Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/467

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xxv.
ANCIENT DEVOTION.
419

CHAPTER XXV.

ANCIENT DEVOTION[1].

Thereupon the Lord addressed the entire assemblage of Bodhisattvas: Of yore, young men of good family, at a past epoch, incalculable, more than incalculable Æons ago, at that time there appeared in the world a Tathâgata named Galadharagargitaghoshasusvaranakshatrarâgasankusumitâbhia, an Arhat, &c, endowed with science and conduct, &c. &c, in the Æon Priyadarsana, in the world Vairokanarasmipratimandita. Now, there was, young men of good family, under the spiritual rule of the Tathâgata Galadharagargitaghoshasusvaranakshatrarâgasankusumitâbhia a king called Subhavytiha. That king Subhavytiha, young men of good family, had a wife called Vimaladattâ, and two sons, one called Vimalagarbha, the other Vimalanetra. These two boys, who possessed magical power and wisdom[2], applied themselves to the course of duty of Bodhisattvas, viz. to the perfect virtues (Pâramitâs) of almsgiving, morality, forbearance, energy, meditation, wisdom, and skilfulness; they were accomplished in benevolence, compassion, joyful sympathy and indifference, and in all the thirty


  1. Pûrvayoga; rather, ancient history; cf. p. 153.
  2. In the margin sundry epithets have been added, which here are omitted.