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The king continued upon his way
And then a second minister came to him;
Clad in dusty and sweat-sodden clothes,
In a tearful voice, he said to the king:
O great king, two of your sons are alive,
Scorched by the fire of grief.
O king, your third son is missing.
Mahasattva is captured by impermanence.
He saw a starving tigress
Who had given birth shortly before
And was near to eating her cubs.
For them young Mahasattva,
His heart filled with compassion,
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Proclaimed enlightenment s great resolve:
All beings I shall set free; in future times, may I
Realize the great enlightenment I so keenly seek.
Then Mahasattva jumped down that steep slope;
The famished tigress stood up.
Quickly making his body without flesh,
She left the prince with just a few bones.
Upon hearing these dreadful words,
His mind was shattered.
King Maharatha fainted and fell to the ground.
The fire of his grief blazed without relent.
The ministers and the attendants too
Wept wretchedly, overcome by sorrow.
They sprinkled water upon him and lamented with arms upraised.
Then the third minister said this to the king:
Today I have seen both princes
In the great forest, laying on the ground.
They had fainted; their minds were broken.
We profusely sprinkled water upon them
Until they revived and rose up once more.
Ablaze, they looked in the four directions;
Standing briefly, they fell again to the ground.
They lamented wretchedly in pitiful voices;
With arms uplifted, they sang their brother s praise.
The king s mind ebbed extremely low
And was distraught at having lost his son.
In unbearable grief, he cried lamentations.
Then this thought entered the mind of the king:
My son Mahasattva, beloved and charming,
Has been captured by impermanence.
The life of my other two sons
Could now be lost to the fire of grief.
Therefore, I should quickly proceed there
To see those sons who are pleasing to behold.
On swift mounts, to the royal court
Of the royal palace I will quickly bring my sons.
If not, the heart of the mother who bore them
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Is like to burst from the scorching fire of grief.
Upon seeing her two sons she will find peace,
And therefore, her life will not be lost.
The king, escorted by a host of ministers,
Mounting his elephant went to see his two sons.
Crying in wretched pitiful voices, the two princes
Came their way, calling out their brother s name.
The king wept in anguish.
He took his two sons and returned home.
Quickly, like one in great haste,
He presented her sons to the queen.
I, the Tathagata Shakyamuni
Was formerly Mahasattva,
Son of King Maharatha
Who made the tigress well.
Shuddhodana, the great king
Was the king called Maharatha,
And Queen Maya was the sublime queen.
Mahapranada became Maitreya.
Likewise, Prince Mahadeva
Was the youthful Manjushri.
The tigress was Mahaprajapati;
The five bhikshus were her five cubs.
Then the great king Maharatha and the great queen wretchedly cried many lamentations.
They bared themselves of all ornaments, and together with a great crowd, made homage to
the remains of the prince. Placing the remains of Mahasattva at this very place, they built
this stupa of seven jewels. When Mahasattva gave the tigress his body, he made this
altruistic wish: By the merit of completely giving my body, may I, in future times for eons
utterly beyond thought, perform the deeds of buddhas for sentient beings.
When this exposition was being given, inconceivable uncountable numbers of beings,
including gods and humans, generated the altruistic intention for supreme and perfect
enlightenment. And this is the reason and this is the cause for revealing this stupa here.
Then, through the power of the Tathagata s blessing, that stupa entered the ground on
that very spot.
This ends the eighteenth chapter, the Chapter on the Tigress, from the King of Glorious
Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light.
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Chapter 19
Chapter on the Praise by All the Bodhisattvas
Then those hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas approached the Tathagata
Suvarnaratnakaracchatrakuta. Paying homage with their heads at the feet of the Tathagata
Suvarnaratnakaracchatrakuta, they stood to one side. Having stood to one side, the
numerous hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas folded their hands in reverence and
praised the Tathagata Suvarnaratnakaracchatrakuta in these verses:
O Conqueror, your body resembles refined gold,
For its glorious presence possesses a golden hue.
You are golden like the golden king of mountains.
The White Lotus Seer has features of gold.
Sublime major marks adorn your body in full;
Sublime minor signs embellish your body parts.
You are brilliant and possess the fine splendor of gold.
Utterly pristine, serene as the lord of mountains,
You have the voice of Brahma and Brahma s melodic sound.
You roar the rumbling song of the lion and that of the dragon too;
Your sixty-fold melody echoes and resounds.
Conqueror, your melody holds cuckoo and peacock songs.
Utterly without stain, spotless and immaculate with glorious light,
O Conqueror, marks of hundreds of virtues adorn you.
Your ocean of wisdom is supremely flawless and pristine;
Conqueror, like Sumeru you are endowed with every virtue.
With supreme compassion for the welfare of beings,
You are the supreme bestower of peace upon the world.
Granting the state of tranquility beyond death,
O Conqueror, you expound the highest sublime truth
And usher in the serenity beyond suffering.
O Conqueror, through revealing the nectar of the Dharma
You usher in the deathless city;
An abode of peace,
You are the source of everything serene.
O Conqueror, you free migrating beings from suffering
And liberate creatures from the ocean of misery;
You place them well upon the path to peace
And give happiness to every being.
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Nothing can be found that is comparable
To the sage s ocean of virtue and wisdom.
Possessing compassion for beings laden with life,
You have the powers of love, perseverance and skill.
There is none among beings, even among gods,
Who in many thousands of millions of eons
Can fully explain merely one drop of virtue
From the ocean of your supreme qualities.
Taking a single drop from your ocean of virtue,
I have stated some only in brief.
By whatever merit I have thus gathered,
May beings touch supreme enlightenment.
This ends the nineteenth chapter, the Chapter on Praise by All the Bodhisattvas, from the
King of Glorious Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light.
Chapter 20
Praise to All the Tathagatas
Then indeed the bodhisattva Ruchiraketu rose from his seat, placed his upper robe over
one shoulder, knelt his right knee on the ground, folded his hands in reverence towards
the Tathagata and praised the Tathagata:
Lord of Sages, you are gloriously adorned with thousands of enchanting virtues;
You possess the marks of hundreds of merits;
With your sumptuous complexion, you appear supremely serene
As one thousand suns shining forth with dazzling light.
Blazing with myriad rays, you are engulfed with light.
Resplendent with color like jewels of blue and white,
Gold, lapis, copper and dawn-crystal light
You pulverize Sumeru, the vajra king of mountains.
You illuminate tens of millions of worlds
And soothe their fierce suffering;
You satisfy beings with supreme peace.
Your complexion and six sense powers are bright and beautiful to behold.
Your form is a joy for beings to constantly see.
Enchantingly beautiful, your hair the color of a peacock
Shines as a lotus filled with bees.
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You are adorned with the virtue of pure compassion.
You have gathered sublime merit through concentration and love.
Possessed of sublime minor marks in many colors,
You fulfill beings with all happiness.
Beautified by enlightenment s seven wings,
You are adorned with virtues such as samadhi.
Giver of well-being, all peace and happiness stem from you.
You are richly adorned with an array of profound virtue
And shine vividly in tens of millions of pure lands.
Gloriously radiant like a fire s glowing light
You resemble the full solar orb in the sky.
Endowed with all virtue as is Mount Sumeru,
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