________________
II.
SKILFULNESS.
59
by sensual desires, the fools, and never turn their minds to enlightenment.
141. (Some) beings, having heard this one and sole vehicle: manifested by the Gina, will in days to come swerve from it, reject the Satra, and go down to hell.
142. But those beings who shall be modest and pure, striving after the supreme and the highest enlightenment, to them shall I unhesitatingly set forth the endless forms of this one and sole vehicle.
143. Such is the mastership of the leaders; that is, their skilfulness. They have spoken in many mysteries 2; hence it is difficult to understand (them).
144. Therefore try to understand the mystery of the Buddhas, the holy masters of the world; forsake all doubt and uncertainty : you shall become Buddhas; rejoice! x
Or, rather, learnt this way. · The word in the text is sandhâvakanaih, evidently synonymous with sandhâbhâshya.
S Sandhâ, by Burnouf rendered 'langage énigmatique.' On comparing the different meanings of sandhâ and sandhâya, both in Sanskrit and in Pâli, I am led to suppose that sandha- (and sandhâya-) bhâshita (bhâshya) was a term used in the sense of speaking (speech) in council, a counsel,' scarcely differing from mantra. In both words secrecy is implied, though not expressed. If we take the term as synonymous with mantra, the connection between upâyakausalya, diplomacy, skilfulness, and sandhâbhâshita is clear. Cf. the Gothic word rûna, both Bounń and μυστήριον; gardni, συμβούλιον. The theistical sect have taken it in the sense of God's counsel,' but I cannot produce a warrant for this guess. By Hiouen Thsang, the term sandhâya is translated by 'in a hidden sense,' as we know from Professor Max Müller's note, in his edition of the Vagrakkhedikâ, p. 23.
Digitized by Google
