Summary

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs and thus has been significant for rulers‍—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere‍—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations through such purification. Reciting and internalizing this sūtra is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and also for the welfare of a state and the world.

In this sūtra, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu has a dream in which a prayer of confession emanates from a shining golden drum. He relates the prayer to the Buddha, and a number of deities then vow to protect it and its adherents. The ruler’s devotion to the sūtra is emphasized as important if the nation is to benefit. Toward the end of the sūtra are two well-known narratives of the Buddha’s previous lives: the account of the physician Jalavāhana, who saves and blesses numerous fish, and that of Prince Mahāsattva, who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs.

This is the shortest version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light preserved in the Kangyur. It comprises twenty-one chapters, was translated into Tibetan primarily from Sanskrit, and is the only version for which a complete Sanskrit manuscript survives.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated by Peter Alan Roberts, who translated the text from Tibetan into English and wrote the introduction. Ling Lung Chen and Wang Chipan were consultants for the Chinese versions of the sūtra. Emily Bower was the project manager and editor. Tracy Davis was the initial copyeditor. Thanks to Michael Radich for sharing his research on the sūtra.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Xiaolong Diao, Ting Lee Ling, and H. S. Sum Cheuk Shing checked the translation against the Chinese sources. Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text, and André Rodrigues was in charge of the digital publication process.

The translation of this text has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of May Gu, George Gu, Likai Gu and Tiffany Tai, Lillian Gu and Jerry Yen.

Introduction

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs, and thus it has been significant for rulers‍—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere‍—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations. It is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and beneficial for the welfare of a state and of the world.

The work translated here is the twenty-one-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 557) of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. There is also the twenty-nine-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 556) and the thirty-one-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 555). Toh 557 and Toh 556 were translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit, so almost the entirety of Toh 557 is present in an identical translation in Toh 556.

This sūtra’s principal chapters are the third and fourth, which describe the lay bodhisattva Ruciraketu having a dream in which he sees a brightly shining golden drum. When a brahmin beats the drum, Ruciraketu hears in the drumbeats a hundred-verse prayer, and he subsequently recites that prayer to the Buddha.

Most of the following chapters are concerned with encouraging the recitation of this prayer and of the sūtra itself. They describe how various divine beings in this world revere the sūtra and promise to protect it and its adherents. These include the Four Mahārājas; Dṛḍhā, who is the goddess of the earth; Sarasvatī, the goddess of wisdom, learning, and music; Śrī, the goddess of good fortune; and the yakṣa general Saṃjñeya.

This sūtra emphasizes its importance for kings. It states that if they honor the reciters of this sūtra and arrange for its recitation and teaching, then their reign and their kingdom will prosper. They will avoid such calamities as invasion, famine, and so on. The sūtra also warns that if they fail to show such devotion, there will be disastrous results for both them and their kingdoms. Chapter 12 is dedicated to the subject of how to be a good king.

There are also chapters that deal with doctrine. Chapter 2 presents the view that a buddha never dies and so never passes into nirvāṇa. Therefore, there is no body and no physical relics of his body after his cremation, and so the Dharma never ceases to be taught. The passing of a buddha and the extinction of the Dharma are solely illusory manifestations, skillful methods to inspire beings to practice and to provide them with relics as objects for their devotion. Chapter 6 teaches the view of emptiness. Toh 555 and Toh 556 also contain chapters describing the nature of the three bodies and the ten bhūmis.

There are two narratives that describe previous lives of the Buddha. Chapter 16 describes the physician Jalavāhana, who, as a result of performing Dharma recitations while standing in a lake, ensured the rebirth of ten thousand fish into the paradise of Trāyastriṃśa. In the preceding chapter these same ten thousand devas receive the prophecy of their buddhahood. When the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā objects that they have not accomplished the necessary bodhisattva conduct in past lives to receive such a prophecy, the Buddha explains that this was unnecessary because they had devotion to this Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light.

The other past-life narrative, which is given in chapter 18, is one of the most famous in Buddhist literature‍—that of the prince who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs. An interesting feature of the story in this sūtra is that much of the narrative is dedicated to an evocative description of the intense grief of parents who have lost their child, emphasizing the sorrow that the prince’s action has brought them.

Tantric Rituals

As with other late Mahāyāna sūtras in which there is an emphasis on ritual, this text is classified in the Kangyur as a tantra, specifically as a Kriyā tantra, a class of tantras in which there is an emphasis on external ritual. The sūtra contains a description of how such rituals should be performed, and there are also passages that include lists of ingredients to place in a bath, along with mantras to recite while bathing, in order to achieve purification.

One can also see that the seed of the later maṇḍalas of the five buddha families is in this sūtra, for in chapters 2 and 3, buddhas of the four directions appear to a layman who has a visionary dream. They include Akṣobhya from the east and Amitābha from the west, both buddhas and their realms already established in the Buddhist tradition with specific sūtras dedicated to them. There also appear the buddhas Ratnaketu from the south and Dundubhisvara from the north, who in later tantras are usually named Ratnasaṃbhava and Amoghasiddhi. In this sūtra, the central buddha in terms of these directions would be Śākyamuni himself. In the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra he is referred to as Vairocana, as the Buddha Vairocana is the buddha who manifests as all the buddhas throughout this trichiliocosm.

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light in India

A version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light existed in India by the early fifth century ᴄᴇ, when it was translated into Chinese by Dharmakṣema (385–433) in 420, in a form that corresponds to the fragments of its translation into old Khotanese. The author of Precious Lamp of the Middle Way mentions that The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light contains profound teachings in the section on the absence of relics, this passage being within the chapter on the lifespan of the Buddha. The sūtra’s significance in Indian Buddhism is evident from the three tantras and ten commentaries that specify that it should be the text recited in one of the four directions when performing a maṇḍala rite. There are also five other texts in the Tengyur that emphasize the importance and status of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light and its recitation, including Śāntideva’s eighth-century Śikṣāsamuccaya (Compendium of Training) in which he provides two extracts from the sūtra that should be recited. There are also two recitation texts composed of extracts from the sūtra.

In addition to its importance for rites and recitations, the text is quoted on doctrinal points in Indian commentaries. Passages indicating that the Buddha never dies, leaves no relics, and that the Dharma never ceases are quoted in six texts, two of which cite the delightful verse that describes the impossibility of there being buddha relics, stating that there will be a buddha relic only when a ladder to the moon is built from rabbit horns.

The descriptions of buddha nature and the nature of the bodies of a buddha, which are only in Toh 555 and Toh 556, are quoted in two texts in the Tengyur, one written in Tibetan and one translated from Sanskrit by Rinchen Sangpo, although nothing is known about the author.

In Newar Buddhism, this sūtra became and remains one of the nine principal sūtras called “the nine Dharmas,” which are considered to be the most important lengthy sūtras to be recited and offered to.

Sanskrit manuscripts of this sūtra survived as fragments discovered in Chinese Central Asia (Xinjiang) and as entire texts in Nepal, where the title is Suvarṇa­bhāsottama, with bhāsa being a synonym for prabhāsa, both meaning “light.”

The Sanskrit text of the sūtra was first edited in 1898, in Calcutta, India, by S. C. Das and S. C. Shastri. That was followed by the edition by B. Nanjio and H. Idzumi in Japan in 1931, and by the edition by Johannes Nobel (1887–1960) in 1937. This translation refers to the 1967 S. Bagchi edition.

The Sūtra outside India

The widespread popularity of this sūtra outside India is also evident from its translation not only into Tibetan and Chinese but also from Sanskrit into Khotanese; from Chinese into Tibetan, Sogdian, Uighur, Tangut, and Manchu; and from Tibetan into Mongolian.

There are three surviving translations of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light in Chinese. The earliest of these was translated by Dharmakṣema (385–433). He was an Indian who came to China in 414, living first in Dunhuang. Then in 420 he went to Guzang, the capital of Northern Liang, one of the sixteen independent states of that time, situated in what is now the Gansu region in China’s northwest. There he studied Chinese and engaged in translation under the patronage of Juqu Mengxun (368–433), the ruler of Northern Liang. He also had the reputation of being “a master of spells.” As a result of that reputation, Juqu Mengxun, toward the end of his reign, became afraid that Dharmakṣema might be used against him by his adversaries and so he had him assassinated. Nobel believed that the Sanskrit in its present form is not earlier than the mid-fifth century and that Dharmakṣema translated from an earlier version. This opinion appears to be supported by the Sanskrit manuscript fragments discovered in Khotan.

The second surviving translation into Chinese is that by Bao Gui in 597. It is an amalgam of earlier translations that no longer exist and four chapters that were translated by Paramārtha (499–569). As there is no surviving Sanskrit for the additional chapters in the Chinese and Tibetan, Michael Radich has examined the evidence as to whether they are Indian or Chinese in origin.

The third translation was by Yijing (635–713), which was published in 703. Because of its clarity and writing style, this version became popular in China and was itself translated into Tibetan in the early ninth century. Yijing’s translation, compared to the Sanskrit and the Tibetan translation from Sanskrit, is freer, to the extent that Emmerick has stated it could not be used to reconstruct the original Sanskrit. Yijing spent thirty years in India and Sumatra and returned to China in 695. He brought with him four hundred Sanskrit texts, including The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light, and spent the first decade of the seventh century translating them.

The Mogao caves of Dunhuang, which were sealed in the eleventh century, contained a great number of manuscripts of the sūtra, particularly those of Yijing’s translation into Chinese. The sūtra became popular for its teachings on freeing oneself from the effects of bad karma. For example, Yijing’s Chinese translation (and the Uighur and Tangut versions derived from it) has a preface that states how the sūtra saved Zhang Judao, ruler of Tangut, from going to hell because he had slaughtered cattle for a big feast. This narrative is illustrated in a twelfth-century Tangut woodcut that is preserved in St. Petersburg.

The sūtra was of particular importance to monarchs, and starting in seventh-century Japan, the ritual of reciting this sūtra was considered important to perform for the benefit of the state.

The Sūtra in Tibet

Toh 557 (the version translated here) does not list its translators in the colophon. Toh 556 was produced by Jinamitra, Śilendrabodhi, and Yeshé Dé in the early ninth century. Almost the entirety of Toh 557 is present word for word in Toh 556, so they either incorporated an earlier translation or extracted the shorter version from the longer.

By contrast, Toh 555 is a translation made by Gö Chödrup of Yijing’s Chinese version in the early ninth century. The Tibetan is clearer and more readable than in the other two versions, perhaps because it is less constrained by conforming to the Sanskrit, but also because the Chinese was a freer translation from the Sanskrit, which was done purposely to enhance its readability.

There are some Tibetan texts included in the Tengyur that were authored by those Tibetan translators active in the early ninth century. The translator Kawa Paltsek quotes from the passages describing the Dharma body and the Buddha not leaving any relics because he has no body with bones and blood. Yeshé Dé wrote a text that has a number of references to this sūtra’s teaching on the three bodies of a buddha, buddha nature, and the description of the bhūmis.

Dīpaṁkaraśrījñāna, also known as Atiśa, whose pupils founded the influential Kadampa tradition in Tibet, is the author of three of the texts in the Tengyur that refer to this sūtra, including his most famous work, A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which contains an encouragement to use the sūtra’s prayer both for purification and as a dedication prayer.

The commentary in the Tengyur that quotes from the sūtra more than any other‍—twenty times in all‍—is the translation by Gö Chödrup of An Extensive Commentary on the Sūtra that Elucidates the Profound Intention by the Korean monk Wŏnch’ŭk (613–96), who had migrated to China. This commentary by Wŏnch’ŭk in Tibetan translation became a particular influence on the thought of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelukpa school. The sūtra has been quoted by great masters in all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism and extracts from it were published in Tibet as numerous standalone texts‍—not only the confession prayer but also other chapters, such as the treatise on kingship. Its continuing significance is indicated by Pema Karpo (1527–92), the hierarch of the Drukpa Kagyü school, composing a confession prayer extracted from The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light at the request of Döndrup Dorjé, the ruler of Shigatsé.

An example of the way the sūtra was recited in Tibet is found in a version compiled by Ngawang Lobsang Chöden (1642–1714), the second Changkya Rinpoché.

Comparing the Versions

Toh 556 and Toh 557 were both translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit. Only the Sanskrit that is equivalent to Toh 557 survives. It divides the equivalent of chapter 10 in the Tibetan into two, separating the homage to buddhas and bodhisattvas into its own small chapter. However, its final chapter is divided into two in the Tibetan, resulting in both having twenty-one chapters. Toh 556 appears to preserve passages that were lost from Toh 557. For example, chapter 12, “The King’s Treatise,” begins abruptly: “At that time…,” having evidently lost the introductory narrative‍—present in the equivalent chapter (chapter 20) in the longer version‍—that sets the action in a distant past.

Toh 555 was translated into Tibetan from Chinese. The source text was Yijing’s seventh-century translation from Sanskrit into Chinese, and therefore the translation differs throughout, even though the content is essentially the same. There are many passages that are actually shorter versions of those in the translations from Sanskrit. Its greater length compared to Toh 556 is primarily due to the addition of chapters 29 and 30.

Translations into Western Languages

In 1958, Nobel published a German translation based on Yijing’s Chinese text. In 1970, Ronald Emmerick produced an English translation of the Sanskrit. In 2007, Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) produced an English translation of Toh 557.

Detailed Summary of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light

Chapter 1: The Introduction

The Buddha is on Vulture Peak Mountain at Rājaghṛa with a great assembly. He states that he will teach a sūtra that will free beings from various worldly sufferings through its being recited and listened to.

Chapter 2: The Teaching on the Lifespan of the Tathāgata

In the town of Rājaghṛa, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu wonders why the Buddha has only an eighty-year lifespan if he has no bad karma. His house miraculously transforms, and the buddhas of the four directions appear and tell him that the Buddha’s lifespan is, in fact, inconceivably long. At that time on Vulture Peak, the Kauṇḍinya brahmin Vyākaraṇa asks the Buddha that he be given a relic when the Buddha passes away so that he might make offerings to it. Sarva­sattva­priyadarśana, a young man from the town of Vaiśalī, tells the Kauṇḍinya brahmin that the Buddha does not pass away and there will never be relics. The Kauṇḍinya brahmin states that he knew that but made his request so that the truth will be revealed that the appearance of passing away and relics is simply a skillful method to benefit beings.

Chapter 3: The Dream

In his home in Rājaghṛa, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu dreams of a brahmin beating a golden drum from which come verses that he is able to remember. He goes to the Buddha on Vulture Peak to repeat those verses to him.

Chapter 4: The Confession

This chapter comprises the hundred verses that Ruciraketu repeats to the Buddha. He describes hearing the verses in the dream. They begin with a prayer that they will benefit all beings, and then there are a number of verses of the confession of past bad actions followed by a praise of the Buddha, a prayer that beings be freed from suffering, and finally the dedication of merit so that the reciter will attain enlightenment.

Chapter 5: The Source of Lotus Flowers: A Praise of All the Buddhas

The Buddha repeats to a goddess a praise of the buddhas in thirty-five verses made by a king in the distant past.

Chapter 6: Emptiness

The Buddha recites verses that briefly describe emptiness, which, he states, he has taught extensively in other sūtras. He describes that he has practiced the path for a long time and that it is impossible to calculate his wisdom.

Chapter 7: The Four Mahārājas

The Four Mahārājas, the protectors of the world, promise that they will protect whoever teaches and recites this sūtra and will dispel problems for the king of that country and its population. They and the Buddha describe the miraculous events that occur in the paradises when a king engages in the ritual of venerating the sūtra, and how all buddhas will congratulate him and prophesy his buddhahood. The Mahārājas describe how a king who wishes his realm to prosper and be happy should be devoted to the sūtra. Then they praise the Buddha in verse, and the Buddha praises the sūtra in verse.

Chapter 8: Sarasvatī

The goddess Sarasvatī promises to aid those who recite the sūtra with wisdom and skills. She gives the recipe for a cleansing liquid and a mantra that will prevent misfortune. Then the Buddha praises her and teaches beneficial mantras. The Kauṇḍinya brahmin praises Sarasvatī in verse.

Chapter 9: The Great Goddess Śrī

The goddess Śrī promises to aid those who recite the sūtra and its preservation so that beings will have good fortune. She states she had been a follower of the Buddha Ratna­kusuma­guṇa­sāgara­vaiḍūrya­kanaka­giri­suvarṇa­kāñcana­prabhāsa­śrī and that she brings good fortune to beings wherever she goes and inspires them to make offerings to that buddha. She dwells in a palace in the paradise of Alakāvati and states that offerings should be made to her and to that buddha. A mantra is taught for her invocation, and instructions for making offerings to her are given.

Chapter 10: Dṛḍhā, the Goddess of the Earth

The chapter commences with a homage to a series of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Then Dṛḍhā, the goddess of the earth, promises the Buddha that she will come to wherever The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light is taught, and with her head she will support the feet of the dharmabhāṇaka. Having heard the sūtra, she will make the earth fertile, and what is grown in it nutritious and life-enhancing, and the population will increase. She states that if someone who has heard the sūtra returns home and repeats even one line of verse from it, that home will prosper. The Buddha states that anyone who has listened to even one line of the sūtra or makes offerings to it will be reborn in a paradise after death, enjoy happiness for countless eons, and eventually attain buddhahood.

Chapter 11: Saṃjñeya

The yakṣa general Saṃjñeya promises to protect and defend whoever recites the sūtra. He describes his realization and wisdom and promises to endow the teachers of the sūtra with eloquence and physical health. He states that those who hear it will enjoy happiness in paradises for countless eons and eventually attain buddhahood.

Chapter 12: The King’s Treatise: The Commitment of the Lord of Devas

After an homage to Buddha Ratna­kusuma­guṇa­sāgara­vaiḍūrya­kanaka­giri­suvarṇa­kāñcana­prabhāsa­śrī, Śākyamuni, Śrī, and Sarasvatī, the chapter begins abruptly and appears to omit the introduction that sets the narrative in the past, which is in a complete form in the other versions of the sūtra. At his enthronement, King Ruciraketu is told by his father, King Balendraketu, to learn the verse treatise on kingship called The Commitment of the Lord of Devas, and he recites it to him. The treatise explains why a king is called a deva even though he is a human: it is because a king is a deva sent to the human world to govern it. A king should therefore fulfill that duty, particularly by punishing the wicked. If he does not do so, calamities of all kinds will befall him and his kingdom. A righteous king will cause all kinds of good fortune to occur.

Chapter 13: Susaṃbhava

In this chapter, which is entirely in verse, the Buddha recounts a previous life as a cakravartin by the name of Susaṃbhava, who lived while the teaching of a buddha named Ratnaśikhin was still present. In a dream, he saw the dharmabhāṇaka Ratnoccaya teaching The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. He then sought out that dharmabhāṇaka and requested him to teach the sūtra, arranging a throne and many offerings to him. At the conclusion of the teaching, Susaṃbhava, through his possession of a wish-fulfilling jewel, caused a rain of jewels and necessities to fall on the four continents he ruled, and he made an offering of it all to the Three Jewels. Śākyamuni states that he was Susaṃbhava at that time, and that Ratnoccaya became the Buddha Akṣobhya. He states that it is through the merit of hearing the sūtra that he has been a cakravartin king and a lord of devas countless times and has finally attained enlightenment.

Chapter 14: The Protection Given by Yakṣas

The Buddha instructs the goddess Śrī, first in prose and then in verse, on how someone should teach the sūtra and how someone should listen to it, and the benefits that will accrue from such activities. He adds that the throne upon which the sūtra has been recited will subsequently become the setting for various miraculous manifestations. The devas will praise those who teach and listen to the Dharma. In particular, the yakṣas will give their protection, as will nāgas, asuras, Hārītī and her sons, and the various goddesses, including Sarasvatī, Śrī, and the goddesses of the earth, harvests, and trees. This will bring bountiful harvests and a plenitude of fruits and flowers. Sūrya, the sun god, will also be pleased and will bring wonderful light to the world.

Chapter 15: The Prophecy to Ten Thousand Devas

The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā asks the Buddha about what merit had been accrued by the ten thousand devas from Trāyastriṃśa who came to hear the teaching on hearing the prophecies given to three people.

She describes the prophecy of the bodhisattva Ruciraketu becoming the Buddha Suvarṇa­ratnākaracchatra­kūṭa in the distant future and how his son Rūpyaketu will become the Buddha Suvarṇa­jambudhvajakāñca­nābha. After him, the other son Rūpyaprabha will be the Buddha Radiance of a Hundred Golden Lights. The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā then states that Jvalanāntara­tejo­rāja and the other ten thousand Trāyastriṃśa devas have not in their past lives had such great bodhisattva conduct as those three, and yet the Buddha has prophesied their becoming buddhas. The Buddha explains that they gained the necessary merit simply through hearing and believing in The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. In a future time, all ten thousand will attain buddhahood in the same world, and each one will have the name Prasanna­vadanotpala­gandha­kūṭa.

Chapter 16: Ending Illness

The Buddha tells the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā that in a distant past, when the Dharma of a buddha named Ratnaśikhin had disappeared, there was a virtuous king named Sureśvara­prabha. At that time, a head merchant by the name of Jaṭiṃdhara had a son by the name of Jalavāhana, who learned medicine from him and was able to cure the many illnesses prevalent in the kingdom.

Chapter 17: The Story of the Fish Guided by Jalavāhana

The Buddha tells the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā that Jalavāhana had a wife, Jalāmbuja­garbhā, and two sons, Jalāmbara and Jalagarbha. He and his sons went into the wilderness where they discovered a lake that was drying up so that the ten thousand fish in it were in danger of dying. A tree goddess appeared who told Jalavāhana that he should save the fish, so he constructed a shade made from branches for the fish. Then he went to King Sureśvara­prabha and obtained twenty elephants from him. and he used them to carry water to replenish the lake. He then sent his son Jalāmbara home to obtain as much food as possible, and he used that to feed the fish. Finally, he waded into the lake and recited the Dharma of dependent origination and the name of the Buddha Ratnaśikhin. At another time, he became intoxicated from alcohol and fell asleep. The ten thousand fish had died, and because of Jalavāhana’s recitation they had been reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa paradise. They came to the sleeping Jalavāhana and made offerings of many pearls and caused flowers to rain on his home, upon the lake, and other places in the kingdom. The king summoned Jalavāhana, who believed these omens occurred because of the death of the fish. His son Jalāmbara went to the lake and saw that they had all died. The Buddha states that he was Jalavāhana; his father, Śuddhodana, was Jaṭiṃdhara, Jalavāhana’s father; his sons Rāhula and Ānanda were Jalāmbara and Jalagarbha, Jalavāhana’s sons; his wife Gopā was Jalāmbuja­garbhā, Jalavāhana’s wife; his father-in-law, Daṇḍapāṇi, was the king; the ten thousand devas from Trāyastriṃśa were the ten thousand fish; and the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā was the tree goddess.

Chapter 18: The Gift of the Body to a Tigress

The Buddha gives the goddess an account of when he went to the land of Pañcala with a thousand bhikṣus. He asked Ānanda to prepare a seat at a particular spot, and when he stamped the ground with his foot, a stūpa emerged. Inside were golden caskets containing bones. The Buddha tells the bhikṣus to pay homage to them, because these bones are from one of his previous lives, and it was through the sacrifice of his life that he was able to attain buddhahood. He relates that in the past, King Mahāratha had three sons, Mahāpraṇāda, Mahādeva, and Mahāsattva. The three princes wandered into a forest and saw a tigress that had given birth to five cubs but was starving and might soon eat her cubs. Mahāsattva decided to give his body to the tigress, and therefore, as they were leaving the forest, he told his brothers he would follow them later and turned back. He then cut his throat in front of the tigress and fell before her. The other two princes searched for their younger brother and discovered he had been eaten. The queen had nightmares and was distressed, thinking that something had happened to her sons. Therefore, the king and queen went in search of their sons and found the two princes, who told them of Mahāsattva’s death. In great distress, they went to his remains and placed them in the stūpa. The Buddha states that he was Mahāsattva. The story is then retold in verse, in which it is also stated that the Buddha’s father, Śuddhodana, was the king; his mother, Māya, was the queen; the two other princes were Maitreya and Mañjuśrī; the tigress was his stepmother, Mahāprajāpatī; and the tiger cubs were his first five bhikṣus.

Chapter 19: Praise by All Bodhisattvas

Hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas go to the Buddha Suvarṇa­ratnākaracchatra­kūṭa and praise him in verse.

Chapter 20: The Praise of All Tathāgatas

The bodhisattva Ruciraketu comes before the Buddha Śākyamuni and praises him in verse.

Chapter 21: The Conclusion

The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā praises the Buddha Śākyamuni in verse. The Buddha rises from his seat and says, “Well done!” and the multitudes of beings rejoice and praise his words.

Summary

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs and thus has been significant for rulers‍—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere‍—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations through such purification. Reciting and internalizing this sūtra is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and also for the welfare of a state and the world.

In this sūtra, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu has a dream in which a prayer of confession emanates from a shining golden drum. He relates the prayer to the Buddha, and a number of deities then vow to protect it and its adherents. The ruler’s devotion to the sūtra is emphasized as important if the nation is to benefit. Toward the end of the sūtra are two well-known narratives of the Buddha’s previous lives: the account of the physician Jalavāhana, who saves and blesses numerous fish, and that of Prince Mahāsattva, who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs.

This is the shortest version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light preserved in the Kangyur. It comprises twenty-one chapters, was translated into Tibetan primarily from Sanskrit, and is the only version for which a complete Sanskrit manuscript survives.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated by Peter Alan Roberts, who translated the text from Tibetan into English and wrote the introduction. Ling Lung Chen and Wang Chipan were consultants for the Chinese versions of the sūtra. Emily Bower was the project manager and editor. Tracy Davis was the initial copyeditor. Thanks to Michael Radich for sharing his research on the sūtra.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Xiaolong Diao, Ting Lee Ling, and H. S. Sum Cheuk Shing checked the translation against the Chinese sources. Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text, and André Rodrigues was in charge of the digital publication process.

The translation of this text has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of May Gu, George Gu, Likai Gu and Tiffany Tai, Lillian Gu and Jerry Yen.

Introduction

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light has held great importance in Buddhism for its instructions on the purification of karma. In particular, much of the sūtra is specifically addressed to monarchs, and thus it has been significant for rulers‍—not only in India but also in China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere‍—who wished to ensure the well-being of their nations. It is understood to be efficacious for personal purification and beneficial for the welfare of a state and of the world.

The work translated here is the twenty-one-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 557) of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. There is also the twenty-nine-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 556) and the thirty-one-chapter version (hereafter referenced as Toh 555). Toh 557 and Toh 556 were translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit, so almost the entirety of Toh 557 is present in an identical translation in Toh 556.

This sūtra’s principal chapters are the third and fourth, which describe the lay bodhisattva Ruciraketu having a dream in which he sees a brightly shining golden drum. When a brahmin beats the drum, Ruciraketu hears in the drumbeats a hundred-verse prayer, and he subsequently recites that prayer to the Buddha.

Most of the following chapters are concerned with encouraging the recitation of this prayer and of the sūtra itself. They describe how various divine beings in this world revere the sūtra and promise to protect it and its adherents. These include the Four Mahārājas; Dṛḍhā, who is the goddess of the earth; Sarasvatī, the goddess of wisdom, learning, and music; Śrī, the goddess of good fortune; and the yakṣa general Saṃjñeya.

This sūtra emphasizes its importance for kings. It states that if they honor the reciters of this sūtra and arrange for its recitation and teaching, then their reign and their kingdom will prosper. They will avoid such calamities as invasion, famine, and so on. The sūtra also warns that if they fail to show such devotion, there will be disastrous results for both them and their kingdoms. Chapter 12 is dedicated to the subject of how to be a good king.

There are also chapters that deal with doctrine. Chapter 2 presents the view that a buddha never dies and so never passes into nirvāṇa. Therefore, there is no body and no physical relics of his body after his cremation, and so the Dharma never ceases to be taught. The passing of a buddha and the extinction of the Dharma are solely illusory manifestations, skillful methods to inspire beings to practice and to provide them with relics as objects for their devotion. Chapter 6 teaches the view of emptiness. Toh 555 and Toh 556 also contain chapters describing the nature of the three bodies and the ten bhūmis.

There are two narratives that describe previous lives of the Buddha. Chapter 16 describes the physician Jalavāhana, who, as a result of performing Dharma recitations while standing in a lake, ensured the rebirth of ten thousand fish into the paradise of Trāyastriṃśa. In the preceding chapter these same ten thousand devas receive the prophecy of their buddhahood. When the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā objects that they have not accomplished the necessary bodhisattva conduct in past lives to receive such a prophecy, the Buddha explains that this was unnecessary because they had devotion to this Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light.

The other past-life narrative, which is given in chapter 18, is one of the most famous in Buddhist literature‍—that of the prince who gives his body to a hungry tigress and her cubs. An interesting feature of the story in this sūtra is that much of the narrative is dedicated to an evocative description of the intense grief of parents who have lost their child, emphasizing the sorrow that the prince’s action has brought them.

Tantric Rituals

As with other late Mahāyāna sūtras in which there is an emphasis on ritual, this text is classified in the Kangyur as a tantra, specifically as a Kriyā tantra, a class of tantras in which there is an emphasis on external ritual. The sūtra contains a description of how such rituals should be performed, and there are also passages that include lists of ingredients to place in a bath, along with mantras to recite while bathing, in order to achieve purification.

One can also see that the seed of the later maṇḍalas of the five buddha families is in this sūtra, for in chapters 2 and 3, buddhas of the four directions appear to a layman who has a visionary dream. They include Akṣobhya from the east and Amitābha from the west, both buddhas and their realms already established in the Buddhist tradition with specific sūtras dedicated to them. There also appear the buddhas Ratnaketu from the south and Dundubhisvara from the north, who in later tantras are usually named Ratnasaṃbhava and Amoghasiddhi. In this sūtra, the central buddha in terms of these directions would be Śākyamuni himself. In the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra he is referred to as Vairocana, as the Buddha Vairocana is the buddha who manifests as all the buddhas throughout this trichiliocosm.

The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light in India

A version of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light existed in India by the early fifth century ᴄᴇ, when it was translated into Chinese by Dharmakṣema (385–433) in 420, in a form that corresponds to the fragments of its translation into old Khotanese. The author of Precious Lamp of the Middle Way mentions that The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light contains profound teachings in the section on the absence of relics, this passage being within the chapter on the lifespan of the Buddha. The sūtra’s significance in Indian Buddhism is evident from the three tantras and ten commentaries that specify that it should be the text recited in one of the four directions when performing a maṇḍala rite. There are also five other texts in the Tengyur that emphasize the importance and status of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light and its recitation, including Śāntideva’s eighth-century Śikṣāsamuccaya (Compendium of Training) in which he provides two extracts from the sūtra that should be recited. There are also two recitation texts composed of extracts from the sūtra.

In addition to its importance for rites and recitations, the text is quoted on doctrinal points in Indian commentaries. Passages indicating that the Buddha never dies, leaves no relics, and that the Dharma never ceases are quoted in six texts, two of which cite the delightful verse that describes the impossibility of there being buddha relics, stating that there will be a buddha relic only when a ladder to the moon is built from rabbit horns.

The descriptions of buddha nature and the nature of the bodies of a buddha, which are only in Toh 555 and Toh 556, are quoted in two texts in the Tengyur, one written in Tibetan and one translated from Sanskrit by Rinchen Sangpo, although nothing is known about the author.

In Newar Buddhism, this sūtra became and remains one of the nine principal sūtras called “the nine Dharmas,” which are considered to be the most important lengthy sūtras to be recited and offered to.

Sanskrit manuscripts of this sūtra survived as fragments discovered in Chinese Central Asia (Xinjiang) and as entire texts in Nepal, where the title is Suvarṇa­bhāsottama, with bhāsa being a synonym for prabhāsa, both meaning “light.”

The Sanskrit text of the sūtra was first edited in 1898, in Calcutta, India, by S. C. Das and S. C. Shastri. That was followed by the edition by B. Nanjio and H. Idzumi in Japan in 1931, and by the edition by Johannes Nobel (1887–1960) in 1937. This translation refers to the 1967 S. Bagchi edition.

The Sūtra outside India

The widespread popularity of this sūtra outside India is also evident from its translation not only into Tibetan and Chinese but also from Sanskrit into Khotanese; from Chinese into Tibetan, Sogdian, Uighur, Tangut, and Manchu; and from Tibetan into Mongolian.

There are three surviving translations of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light in Chinese. The earliest of these was translated by Dharmakṣema (385–433). He was an Indian who came to China in 414, living first in Dunhuang. Then in 420 he went to Guzang, the capital of Northern Liang, one of the sixteen independent states of that time, situated in what is now the Gansu region in China’s northwest. There he studied Chinese and engaged in translation under the patronage of Juqu Mengxun (368–433), the ruler of Northern Liang. He also had the reputation of being “a master of spells.” As a result of that reputation, Juqu Mengxun, toward the end of his reign, became afraid that Dharmakṣema might be used against him by his adversaries and so he had him assassinated. Nobel believed that the Sanskrit in its present form is not earlier than the mid-fifth century and that Dharmakṣema translated from an earlier version. This opinion appears to be supported by the Sanskrit manuscript fragments discovered in Khotan.

The second surviving translation into Chinese is that by Bao Gui in 597. It is an amalgam of earlier translations that no longer exist and four chapters that were translated by Paramārtha (499–569). As there is no surviving Sanskrit for the additional chapters in the Chinese and Tibetan, Michael Radich has examined the evidence as to whether they are Indian or Chinese in origin.

The third translation was by Yijing (635–713), which was published in 703. Because of its clarity and writing style, this version became popular in China and was itself translated into Tibetan in the early ninth century. Yijing’s translation, compared to the Sanskrit and the Tibetan translation from Sanskrit, is freer, to the extent that Emmerick has stated it could not be used to reconstruct the original Sanskrit. Yijing spent thirty years in India and Sumatra and returned to China in 695. He brought with him four hundred Sanskrit texts, including The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light, and spent the first decade of the seventh century translating them.

The Mogao caves of Dunhuang, which were sealed in the eleventh century, contained a great number of manuscripts of the sūtra, particularly those of Yijing’s translation into Chinese. The sūtra became popular for its teachings on freeing oneself from the effects of bad karma. For example, Yijing’s Chinese translation (and the Uighur and Tangut versions derived from it) has a preface that states how the sūtra saved Zhang Judao, ruler of Tangut, from going to hell because he had slaughtered cattle for a big feast. This narrative is illustrated in a twelfth-century Tangut woodcut that is preserved in St. Petersburg.

The sūtra was of particular importance to monarchs, and starting in seventh-century Japan, the ritual of reciting this sūtra was considered important to perform for the benefit of the state.

The Sūtra in Tibet

Toh 557 (the version translated here) does not list its translators in the colophon. Toh 556 was produced by Jinamitra, Śilendrabodhi, and Yeshé Dé in the early ninth century. Almost the entirety of Toh 557 is present word for word in Toh 556, so they either incorporated an earlier translation or extracted the shorter version from the longer.

By contrast, Toh 555 is a translation made by Gö Chödrup of Yijing’s Chinese version in the early ninth century. The Tibetan is clearer and more readable than in the other two versions, perhaps because it is less constrained by conforming to the Sanskrit, but also because the Chinese was a freer translation from the Sanskrit, which was done purposely to enhance its readability.

There are some Tibetan texts included in the Tengyur that were authored by those Tibetan translators active in the early ninth century. The translator Kawa Paltsek quotes from the passages describing the Dharma body and the Buddha not leaving any relics because he has no body with bones and blood. Yeshé Dé wrote a text that has a number of references to this sūtra’s teaching on the three bodies of a buddha, buddha nature, and the description of the bhūmis.

Dīpaṁkaraśrījñāna, also known as Atiśa, whose pupils founded the influential Kadampa tradition in Tibet, is the author of three of the texts in the Tengyur that refer to this sūtra, including his most famous work, A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which contains an encouragement to use the sūtra’s prayer both for purification and as a dedication prayer.

The commentary in the Tengyur that quotes from the sūtra more than any other‍—twenty times in all‍—is the translation by Gö Chödrup of An Extensive Commentary on the Sūtra that Elucidates the Profound Intention by the Korean monk Wŏnch’ŭk (613–96), who had migrated to China. This commentary by Wŏnch’ŭk in Tibetan translation became a particular influence on the thought of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelukpa school. The sūtra has been quoted by great masters in all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism and extracts from it were published in Tibet as numerous standalone texts‍—not only the confession prayer but also other chapters, such as the treatise on kingship. Its continuing significance is indicated by Pema Karpo (1527–92), the hierarch of the Drukpa Kagyü school, composing a confession prayer extracted from The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light at the request of Döndrup Dorjé, the ruler of Shigatsé.

An example of the way the sūtra was recited in Tibet is found in a version compiled by Ngawang Lobsang Chöden (1642–1714), the second Changkya Rinpoché.

Comparing the Versions

Toh 556 and Toh 557 were both translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit. Only the Sanskrit that is equivalent to Toh 557 survives. It divides the equivalent of chapter 10 in the Tibetan into two, separating the homage to buddhas and bodhisattvas into its own small chapter. However, its final chapter is divided into two in the Tibetan, resulting in both having twenty-one chapters. Toh 556 appears to preserve passages that were lost from Toh 557. For example, chapter 12, “The King’s Treatise,” begins abruptly: “At that time…,” having evidently lost the introductory narrative‍—present in the equivalent chapter (chapter 20) in the longer version‍—that sets the action in a distant past.

Toh 555 was translated into Tibetan from Chinese. The source text was Yijing’s seventh-century translation from Sanskrit into Chinese, and therefore the translation differs throughout, even though the content is essentially the same. There are many passages that are actually shorter versions of those in the translations from Sanskrit. Its greater length compared to Toh 556 is primarily due to the addition of chapters 29 and 30.

Translations into Western Languages

In 1958, Nobel published a German translation based on Yijing’s Chinese text. In 1970, Ronald Emmerick produced an English translation of the Sanskrit. In 2007, Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) produced an English translation of Toh 557.

Detailed Summary of The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light

Chapter 1: The Introduction

The Buddha is on Vulture Peak Mountain at Rājaghṛa with a great assembly. He states that he will teach a sūtra that will free beings from various worldly sufferings through its being recited and listened to.

Chapter 2: The Teaching on the Lifespan of the Tathāgata

In the town of Rājaghṛa, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu wonders why the Buddha has only an eighty-year lifespan if he has no bad karma. His house miraculously transforms, and the buddhas of the four directions appear and tell him that the Buddha’s lifespan is, in fact, inconceivably long. At that time on Vulture Peak, the Kauṇḍinya brahmin Vyākaraṇa asks the Buddha that he be given a relic when the Buddha passes away so that he might make offerings to it. Sarva­sattva­priyadarśana, a young man from the town of Vaiśalī, tells the Kauṇḍinya brahmin that the Buddha does not pass away and there will never be relics. The Kauṇḍinya brahmin states that he knew that but made his request so that the truth will be revealed that the appearance of passing away and relics is simply a skillful method to benefit beings.

Chapter 3: The Dream

In his home in Rājaghṛa, the bodhisattva Ruciraketu dreams of a brahmin beating a golden drum from which come verses that he is able to remember. He goes to the Buddha on Vulture Peak to repeat those verses to him.

Chapter 4: The Confession

This chapter comprises the hundred verses that Ruciraketu repeats to the Buddha. He describes hearing the verses in the dream. They begin with a prayer that they will benefit all beings, and then there are a number of verses of the confession of past bad actions followed by a praise of the Buddha, a prayer that beings be freed from suffering, and finally the dedication of merit so that the reciter will attain enlightenment.

Chapter 5: The Source of Lotus Flowers: A Praise of All the Buddhas

The Buddha repeats to a goddess a praise of the buddhas in thirty-five verses made by a king in the distant past.

Chapter 6: Emptiness

The Buddha recites verses that briefly describe emptiness, which, he states, he has taught extensively in other sūtras. He describes that he has practiced the path for a long time and that it is impossible to calculate his wisdom.

Chapter 7: The Four Mahārājas

The Four Mahārājas, the protectors of the world, promise that they will protect whoever teaches and recites this sūtra and will dispel problems for the king of that country and its population. They and the Buddha describe the miraculous events that occur in the paradises when a king engages in the ritual of venerating the sūtra, and how all buddhas will congratulate him and prophesy his buddhahood. The Mahārājas describe how a king who wishes his realm to prosper and be happy should be devoted to the sūtra. Then they praise the Buddha in verse, and the Buddha praises the sūtra in verse.

Chapter 8: Sarasvatī

The goddess Sarasvatī promises to aid those who recite the sūtra with wisdom and skills. She gives the recipe for a cleansing liquid and a mantra that will prevent misfortune. Then the Buddha praises her and teaches beneficial mantras. The Kauṇḍinya brahmin praises Sarasvatī in verse.

Chapter 9: The Great Goddess Śrī

The goddess Śrī promises to aid those who recite the sūtra and its preservation so that beings will have good fortune. She states she had been a follower of the Buddha Ratna­kusuma­guṇa­sāgara­vaiḍūrya­kanaka­giri­suvarṇa­kāñcana­prabhāsa­śrī and that she brings good fortune to beings wherever she goes and inspires them to make offerings to that buddha. She dwells in a palace in the paradise of Alakāvati and states that offerings should be made to her and to that buddha. A mantra is taught for her invocation, and instructions for making offerings to her are given.

Chapter 10: Dṛḍhā, the Goddess of the Earth

The chapter commences with a homage to a series of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Then Dṛḍhā, the goddess of the earth, promises the Buddha that she will come to wherever The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light is taught, and with her head she will support the feet of the dharmabhāṇaka. Having heard the sūtra, she will make the earth fertile, and what is grown in it nutritious and life-enhancing, and the population will increase. She states that if someone who has heard the sūtra returns home and repeats even one line of verse from it, that home will prosper. The Buddha states that anyone who has listened to even one line of the sūtra or makes offerings to it will be reborn in a paradise after death, enjoy happiness for countless eons, and eventually attain buddhahood.

Chapter 11: Saṃjñeya

The yakṣa general Saṃjñeya promises to protect and defend whoever recites the sūtra. He describes his realization and wisdom and promises to endow the teachers of the sūtra with eloquence and physical health. He states that those who hear it will enjoy happiness in paradises for countless eons and eventually attain buddhahood.

Chapter 12: The King’s Treatise: The Commitment of the Lord of Devas

After an homage to Buddha Ratna­kusuma­guṇa­sāgara­vaiḍūrya­kanaka­giri­suvarṇa­kāñcana­prabhāsa­śrī, Śākyamuni, Śrī, and Sarasvatī, the chapter begins abruptly and appears to omit the introduction that sets the narrative in the past, which is in a complete form in the other versions of the sūtra. At his enthronement, King Ruciraketu is told by his father, King Balendraketu, to learn the verse treatise on kingship called The Commitment of the Lord of Devas, and he recites it to him. The treatise explains why a king is called a deva even though he is a human: it is because a king is a deva sent to the human world to govern it. A king should therefore fulfill that duty, particularly by punishing the wicked. If he does not do so, calamities of all kinds will befall him and his kingdom. A righteous king will cause all kinds of good fortune to occur.

Chapter 13: Susaṃbhava

In this chapter, which is entirely in verse, the Buddha recounts a previous life as a cakravartin by the name of Susaṃbhava, who lived while the teaching of a buddha named Ratnaśikhin was still present. In a dream, he saw the dharmabhāṇaka Ratnoccaya teaching The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. He then sought out that dharmabhāṇaka and requested him to teach the sūtra, arranging a throne and many offerings to him. At the conclusion of the teaching, Susaṃbhava, through his possession of a wish-fulfilling jewel, caused a rain of jewels and necessities to fall on the four continents he ruled, and he made an offering of it all to the Three Jewels. Śākyamuni states that he was Susaṃbhava at that time, and that Ratnoccaya became the Buddha Akṣobhya. He states that it is through the merit of hearing the sūtra that he has been a cakravartin king and a lord of devas countless times and has finally attained enlightenment.

Chapter 14: The Protection Given by Yakṣas

The Buddha instructs the goddess Śrī, first in prose and then in verse, on how someone should teach the sūtra and how someone should listen to it, and the benefits that will accrue from such activities. He adds that the throne upon which the sūtra has been recited will subsequently become the setting for various miraculous manifestations. The devas will praise those who teach and listen to the Dharma. In particular, the yakṣas will give their protection, as will nāgas, asuras, Hārītī and her sons, and the various goddesses, including Sarasvatī, Śrī, and the goddesses of the earth, harvests, and trees. This will bring bountiful harvests and a plenitude of fruits and flowers. Sūrya, the sun god, will also be pleased and will bring wonderful light to the world.

Chapter 15: The Prophecy to Ten Thousand Devas

The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā asks the Buddha about what merit had been accrued by the ten thousand devas from Trāyastriṃśa who came to hear the teaching on hearing the prophecies given to three people.

She describes the prophecy of the bodhisattva Ruciraketu becoming the Buddha Suvarṇa­ratnākaracchatra­kūṭa in the distant future and how his son Rūpyaketu will become the Buddha Suvarṇa­jambudhvajakāñca­nābha. After him, the other son Rūpyaprabha will be the Buddha Radiance of a Hundred Golden Lights. The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā then states that Jvalanāntara­tejo­rāja and the other ten thousand Trāyastriṃśa devas have not in their past lives had such great bodhisattva conduct as those three, and yet the Buddha has prophesied their becoming buddhas. The Buddha explains that they gained the necessary merit simply through hearing and believing in The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. In a future time, all ten thousand will attain buddhahood in the same world, and each one will have the name Prasanna­vadanotpala­gandha­kūṭa.

Chapter 16: Ending Illness

The Buddha tells the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā that in a distant past, when the Dharma of a buddha named Ratnaśikhin had disappeared, there was a virtuous king named Sureśvara­prabha. At that time, a head merchant by the name of Jaṭiṃdhara had a son by the name of Jalavāhana, who learned medicine from him and was able to cure the many illnesses prevalent in the kingdom.

Chapter 17: The Story of the Fish Guided by Jalavāhana

The Buddha tells the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā that Jalavāhana had a wife, Jalāmbuja­garbhā, and two sons, Jalāmbara and Jalagarbha. He and his sons went into the wilderness where they discovered a lake that was drying up so that the ten thousand fish in it were in danger of dying. A tree goddess appeared who told Jalavāhana that he should save the fish, so he constructed a shade made from branches for the fish. Then he went to King Sureśvara­prabha and obtained twenty elephants from him. and he used them to carry water to replenish the lake. He then sent his son Jalāmbara home to obtain as much food as possible, and he used that to feed the fish. Finally, he waded into the lake and recited the Dharma of dependent origination and the name of the Buddha Ratnaśikhin. At another time, he became intoxicated from alcohol and fell asleep. The ten thousand fish had died, and because of Jalavāhana’s recitation they had been reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa paradise. They came to the sleeping Jalavāhana and made offerings of many pearls and caused flowers to rain on his home, upon the lake, and other places in the kingdom. The king summoned Jalavāhana, who believed these omens occurred because of the death of the fish. His son Jalāmbara went to the lake and saw that they had all died. The Buddha states that he was Jalavāhana; his father, Śuddhodana, was Jaṭiṃdhara, Jalavāhana’s father; his sons Rāhula and Ānanda were Jalāmbara and Jalagarbha, Jalavāhana’s sons; his wife Gopā was Jalāmbuja­garbhā, Jalavāhana’s wife; his father-in-law, Daṇḍapāṇi, was the king; the ten thousand devas from Trāyastriṃśa were the ten thousand fish; and the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā was the tree goddess.

Chapter 18: The Gift of the Body to a Tigress

The Buddha gives the goddess an account of when he went to the land of Pañcala with a thousand bhikṣus. He asked Ānanda to prepare a seat at a particular spot, and when he stamped the ground with his foot, a stūpa emerged. Inside were golden caskets containing bones. The Buddha tells the bhikṣus to pay homage to them, because these bones are from one of his previous lives, and it was through the sacrifice of his life that he was able to attain buddhahood. He relates that in the past, King Mahāratha had three sons, Mahāpraṇāda, Mahādeva, and Mahāsattva. The three princes wandered into a forest and saw a tigress that had given birth to five cubs but was starving and might soon eat her cubs. Mahāsattva decided to give his body to the tigress, and therefore, as they were leaving the forest, he told his brothers he would follow them later and turned back. He then cut his throat in front of the tigress and fell before her. The other two princes searched for their younger brother and discovered he had been eaten. The queen had nightmares and was distressed, thinking that something had happened to her sons. Therefore, the king and queen went in search of their sons and found the two princes, who told them of Mahāsattva’s death. In great distress, they went to his remains and placed them in the stūpa. The Buddha states that he was Mahāsattva. The story is then retold in verse, in which it is also stated that the Buddha’s father, Śuddhodana, was the king; his mother, Māya, was the queen; the two other princes were Maitreya and Mañjuśrī; the tigress was his stepmother, Mahāprajāpatī; and the tiger cubs were his first five bhikṣus.

Chapter 19: Praise by All Bodhisattvas

Hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas go to the Buddha Suvarṇa­ratnākaracchatra­kūṭa and praise him in verse.

Chapter 20: The Praise of All Tathāgatas

The bodhisattva Ruciraketu comes before the Buddha Śākyamuni and praises him in verse.

Chapter 21: The Conclusion

The goddess Bodhisattvasamuccayā praises the Buddha Śākyamuni in verse. The Buddha rises from his seat and says, “Well done!” and the multitudes of beings rejoice and praise his words.