འཕགས་པ་མ་འམ་ཅའ་རྒྱལ་པ་སྡང་པས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 119

119

The retinue of King Ajātaśatru, the brahmins and householders from Rājagṛha, and eight thousand members of the retinues of the kinnaras, gandharvas, and mahoragas gave rise to the mind set on unsurpassed and perfect awakening. They promised, “Blessed One, we will also train in bodhisattva conduct! We will accomplish it earnestly, and we will encourage countless beings to adhere to this bodhisattva conduct!”

After that, the Blessed One gave his approval for the kinnara king Druma to depart. Having received the Blessed One’s consent, the kinnara king Druma as well as his sons, troops, queens, subjects, and attendants prostrated to the feet of the Blessed One and circumambulated him three times. While bidding him farewell, they played music, caused a rain of flowers to fall, and emitted webs of light. As the earth quaked in six different ways, they left the Blessed One and in that very instant arrived back home on the majestic Mount Gandhamādana.

Śakra, lord of the gods, then said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, the kinnara king Druma surpasses me in terms of his worship of the Thus-Gone One and the Dharma!”

“Kauśika,” replied the Blessed One, “it is not only you that the kinnara king Druma surpasses. Kauśika, with the exception of bodhisattva great beings who have reached the bodhisattva levels, the kinnara king Druma surpasses Śakra, Brahmā, and the protectors of the world, as well as all the hearers and solitary buddhas of this great trichiliocosm.