Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/349

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SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA. DURATION OF LIFE OF THE TATHÂGATA.
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reveals at each (generation) his own name, reveals a state in which Nirv&#a has not yet been reached 1 , and in different ways he satisfies the wants of (different) creatures through various Dharmaparyiyas 2 . This being the case, young men of good family, the Tath&gata declares to the creatures, whose dispositions are so various and who possess so few roots of goodness, so many evil propensities: I am young of age, monks ; having left my father s home, monks, I have lately arrived at supreme, perfect enlightenment 8 . When, however, the TatMgata, who so long ago arrived at perfect enlightenment, declares himself to have but lately arrived at perfect enlightenment, he does so in order to lead creatures to full ripeness and make them go in. Therefore have these Dharmapary&yas been revealed; and it is for the education of creatures, young men of good family, that the Tathigata has revealed all Dharmapary&yas. And, young men of good family, the word that the Tath&gata delivers on behalf of the education of creatures, either under his own appearance or under another's, either on his own authority 4 or under the mask 5 of another, all that the Tathi-

Instead of the last clause we find in the margin, ' reveals (or declares) at each his own Nirvana/ The material difference is slight, for the temporal appearances of the everlasting being are final and multifarious, but the being itself is one and everlasting. kyamuni is, in reality, the one and everlasting brahma.

The Tathdgata, in his proper being well understood, is not only the Devatideva, the supreme god of gods, of Buddhism, but of all religions in the world; from him are all scriptures.

In various periods mankind wants renewed revelation; hence Vishnu, for Dharma's sake, descends on earth.

Atm&rambanena (sic), properly, on his own base.

Apar£vara»ena. One may also render it by 'under the cloak of another.'