འཕགས་པ་ཁྱའ་བཞའ་ཏང་ང་འཛན་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

The narrative then shifts away from scenes of intense mourning in the grove of śāla trees to four bodhisattvas who pass away in distant buddha fields in the four directions and are reborn in Jambudvīpa as the sons of prominent figures in four major cities of the Gangetic Plain. One appears in Rājagṛha as the son of King Ajātaśatru of Magadha, two as the sons of merchants in Śrāvastī and Vārāṇasī, and one as the son of a general in Vaiśālī. Each of the infants is able to speak as soon as they are born and announce their intention to hear the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni. They also deliver sermons on a variety of topics, in the case of Ajātaśatru’s son chastising the king for the terrible crime of having killed his own father. When the bodhisattva infants discover that the Buddha Śākyamuni is soon to pass away, they insist on going to him, and they set off with huge entourages toward Kuśinagara. Their spectacular arrival at the grove of śāla trees is accompanied by various miracles, whereupon the Buddha explains their arrival to his assembled followers, illustrating his knowledge of world systems far beyond our own, and he explains the liberating power of countless other buddhas.