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34
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÍKA.
II.
16. If they were going on investigating for many kotis of Æons, as incalculable as the sand of the Ganges, with undivided attention and subtle wit, even then that (knowledge) would be beyond their ken.
17. If such Bodhisattvas as are unable to fall back, numerous as the sand of the Ganges, were to investigate it with undivided attention, it would prove to lie beyond their ken.
18. Profound are the laws of the Buddhas, and subtle; all inscrutable and faultless. I myself know them as well as the Ginas do in the ten directions of the world.
19. Thou, Sâriputra, be full of trust in what the Sugata declares. The Gina speaks no falsehood, the great Seer who has so long preached the highest truth.
20. I address all disciples here, those who have set out to reach the enlightenment of Pratyekabuddhas, those who are roused to activity at my Nirvana', and those who have been released from the series of evils.
21. It is by my superior skilfulness that I explain the law at great length to the world at large. I deliver whosoever are attached to one point or another, and show the three vehicles?.
The eminent disciples in the assembly headed by Ågñata-Kaundinya, the twelve hundred Arhats faultless and self-controlled, the other monks, nuns, male and female lay devotees using the vehicle of disciples, and those who had entered the vehicle of Pratyeka
1 Or, who by me are established in Nirvana. ? The word yâna in the text also means 'a career, course.'
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