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376
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÍKA.
XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
ANCIENT DEVOTION OF BHAISHAGYARÂGA.
Thereupon the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Nakshatrarâgasankusumitâbhigña spoke to the Lord as follows: Wherefore, O Lord, does the Bodhisattva Bhaishagyarâga pursue his course in this Sahaworld, while he is fully aware of the many hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of difficulties he has to meet? Let the Lord, the Tathagata, &c., deign to tell us any part of the course of duty of the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Bhaishagyarâga, that by hearing it the gods, Nagas, goblins, Gandharvas, demons, Garudas, Kinnaras, great serpents, men, and beings not human, as well as the Bodhisattvas Mahâsattvas from other worlds here present, and these great disciples here may be content, delighted, overjoyed.
And the Lord, out of regard to that request of the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Nakshatrarâgasankusumitâbhigña, told him the following: Of yore, young man of good family, at a past epoch, at a time (as many) Æons ago as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges, there appeared in the world a Tathagata, &c., by the name of Kandravimalasůryaprabhâsasri:,• endowed with science and conduct, a
* Pârvayoga; cf. foot-note, p. 153. ? Pravikarati.
* I.e. moon-bright and illustrious by (or like) the radiance of the sun.
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