having come to the terrace of enlightenment. Vara here is vára, circuit; it adds little to the notion of the simple bodhimanda, this also being a round terrace.
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| SR No. | 007677 |
| Book Title | Saddharma Pundarika |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | H Kern |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1884 |
| Total Pages | 2546 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 46 MB |