འཕགས་པ་ཁྱའ་བཞའ་ཏང་ང་འཛན་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.14

1.14

“O great speaker!
Our refuge, the lion of the Śākyas,
Will today, between two śāla trees,
Pass without grasping into nirvāṇa.”

The bodhisattva great being Sucintitārtha replied to the god:

“The Dharma of the lion of the Śākyas
Is very hard to find.
From billions of buddha fields away,
I have come here to listen to it.

“Now I hear he will pass into nirvāṇa today,
In a grove of śāla trees.
It was pointless then, for me to come here
To this buddha field!

“The very day I arrive,
The sage will pass away,
So I must grieve
Along with the world and its gods.

“If I do not see the Buddha,
My journey here will have been pointless.
It shall not be so—I must not leave this a mere aspiration.
I must go before the Buddha!”

And so, there and then,²⁹
He addressed the royal lord of Magadha.
Speaking gently, calmly,
And cheerfully, he said:

“King, listen to me now.
He is a rare, sublime being,
So have no hesitation!
Go before the Thus-Gone One!

“Over millions upon millions of eons,
Only very rarely does a victor appear.
If you meet with such a conjunction of circumstances,
Learned one, you should not be despondent!

“For that would be the attitude of an unschooled child.
What do you think, great king?
It is not I, great king, who am the child—
It is you, lord of men, who are a child.

“Under the sway of desire,
You have committed a heinous crime³⁰
That will propel you to the lower realms—
This is the foolishness of a child!³¹

“The evil deed you committed
Is a terrible crime of immediate retribution
For which you will plummet into the terrible hells
Of unbearable and unceasing torment.

“Have faith in the Buddha!
For through it you will attain liberation.
Lord of men, such conditions will then lead you
To the attainment of perfect awakening.

“You have relied on evil companions;
Devadatta is deeply harmful.