འཕགས་པ་སྙང་རྗ་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 308

308

there isn’t one now, nor will there be in the future such a bodhisattva who practices bodhisattva conduct with the force of such powerful strength and diligence in order to attain the highest enlightenment—that is, apart from the previously mentioned eight bodhisattvas.

“Many countless eons after that time, during a bad age, in the great Utpala eon, this buddha realm had the name Pravāḍodupānā. It was empty and had the five degeneracies. In that world of four continents I was born as a Śakra named Savirocana.

“I saw that the beings in that Jambudvīpa believed in and practiced bad actions. I transformed myself into the form of an extremely fierce yakṣa, descended to Jambudvīpa, and came before them. When they saw me, they were terrified and asked, ‘What do you want? We will give it to you!’

“I said, ‘I need food.’

“ ‘What kind of food?’ they asked.

“I said, ‘I kill and eat people. But I don’t eat people who have given up killing for the rest of their lives and those who have renounced bad views. I don’t eat those who have developed the aspiration for the highest, most complete enlightenment or those who have developed the aspiration for the Śrāvakayāna and the Pratyekabuddhayāna.’

“Then I emanated beings, whom I ate. When the beings saw me do so, they were terrified and renounced for the rest of their lives killing, taking what has not been given, and so on, up to and including bad views. Some developed the aspiration for the highest, most complete enlightenment; some developed the aspiration for the Śrāvakayāna; and some developed the aspiration for the Pratyekabuddhayāna.