འཕགས་པ་སྒྲ་ཆན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

The language of grand scales used throughout the sūtra serves to express the inexpressible qualities of the buddhas and to calculate the incalculable amount of merit gained from venerating them. This is made concrete when the Buddha tells the story of Ajātaśatru, who became the king of Magadha by murdering his father, the king Bimbisāra. He was also involved in creating a schism in the saṅgha and plotting to kill the Buddha with Devadatta, the Buddha’s cousin, who is depicted in Buddhist literature as envious of the Buddha and his teachings. Though Ajātaśatru later reformed to become a devout disciple of the Buddha, this sūtra notes that he was to be briefly reborn in the hells, since patricide is one of the five misdeeds of immediate retribution. Ajātaśatru would nevertheless be freed from this state, and he was prophesied by the Buddha to become a pratyekabuddha by the name of Vijayasena. Again, the sūtra implies that Ajātaśatru’s worshiping of the Buddha and his immeasurable qualities in the form of relics lightens his otherwise weighty negative karma.