________________
"These are the five (classes of) objects of desire (dewi vonta
greatest of the gods ; enjoy them, O master of the powoman enjoymont! Afterwards you can rotire to the forest, 0 nobla. S'ákya !” (6)
The Bodhisattva replied:
"For uncountable and endless euns havo 1, Chluandaka, cujoyed thesc sensuous objects of beauty, sound, dour, flavour, and taction, of all the various kinds known to man; but I havo usb been gratified therehy. (1)
“By me, son of a noble king, sovereignty has been exercised over con empire comprising the fonr continents -- an emperor Jording over the seven jewels. I have hail the fullest share of the pleasures of the female apartments. I havo reigued over the lords of the three-times-ten, and of the Yamas. @)
"Forsaking them, when I retired from here to the region of the Nirmitas, I enjoyed the prowest and the noblest of beauty; I exercised sovereignty over the lord of the Sáras, and revolled in the richest objects of desire; but I have not been gratified thereby. (3
What satisfaction can I then this day derive by indulging in these worth less objects? I shall therefore, Chbandaka, abjuro this painful sporld immersed in a wilderness of grief, (4)
“Always burning in the wild fire of pain, without shelter, without a future, in the deuse darkness of lolusion and ignorance, always oppressed hy the fear of decay, disease and death, overcomo by the pain of birth, and overpowered by enemics. (5)
" Knowing this I shall embark on bard the laryn of religion, which is firm as adamant, and loader with the cargo of penance, good behaviour, complaisance, vigour, (occult) power, bonevolence; stout of lack, wbich is made of the adamant of uxertion, and stoutly bound together. (0)
“Cving on board that vesse I shall first ferry myself over, aud." then shall I rescue countless beings from all worldly sins, and carry them across the ocean of grief, swelling with the billows of anger, infested by the sharks of passions and enemies, and difficult to pass over. This is my wish. (m)
