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SECOND BOOK.
FIRST LECTURE ?,
CALLED
THE LOTUS.
O long-lived (Gambûsvâmin)! I (Sudharman) have heard the following Discourse from the Venerable (Mahâvira). We now come to the Lecture called 'the Lotus. The contents of it are as follows: (1)
There is a lotus-pool containing much water and mud, very full and complete, answering to the idea (one has of a lotus-pool), full of white lotuses, delightful, conspicuous, magnificent, and splendid. (2)
And everywhere all over the lotus-pool there grew many white lotuses, the best of Nymphaeas, as we are told, in beautiful array, tall, brilliant, of fine colour, smell, taste, and touch, (&c., all down to) splendid. (3)
And in the very middle of this lotus-pool there grew one big white lotus, the best of Nymphaeas,
1 With the exception of the fifth and sixth lectures, the whole Book (srutaskandha) is in prose. I have adhered to the subdivision of the lectures exhibited in the Bombay edition, which, on the whole, agrees with that of most MSS.
? The lectures of this Book are called, according to the Niryukti, Great (mahâ) Lectures.
