Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1879.
and crumbling monasteries and shattered we were all lighted and saw one another." topes; who can always wait on those who recite, Satan then goes to Hades and tells him of write, or read the sacred books, and behold Jesus, his crucifixion and death, and tells him the miracles and various wonderworks of the to hold him firmly when he comes. Hades Tathagatas, Pratyeka-buddhas, Arhats, and replies that Christ had lately rescued Lazarus, Bodhisattwas.'
"I conjure thee both for thy benefit and mine, “Thus meditating, they abandoned their preta not to bring him hither; for I think that he is bodies of punishment, and became capable of coming here in order to raise up all the dead. attaining their desire. Then from Avalokites- And this I say to thee, by the darkness which wara there issued the precious rogal sutra of the we keep, if thou dost bring him hither, none of
great translation, the karanda vytha. Then! the dead will be left to me." having split with the thunderbolt of knowledge While Satan and Hades were thus talking the twenty-peaked mountain of the delusion together, there came a great voice like thunder, which teaches that the body exists, they were i quoting Psalm xxiv. 7: “And when Hades all born in the Sukhavati world as Bodhi- heard, he said to Satan, Go forth if thou art sattwas named Akankshita-mukh â
h able and resist him.' Therefore Satan went Then. Avalokiteswara, when these beings were forth. Then said Hades to his demons, secure released and born in the land of the Bodhisattwas, well and firmly the brazen gates and the iron went out again from the city of the pretus. bars, and hold down my bolts, and stand Chapter IV.-" Then Sarvanivaranavish
upright and watch everything; for if he should kambhin said to Buddha, Does Avalokiteswara enter here, woe will seize us.' On hearing still delay to come ?'
these things, the forefathers all began to re"Buddha answered, “Noble son, he is maturing proach him, saying, All-devouring and inthe experience of many thousands of myriads of satiate, open that the King of Glory may come beings; day by day he comes and matures them, in'...... The voice therefore came again, Lift there never was such a manifestation of the up the gates.' Hades hearing the voice a Tathagatas as there is of the glorious Bodhi- second time, answered as forsooth not knowing satt wa Avalokiteswara.'"
and said, "Who is this King of Glory?' The Buddha then describes an assembly held in a angels of the Lord said, 'The Lord strong and former æon by a Buddha named Sikhin, who mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.' And imsees Avalokiteswara coming to him with a mediately at that word the brazen gates were present of heavenly flowers from Amit a broken and the iron bars were crashed, and all bha. The Buddha Sikhin asks where he is the dead that were bound were loosed from performing his works of merit. Avalokites. their bonds and we with them. And the King Wara réplies that he is visiting the innumerable of Glory entered as a man, and all the dark hells in the universe, and that he has resolved places of Hades were lighted up. Hades that he himself shall not grasp the perfect straightway cried, "We are conquered, woe knowledge of a Buddha until all beings have unto ns.' ..... Then the King of Glory seized been not only delivered from punishment, but the chief ruler Satan by the head, and delivered are settled in the world of Nirvana.
him to the angels, and said, Bind with irons If we now turn to the second part of the his hands and feet and neck and mouth.' Then Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, we find a he delivered him to Hades, and said " Take him curious parallel to this legend.
and keep him safely until my second coming.' The two sons of Simeon, who are described Then Hades took Satan and said to him, as having been raised from their graves at Beelzebub, inheritor of fire and punishment, Christ's death, are brought before the chief enemy of the saints, by what necessity hast thou priests, They then call for ink, pens, and contrived that the King of Glory should be crucipaper, and relate how they were in Hades with fied, that he should come hither and spoil us ? the fathers, when suddenly "at the hour of Turn and see that none of the dead is left in midnight, apon those dark places, there arose, me, but all that thon didst gain by the tree of as it were, the light of the sun, and shone, and knowledge, thou hast lost it all by the cross.'"
10 For this curious phrase conf. Barnouf, Introd. p. 263, and Childer's Pal Dict. 8. v. sakkaya.